That enigmatic Coorg “vinegar”

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Kachampuli

The most commonly used souring agent in Kodava cooking, that “vinegar” is really the concentrated juice of Garcinia gummi-gutta,  the same fruit that is used in dried form in parts of Kerala, where it is known as punampuli or kudampuli. It is a relative of kokum, which is used in some Mangalorean, Konkan and Maharashtrian cuisines. In the Kodava language, the fruit is known as panapuli, while the boiled extract is kachampuli.

Possibly because the tree fruits  during the monsoon months, making it difficult to dry and store in large quantities, the preservation of panapuli in Coorg takes a unique form. The result is kachampuli – a potent, concentrated, souring agent. It also has a very long shelf life. Every Coorg home has a bottle of kachampuli at the ready at all times! My mother made sure to carry a bottle with her as we travelled the length and the breadth of the country on various postings. I have bottles of the extract that are more than 12 years old, and while it does lose the fruitiness of younger batches, the sour power is quite intact!

Kachampuli is usually used in the final stages of cooking, mainly in meat and fish dishes, most famously in pandi (pork) curry.

How it’s done

After years of hearing vague directions on how to make kachampuli, I decided I had to try it for myself! Here is the result of one session of brewing, done several years ago.

Very ripe fruit (including damaged ones) are gathered in baskets lined with banana or woven palm leaves. The baskets containing the fruit are placed over large containers to catch the juice that is released as the fruit breaks down. The process takes a few days, by which time most of the juice will have dripped out and the fruit reduced to a pulp.

At this point the juice is a honey yellow, with no sign yet of the deep, reddish-purple that develops with heating. That purple colour is what I believe leads to  kachampuli being mistakenly labeled as being made from its sweeter cousin, kokum (Garcinia indica), which is purple in its raw state and grows at lower elevations in the western ghats.

The pulp is discarded. The juice is then put in a tall sided clay pot and simmered gently on a wood fire until reduced and beginning to thicken. The juice has a tendency to froth wildly and the tall sides of the pot  prevent the juice from bubbling over. About an hour of gentle heating sees the colour changing from amber to a purplish pink. As it continues to cook down and reduce the colour changes to a deep purple-red. The extract is taken off the fire when thickened to your liking and set aside to cool. It is then stored in glass or ceramic jars. It does thicken a little further after cooling and also in storage. The batch shown in the pictures is now over four years old, and I’m still using the last of it carefully!  The  beautiful, plum-purple colour can turn to a treacly brown-black with  age.



If you can’t extract some kachampuli from a Kodava source, here are the closest approximations, to my taste:

  • The dried version of the fruit seems to be relatively easier to find. Known as “fish tamarind” or kudampuli in  Kerala, where it is used to add sourness to fish curries. A handful of pieces of the fish tamarind soaked in hot water for ½ hour will yield a sour liquid which is close in essence to the sharpness of kachampuli. It will not add that distinctive dark colour, however, and liquid quantities in a recipe would  have to be adjusted accordingly. It is a good substitute in fish curries where it can simmer along with the fish.

For the more enthusiastic – try soaking some dried kudampuli in hot water and allow it to soften. Grind, and strain the liquid into a non-reactive pan. Simmer this liquid down to a thick, black paste. It lacks the fruitiness of brewed kachampuli, but this is as close to a kachampuli substitute as it gets!

  • Lime juice. No colour here, but a squeeze of juice from as sharp and fragrant a lime as you can find will do very nicely, particularly for finishing meat dishes like pandi curry and pepper fry.
  • Tamarind extract is good in fish and also vegetable curries, particularly those that feature jaggery.
  • A good malt or cane vinegar can be used and works best in dryish meat dishes which have no coconut in them.
  • Kokum either soaked and ground to a paste or whole is also good in fish and vegetable preparations.

16 thoughts on “That enigmatic Coorg “vinegar””

  1. am really glad to learn SOMETHING abt this dark and mysterious bottle of magic sitting on my kitchen shelf. it’s funny how even the most fabulous cooks in coorg, can never tell you anything abt kachampuli…they really take it for granted.

    great blog, Shalu…

  2. How long does dried kudampuli last? I was given some by a friend several years ago. It was from her farm in Kerala. I used some right away and it was fine. The next time I used it – about a year later – my family refused to eat the fish curry saying it smelled like horse poo. Is that normal? If it’s supposed to smell like that then I can consider making kachampuli, I guess!

    • Manisha, nooo! Kudampuli or kachampuli, horse poo shouldn’t figure in it at all!

      I have kudampuli that is at least five years old, and while it’s not at its peak, it’s certainly not funky. It was kiln dried, so it probably has less moisture than most commercially available stuff. I need to soften it in hot water before adding it to anything.
      I’m not sure what went wrong with your kudampuli. A year does not seem long enough for it to turn fusty unless it was not handled right. If what you have was soft and flexible to begin with, perhaps it was minimally cured, not meant for long storage? Fruit not picked in peak condition? Storage? Could you find out from your friend if she has had a similar experience?

