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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Moving on to the second of the three most commonly made puttus, it’s paputtu next.

“Paputtu”, abbreviated from “paal puttu” (paal being milk) is definitely my favourite puttu. The flavours and fragrance of warm cardamom, creamy coconut and lightly sweetened milk mingle to perfection in this steamed rice cake. My mother maintains that the best paputtu she’s ever eaten was made in the home of Doli Sait, a Parsi gentleman who lived in Mercara. It’s no coincidence that he also kept some very fine milch cows!

My favourite memories of paputtu are tied to all those long journeys we made across the country by road. Parked off the highway, in the quiet shade of a Gulmohur tree, gazing out at the surrounding countryside while snacking on wedges of sweet paputtu and sipping “Thermos” flavoured tea. I’d do it again any time, flasky tea and all!

The thari used here is a slightly coarser grain than is used for kadambuttu. (See thari in a hurry).

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Over the labour day long weekend, we made a visit to Vancouver Island to spend time with friends in Victoria, the Widdowsons. A trip to Juan De Fuca Provincial Park* was on the cards on one of the days there, and what a day it was! If there has been any moaning about how there hasn’t been much of a summer in the Pacific Northwest this year, this was a day to banish those memories. Clear skies, hot sun and a cool breeze. Quite perfect.

The drive from Victoria to Port Renfrew takes about two hours along scenic and winding roads. Botanical Beach, where we’re headed, is a part of the larger Juan De Fuca Provincial park. The Juan De Fuca strait separates Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island and Neah Bay on the NW corner of Washington State in the United States.

If you’re going to visit a marine park anywhere on Vancouver Island, you couldn’t do better than to have two people as familiar with the area as Tom and Ann Widdowson as your guides. Marine biologist Dr. Tom Widdowson is a leading expert in the study of algae and seaweeds. He’s spent decades studying the marine life here, often camping out on Botanical Beach in far less favourable conditions than this day threw at us. In fact, he mentioned that in all of his of many visits here over the years, he was hard pressed to recall another occasion when the sea was as glassy and calm as this. Lucky us!

It’s a cool, tree-lined hike down to the beach. The west coast lies open to powerful winds across the Pacific, and signs of their tremendous power are everywhere. The trees are gnarled and wind-sculpted and hang heavy with moss, fed by the moisture from the fog that regularly shrouds the area. The path is lined with thick shrubbery, including salal, which I sheepishly recognize from florist’s bouquets but never knew the name!

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