Baimbalé Curry
In Kodagu, the arrival of the monsoon also means bamboo shoots pushing their way out of the ground, and apparently the correct response to this is to dig them up and begin a cooking process that lasts several days.
Fresh baimbalé is peeled down to its tender core, sliced and soaked in water, traditionally developing a distinctive sour, lightly fermented character before it ever reaches the curry pot. By the time it does, the rest is almost suspiciously easy. Coconut, onions, curry leaves and spices roasted very dark form the gravy, with jaggery and Kodagu’s formidable kachampuli sorting out the sweet-sour end of things.
I bought 1.5 kg of bamboo shoot, peeled away two-thirds of it, soaked the remaining 500 grams for two days, boiled it for another half hour, and then finally made lunch.
Monsoon ingredients, it seems, come with their own administrative procedures.
Pandi Curry
Pandi Curry is what happens when pork meets a spice box with very little interest in subtlety. Fatty pork is slowly cooked with spices roasted considerably darker than your instincts might recommend, then finished with kachampuli, Kodagu’s wonderfully intense sour fruit vinegar.
This version is a little mellower and more gravy-forward than some, but there are two things worth taking seriously. Get the spices properly dark without burning them, and approach the kachampuli with caution. Especially if yours came from someone’s home in Kodagu, where apparently measuring acidity in sensible units is optional. Start with a little, taste, then add more.
And make it a day ahead. Somehow pork, roasted spices and kachampuli spend the night discussing their differences and wake up considerably better friends.