Coffee in Coorg

The Flame Tree or GulMohur.

Coffee Blooms

While for some, Friday the 13th, may seem unlucky, here in Tamil Nadu it was celebration time. The  Tamil New Year was on Friday the 13th, this April. That meant, we had a long weekend. So we packed up our bags and headed off to Coorg, the Scotland of India. We found out that the best way to experience the place would be to stay at a homestay. With umpteen  homestays in Coorg, picking one  was really  hard. But I believe we finally chose the best - Spice Garden. It is a 125 year old, traditional house set in a coffee estate. Our hosts, Naveen and Raina were extremely warm and charming.  While Naveen is a wildlife expert, who educated us on the flora and fauna, Raina is an excellent cook. Both of them gave us a taste of the wonderful hospitality that Coorgis are well known for. 

A very Coorgi key-holder

Wild Flowers Sprout at Unexpected Spots

Hibiscus Profusion: A Very Common Sight

If you are a foodie, then Coorg is an amazing place to be.  For me, the breakfasts there, were the most memorable. On day one, we had Paputtu, which is a soft rice cake with lots of coconut in it. And the next morning we had Sannaas, which is  a kind of idli, only fluffier and tastier. Sannaas is made of rice, coconut and a little toddy. While my husband and I rounded off breakfast with wonderful strong Coorg coffee, my son had fresh, sweet milk from cows that grazed on pastures all day long. Even the eggs were from hens that roamed all over the place, pecking on worms and insects. Yet, the milk and eggs didn't have the  designer "organic, free-range" label that we see in cities. All the food - the vegetables and grain came from within the estate. To urban food activists, that would mean zero food miles. Here, however, eating local didn't seem anything out of the ordinary. "Organic", "Free range", "Local" may not be a part of the regular Coorgi vocabulary. But we realized that they are a way of life here.

This cow has all the grass to herself. City cows would really envy her.

"Free-range, organic, local" hens

Besides the food, the natural beauty of the place is magical. Just sitting in the verandah, I could spot so many new species of birds that I'd never seen before. The biggest surprise for me was the Malabar Whistling Thrush. I mistook its call for a man's whistle. By the end of my stay, I lost count of all the new birds I'd seen. Coorg is a bird lover's dream.

Swallows on the Lines

Spotted Dove in its Nest in the Verandah

A Delicate Rose: Notice the Leaves have been Chomped on

Some of the Many Varieties of Hibiscus at Spice Garden

The hills, the never ending stretches of coffee plantations, the fragrant air, the waterfalls, the endless variety of hibsicus flowers, the exotic spices, the vanilla, the wild roses, the forests, the fruit trees all made Coorg seem like paradise. Did Coorgis have any problems, I wondered. Of course they have problems. And they have REAL problems I soon discovered. Traffic jams and crowded buses don't count. Here, it is the danger of coming face to face with a tiger. The cab driver who drove us around told us, he had spotted tigers at least six times in the past year. The old tigers come to steal their cattle. The elephants destroy their fields. The solar fencing doesn't really deter them. Leopards eat up their pets. Poisonous Cobras and Vipers bite them in paddy fields. But as a brave warrior race, the Coorgis seem to take all these dangers in their stride.

Asafoetida (Hing): The resin is dried in the sun for use.

AllSpice: The all-in-one garam masala spice

A Typical Plantation, with solar fencing to ward off elephants: Here there's Coffee, Areca Nut and Cocoa (right in front)

Before I end this post, I must apologize to all my regular blog readers. It's been more than a month and I've not been able to visit any of your blogs. My own posts are now less frequent. It was only last year, I discovered the joys of blogging. And I hoped it would go on forever. But with my long hours at work, my blog time is severely restricted.  I don't mean to quit blogdom altogether, but I will be here less often. I hope my blog can make up for the lack in quantity with quality. Do keep visiting.

Giant Jackfruit Tree: Elephants love the fruit.

Singapore Cherries: Attracts birds and little boys. Even we couldn't resist eating all the ripe ones.