      The shelf life thing is a bit complicated, even with kachampuli-acquired tastes and all. For years, we used a thick, tarry, but very effectively sour kachampuli, because that was what was common and everyone used it. The dark colour is considered an important addition to the typical dark masala that is used in Coorg pork curry.It lasted forever, and being boiled down over wood fires, it also had a smokiness to it.
      When I brewed the stuff myself, one of the ladies who helped me with the task told me that I could take it off the fire much earlier than I’d imagined was right. It still had a deep plum colour to it and smelt almost jammy.I was convinced that it wouldn’t keep, but it’s lasted for years now, getting progressively darker and less fruity, but keeping its clean, sharp flavour. And now that I’ve acquired a taste for it, I can’t imagine being without this version of it in my kitchen.
      But no horse poo…..

    • I think customs might have a problem with that, unfortunately. But I’m curious about the dramatic change. Another possibility – with Kachampuli, a little goes a long way, and it’s very easy to ruin a dish with a few drops too many. You’ll end up with something mouth puckering, with horrible, acrid overtones. Was it the same recipe you tried a year apart? A more delicate fish, perhaps? Maybe the quantities were off, not the kudampuli? Cooked a little too long? Just guessing here. Before you decide to toss it, I think you should mail some to Ammini and see if she can run it by someone who’ll know for sure!

  5. I got some Kachampulli more than five years back form Coorg . Iwas desperately looking for some and a gentlemen told me I should not buy the stuff from any shops and he would get me the real Mc Coy , from 101 percent reliable sources . Two whiskey bottles of the elixir wrapped in newspaper for a princely sum of 100 Rs came to me the day we left Coorg . A kind of sediment has settled at the bottom so I stir it well and like you said add just a bit . I am not an expert on this but my mum in law says it is as good as gold even today . I do not let anyone touch the stuff , and I wash , wipe and dry the spoon over a gas flame myself before using it . About it going off , I guess it is like making pickles , women have been doing it for years by the ton so to say . But, one little thing gone wrong and one is “in a pickle ” . I have a really the oddest tasting and smelling digestive powder made in my home state , it is eaten with chapatis when there are no veggies or pickles., or people just like its biter sour peppery taste with strong tones of Asafoetida or you eat it willingly or unwillingly because it is good for digestion . My mum gave me some thirteen years ago and it is perfectly fine even now . Shalini you figured it right , it must have something to do with the moisture . I would love to watch how it is made , till then I shall drool over the pictures you have posted .

    • It’s virtually indestructible! I have some kachampuli that settles in the jar the same way – a good stir does the trick. I haven’t confirmed this yet, but I was told that sometimes happens when too much pulp goes in with the juice.
      It’s funny how there’s always a”source” for the good stuff (the same for honey) when one is looking to buy;-)
      That digestive powder mix sounds very interesting..I’d love to try it out if you have a recipe. I developed a taste for asafoetida in cooking quite late in the day, but now my Herat special is calling to me!

    • Welcome, PhenoMenon!
      I’m so glad you tried this method and were satisfied with the results.It’s not quite as sharp as kachampuli, but works quite well, especially if you use the really soft, newly dried kudampuli.
      🙂

  8. Hi Shalini,

    While in school as a student I was invited home for a weekend study by my friend whose mother was a Coorgi, we had dal, rice and fish fry for lunch that day.. The fish that I had that day, its amazing taste has never gone from my memory even after 20 years..
    As I’m a food enthusiast I asked my friend what was the secret in this masala and it was then that I was introduced to this lovely fruit berry vinegar..

    Well as time passed I lost much contact with my friend and didn’t know the name of this berry or it vinegar to ask my other Coorgi friends about it, but its curiosity never left me, I was so anxious to know what actually this vinegar was made from, how is it prepared at home not the commercial one coz as Coorg is blessed with the natural resources and vegetation most of its traditional stuff is organic, healthy and tasty.. Finally today instead of turning to ask someone from Coorg, I turned to the internet and God’s grace found this detailed information from yourself…

    Thank you so much, I’m grateful for your post with the pictures, sorry about this long story of mine, couldn’t stop myself as it brought back some very nostalgic memories that I got myself registered on this site to leave you a “BIG THANK YOU” note..

    God bless…

    • Hello, and welcome, Fathima!

      Thank you for taking the time to drop by and sharing your thoughts on that memorable meal here.Yes, kachampuli does add something quite unique to a dish, even a simple fish fry made with minimal spices.I’m delighted to hear that you found what you were looking for on my blog. If you are in India, you’ll find a source of kachampuli at coorgshoppe.com, and lots of tasty ways to use it in recipes on coorgrecipes.com. And here, of course- happy cooking!

      Thank you again for writing. 🙂

      Shalini

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