Majjige Huli (Kodakene)

 

All that talk about different cultures, traditions and idiosyncrasies associate with each community at work today (oh yes, we talk all this stuff and much more in my team, one heck of a fun team it is!) made me all nostalgic.

Like how if you are attending a lunch at a Shivalli Brahmin household, you will not see any dal, and the course starts with Saaru, and with a dozen or so sweets. Or how any outsider would freak out when he/she attends a lunch because of all the shirtless, potbellied , old men talking in the fastest Tulu possible in the loudest voice allowed.

Well, I’ve always maintained that, if only the population of the Tulu speaking Shivalli community was a little higher, and we were not scattered as we are now, we would’ve become a famous community by now, like all those Punjus, Gujjus or Mallus. You will see a Udupi hotel in nearly every corner of the world, well almost, but there will be just one or two of them. That’s how scattered my community is. All of us cling to our roots with a strong hope by refusing to speak any other language except Tulu among ourselves, jump with joy and behave like long lost cousins exchanging family names and relatives when we hear anyone speaking the slightest of Tulu, using up one coconut a day for all our dishes, sticking to our saaru da pudi recipes staunchly, thinking of the good times had while eating Gujje bajji, Shavige, Patrode or Pelakkayi Gatti, and looking out in the markets for Manjalu da Ire (Turmeric leaf) for our moodes.

We all know that its hard to stick to our culture, especially if you are not married to a Shivalli person, and don’t speak your mother tongue on a daily basis and so do our best to retain our homes in our kitchens. Ooh yes, I am missing my roots. Everything about them. My mother tongue, my native place, the smells in Mom’s kitchen and the food I grew up on. I felt the urge to be in touch with them all.

One such attempt is tonight’s dinner attempt. By the time I was getting home, I was yearning for something Mangalorean to eat, something from my Mom’s kitchen and something that I love.

Kodakene (in Tulu) or Majjige Huli (in Kannada) is a Kannada dish, but as for every dish , there is a Mangalorean twist to this, I am told. Mom tells me that I am not to add any spice to this except green chilli. She just allowed one red chilli for the colour of the masala, which I adhered to.  She asked me to not use desiccated coconut imploring that it is sacrilege to do that and gave me strict instructions on how to cook the vegetables - that I should cook the okras in butter milk, if I am using them. And that I should only cook the winter melons for one whistle in the pressure cooker, and not more. And options to thicken the yogurt sauce with rawa or soaked cashew nuts. Armed with all those instructions, I started off to cook my most favourite Mangalorean dish.

Ingredients

For the masala
Fresh Coconut – 1/4 cup, chopped
Green chilli – 1
Red chilli – 1
Wheat rawa – 1/8 cup, soaked in water for atleast 15 mins

For the Huli
Yam – cleaned and chopped in inch pieces – 3/4 cup
French Beans – diced in inch pieces – 1/2 cup
Thick yogurt – 1.5 Cup
Salt to taste

For the tempering
Ghee – 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Methi seeds – 1 tsp
Curry leaves – 4-5

Instructions

Pressure cook the beans and yam pieces with some salt.

Mix the ingredients for the masala into a thick paste.

Mix the masala and yogurt with the cooked vegetables. Heat this mixture on the stove till it boils once. To achieve the desired consistency, use water, preferably from the cooked vegetables.

Heat the ghee, and add the curry leaves, mustard and methi seeds to this.

Add this tempering to the Kodakene and eat it with hot rice.

You can use almost any vegetable to make this, provided it is cooked in the method it has to be. (Okra with butter milk, egg plants in oil etc) . This dish is primarily to be eaten with rice, but can also be eaten with Rotti (a Mangalorean dosa).