Small Green Mangoes: Kaddu Manga

A Wild Elephant with her Calf, at Naagarhole Reserve Forest

Drumstick and Other Edible Flowers

View from the Roof: Drumstick Tree in Bloom

The Drumstick tree is an incredible tree. Nearly every part of the tree is edible: leaves, flowers, pods, seeds, roots and even bark. Right now, one of the five drumstick trees in our common garden is in bloom. The flowers I discovered only recently, are not just edible; they're delicious. If you're lucky to have a drumstick tree, it wont hurt to occasionally sample a bunch or two. But since the flowers go on to produce pods, it's inadvisable to amass all the flowers.

Drumstick (Moringa) Flowers

With input from my mother, here's a simple Drumstick Flower recipe that I devised.

Ingredients for My Drumstick Flower Recipe

Ingredients:
Drumstick flowers - 2 cups
Freshly grated coconut - 1 cup
Green chillies - 2
Cumin seeds - 2 tsps
Oil for frying
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp or as per taste
Salt - As per taste
Method:
Grind the coconut, chillies and cumin to a coarse paste. In a pan, fry the paste in oil for a few minutes. Pick and thoroughly wash the drumstick flowers. Add the flowers and a little water to the pan. Add salt and turmeric. Cover and cook till done. The dish should be ready in about 10 minutes.

Cooked Drumstick Flowers

The flowers taste a bit like mushrooms or banana flowers. Banana flowers are however quite laborious to prepare and can be astringent, if not cooked right.

Fennel Basking in the Sun

Another 100% edible plant, from flower to bulb is Fennel or Saunf. My Fennel plant on the rooftop is currently in full bloom. The flowers along with the seeds are delightfully sweet, which are food not just for humans but a variety of insects. Mid morning, when the sun is shining brightly, there's a swarm of insects hovering over the fennel flowers.

Insects

In India, fennel is most popular as an after-meal mouth freshener and digestive aid. It also features in several Kashmiri and Gujarati cuisines. Surprisingly, the spice doesn't figure very much in south Indian cooking, despite the fact that it grows very easily here. Just sprinkle a few store-bought seeds in the soil and you'll be rewarded with plenty of fragrant fennel. If you plan to grow them in containers on the rooftop like me, you may want to water them twice a day on very sunny days, lest they wilt. Otherwise, fennel appears to be hardy and well suited to Chennai's hot climate.

Golden Fennel Flowers

There are a few other flowers in our garden that fall into the edible category.

Aparajita or Butterfly Pea: I recently planted Aparajita in one of my containers. It's another easy-to-grow plant, which will add colour to a garden, perennially. The flowers are deep blue and have a unique shell shape. While I am attracted to the flowers, so are the neighbourhood squirrels. Every morning, there may be several aparajitas that have bloomed. But the squirrels tramp around and by evening they are reduced to shreds. These flowers are edible and are used to colour food. At Auroville, you may be able to buy yourself a bottle of Aparajita syrup, which has a refreshing, rather unique flavour.

Aparajita

Hibiscus: Another source of food colour and syrups are hibiscus flowers. They're also used to flavour tea. But I doubt the hibiscus flowers from our common garden have ever found their way into a kitchen. We mostly use it for worship.

Hibiscus rosa sinensis

Jasmine: The queen of fragrances, this flower is used to scent tea. Recently, I received a tin of Taiwanese Jasmine tea from my neighbour. The delicate fragrance and flavour of the tea was heavenly, almost intoxicating. Jasmine Tea is a specialty tea from China that is supposed to have health benefits. Having savored Jasmine tea, I wonder why we don't have other Jasmine flavoured food and drink.

Arabian Jasmine. Other Names: Moghra, Malli, Mallika, Mulla, Sambac,Yasmeen, Sampaguita

While there are over 200 species — both shrubs and vines — belonging to the Jasmine genus, our garden has just two varieties. We have two Arabian Jasmine bushes, which sadly rarely ever bloom. (Recorded just two blooms this year.)

Star Jasmine Vine

And then we have a Star Jasmine vine, which has climbed all four stories of our building. These flowers aren't as fragrant as most jasmine, but they're always around, dangling like pretty white stars.

There are so many edible flowers around us. But how does one really go about using them in the kitchen? I'm on the look out for flower recipes. If you have a flower recipe to share, please drop your comments.