Soul Curry

Karma; a concept I believe in quite judiciously. You must have heard of the term “what goes around comes around”, well simply put, Karma means the same. Our lives are a big mixed bag of doings and creations which eventually and at some point reflect on our well being.

The people of Goa, I imagine, are perpetually soaking in the good Karma they are subjected to. I have met several residents over the years and a few new ones every time I make a visit to the coast and all I am showered with is affection and a sense of being ones own. There is an immense amount of humbleness, non-fakeness, softness and down to earth outlook in each and every person.

Goa does that to you, it makes you mellow, and it stops you in your tracks and calmly guides you through a very spiritual experience which is further highlighted because of the traditional nature of people and surroundings of this place. It helps you realize that life is not always a rat race, running helter-skelter to unknown goals and yet it manages to spice things up just enough to keep you grounded and high at the same time.

I, for once, did not lose it for even a second of my stay there. Delays, Full Stops, Deadlines are completely out of the vocabulary. When you don’t have anything to complain or stress about, well then your heart kicks into action and becomes one with the surroundings. Quite contradictory to my leaving the place and flying into Mumbai a couple of days ago where I got highly agitated on disembarking from the plane and being made to wait for forty minutes by the luggage carousel, while everyone got their luggage and my friend and I were at our wits end, when ours dint show up. It did come eventually, but it was like a teaser to the life we have back here, a life back to reality.

Why then do we get so agitated when things are not our way? It’s not the same when you are away and things just seem to fall in place. Or is it that we allow it to fall into place? The latter is true. If we do allow things to come together and alternately divert our attention to the good doings in life and not fret, ponder and stress, life would be much more transparent, clean and an attention grabber for good Karma.

All said and done, keep a check on your attitude towards people, your stance should be a concrete foothold in the ground and should rarely leave it. Coming back to food, Soul Curry reminds me of a fantastically, light and mellow dish, just like the people of Goa and the many I know and are honored to have met – Sol Kadi, the essence of karma and all things spiritual, all captured in one little recipe.

Sol Kadi

Ingredients:

• 2 cups fresh desiccated coconut
• 1½ cups Hot Water
• 6 nos – Dried Kokum Fruit*
• 1 Green Chili (finely chopped)
• 1 tablsp Coriander (finely chopped)
• 1 tsp Cumin Powder
• ½ tsp Cumin Seeds
• 1-2 Peppercorns
• 3-4 Kadi Pattas (Curry Leaves)
• ½ tsp Mustard Seeds
• ¼ tsp Asafetida Powder (Hing)
• Salt to taste
• Ghee / white butter for tempering

Soak the Kokum’s in ½ cup hot water and keep aside for about half hour.

Place the desiccated coconut in a large bowl and pour ½ cup of hot water over it. Let it sit for eight minutes. Next, pour this coconut mixture into a fine muslin cloth and squeeze the liquid into another bowl. Replace the powdery coconut left in the cloth once again in the same bowl and pour the balance ½ cup hot water atop it. Keep aside for about five minutes and repeat the straining process. You should have a good one cup and a little more of coconut milk.

Squeeze the Kokum’s from the soaking water with your fingers and strain it, pour the thin juice straight into the coconut milk.

In a small pestle, crush chillies, coriander, cumin seeds and peppercorns with a little sea salt till you get a coarse mix. Add this to the coconut-kokum milk and mix well.

For the tempering: heat a the ghee / white butter in a small tempering vessel till slightly smoking. Add the cumin seeds, mustard seeds and hing. Once it starts spluttering add the curry leaves (and a small chilli broken into two by your hand right before adding, in case you want a fiery touch) and drizzle the tempering onto the solachi kadi. Cover and keep aside for the flavors to mingle for about five minutes.
Serve Cold or Lukewarm (You cannot heat this mixture) with steamed rice or by itself.

*Kokum – This is a mild souring agent, a fruit grown predominantly in the southern parts of India. This is a dark red or black colored fruit when dried with a distinctive sharp aroma and taste. The fruit is usually dried and sold and can be found in Indian specialty stores or south Indian stores.