Two wild mushroom seasons to savour – a monsoon one in Coorg and an autumn one in British Columbia. Each throws up wild fungi with distinct personalities, forged by the terroir, no doubt.

British Columbia is a mycologists’s dream, with thousands of species lurking about, waiting to be discovered. And for someone who just loves to eat wild mushrooms, this is paradise, and not just in the fall. The climate here allows for a wide span of foraging and harvesting months. At this time of year, the Queen Charlotte islands sprout fields of golden chantrelles that can be seen from the air. Northwest B.C. is where the precious Pine mushrooms, or matsutake grow. Their distinctive, resinous fragrance is quite beautiful. Sweet tooth or hedgehog mushrooms, cauliflower mushrooms, chicken of the woods, wild oyster mushrooms, lion’s mane.. it’s a deliciously jumbled jungle out there!

The hilly region known as the Western Ghats in India, too, is host to large variety of edible fungi, though they are rather harder to come by these days. The use of chemical fertilizers and the increasing pressure of population on the land has reduced the grounds where mushrooms can grow undisturbed, So, if you are lucky enough to get some, savour every morsel.

Only a trained eye can distinguish edible mushrooms from poisonous ones. Under no circumstances should anyone without experience attempt to pick and eat wild mushrooms without expert supervision.

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It’s mid-October, and the trees around here are turning beautiful shades of orange and red. There’s a sharp nip in the air and La Niña is promising another cold, wet winter in the Pacific Northwest.

Meanwhile, back in Coorg, the land is blossoming again. The monsoon has retreated, the rain-soaked land is transformed and the hills are every beautiful shade of green. Today is the festival of Kaveri Shankramana, celebrating the annual rebirth of the River Kaveri at Talakaveri,  near  Bhagamandala. Pilgrims make their way there to witness the moment when the water springs up in a small tank at a precisely determined time. At home, families rise early to bathe and perform the rituals associated with this festival.

Kaveri Shankramana is the only major festival of the Kodavas that is celebrated with a vegetarian feast. The menus of the day usually include simple vegetarian fare like kumbala curry, dosa, thalia puttu (yes, another puttu!), kootu curry and a rice payasa by way of dessert.

Not to put too fine a point on it, there is typically a great deal of good natured grumbling in the ranks and feigned weakness brought on by the lack of “nourishment” on this one day of enforced vegetarian diet. Everyone survives, and the food is still delicious.

Kootu is a thick stew of mixed vegetables with a spiced coconut masala. It lends itself to endless variations – from the spicing, the choice of vegetables used and whether or not you wish to add lentils.

My thanks to Mrs Ranu Appanna and her daughter, Vindhya Somaiah, for taking the time to share this recipe with us. This version uses very little coconut and has a warm, deliciously nutty flavour from the roasted spice mix. The garlic in the tempering complements this perfectly.

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Don’t be intimidated by what looks like a lot of instructions. Read through and you’ll see it’s not really complicated, but timing is critical. When you’re ready to begin pressing out the nuuputtu, do not allow anyone or anything to interrupt you till it’s all done!

Nuuputtu

• 2 cups fine thari, soaked for 1/2 hour, then drained
• 3 cups water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly powdered cardamom
• 1 tsp ghee

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The New World entered my subconscious in tricky ways, very early in life. Blame it on too many American comic books and magazines. To me, the idea of sitting down to a succulent, roast turkey dinner was possibly the holy grail of poultry, when I was young. My earliest encounters with the live birds were in the early 70’s, on my aunt and uncle’s farm near Kushalnagar in Coorg. Among other creatures, several of these large, exotic birds strutted about the place.

“The farm” as we always referred to it, was a dream destination for us young cousins.There were vast acres to explore and a lake to go out rowing on. My uncle was an experimental farmer, and the landscape we encountered here was nothing like the cool, shaded, familiarity of the coffee estates. Walking through fields of sunflowers, tobacco, and corn in the blazing sun was indescribably thrilling – even more so than ignoring the shrill calls to “put on a hat” as we flew out of the house in search of adventure! There were large barns where harvested crops would be stored, and finding a red ear of corn amongst the heaps of golden yellow was treasure indeed. There were a couple of these garnet specimens displayed in the pantry of the farm house, and I paid them regular visits, marvelling at their beauty.

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On to the third of the three most popular puttus.

Nuuputtu (nuul, meaning thread) is made from a rice dough that’s pressed into thin strands that are then formed into small cakes. Nuuputtu has cousins all over South India. You’ll spot the family resemblance in a number of places: shavige in Mangalore and other parts of Karnataka and the Konkan coast, idiappam in Kerala, sevai or santhakkai in Tamil Nadu. The  basic concept is the same – a cooked dough made from some form of rice, pressed into fine rice noodles. And yet, seemingly minor variations in the type of rice used and in the cooking process can produce quite distinctly different textures and unique flavours.

The Coorg nuuputtu is made from a cooked thari dough which is then steamed again before being pressed. Making nuuputtu requires a special kind of press known as a nuuputtu wara. The wara started out as a wooden press, which used raw strength to press the dough through a perforated die.

“This was men’s work” said Professor Appanna, not entirely in jest, when showing me his collection of wooden nuuputtu waras. Man or woman, it took strong shoulders to work the rice dough through those old wooden presses. These presses gave way to metal versions which use torque to power though the dough and reduce the effort required considerably. It’s still hard work, though. I’ve often contemplated inviting people over for a “nuuputtu party” where they can press out their own nuuputtu*!

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