Tuesday, January 8, 2008

A lost vegetable!!!

These days i do not have too many activities to indulge in except for job-hunting and recipe hunting. Got to get 2-3 meals on the table everyday and i am perpetually running out of ideas to be a little more creative and avoid repetitions in my kitchen!! Mom wonder how you managed all these years! Even god damn mess secretaries had so much to think about in my erstwhile hostel!! I guess i appreciate them better now....
I was thinking of possible vegetables that i was familiar with as a kid. Now all those sounds really exotic.. like the tender tamarind blooms and leaves (hunase chiguru in Kannada) which tastes heavenly. My mouth salivates at the very thought of it. I did have the privilege of savouring it a few years back...had prepared mixed greens with the tamarind blooms! man it was heavenly.. its so sad that it is not available in super markets.
Then there is the farm greens blend. It is just about all the weeds that are plucked on farms cooked with green chillies, cumin and garlic...the fresh aroma of the greens is a step over heaven. I miss it too.. It has become a delicacy indeed.

Then there is this really mysterious vegetable called "Tuppada Herekai" which resembles the silk squash in appearance. When it is cooked it smells like Ghee/ clarified butter...amazing aroma without all the calories. I have not had the vegetable for decades now. I wonder if it is still cultivated somewhere in the remote hearts of Karnataka. I want that vegetable to survive so that i can dream of eating it at least once more.. I wonder if someone out there is familiar with this vegetable. Do get back to me if you happen to know more about the vegetable!!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You could get someone to mail or courrier you the seeds so that you can grow it in your garden. Try contacting someone you know who grows tuppada hirekayi in his/her garden or even someone who eats it on a regular basis to mail them to you. Well what Iam trying to say is just try to procure the seeds so that you can grow them yourself and not depend on whether it is available in the market or not.I hope this helps. :-)

Anonymous said...

Iam assuming you have a garden. Even if you dont try growing them in a pot. You can even buy the seeds next time you come to India. And of course eat lots of them before you go back, lol.

Kannada Cuisine said...

Thanks Trupti for your comments. I think I should do that next time around :)