The Malabar and Konkan coasts

The Konkan and Malabar coasts form a narrow band of land between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats, running from the Maharashtra shore through Goa and coastal Karnataka to northern Kerala. The Ghats hold back the monsoon and send it down in torrents on this strip, and that rainfall, together with a long shoreline and many tidal rivers, shaped a cooking built on coconut, rice and fish. The coast was also the subcontinent's door to the Arabian Sea trade, and the pepper of Malabar drew traders long before Vasco da Gama reached Calicut in 1498.

The coastal kitchen begins with the coconut palm, which supplies the cooking medium, the souring body of a sauce and the grated freshness at the end of a dish. In Kerala and coastal Karnataka coconut oil is the habitual fat, and ground fresh coconut thickens and sweetens a sauce, while on the Konkan shore it is paired with dried red chillies, tamarind and kokum in the sauces of Malvan and Goa. Rice is the grain of the plate here, eaten boiled and plain beside a fish or vegetable preparation, and the red parboiled rice of the Malabar table suits the sour, coconut-laden gravies that accompany it. Pokkali rice, grown in the tidal fields of Kerala, is one of the protected names of the region. Sourness is the coast's signature and it comes from several fruits. Kokum, Garcinia indica, gives the Konkan and Goa their purple-tinged sourness and is steeped in fish sauces and in the cooling drink made from it. Kudampuli, Garcinia gummi-gutta, the dried fruit used in Kerala fish curries, is soaked and added to the clay pot, giving the red fish curry of the south its sharp edge. Tamarind, Tamarindus indica, serves where neither is at hand. The sea provides the matter of these dishes: Indian mackerel, Rastrelliger kanagurta, pomfret, Pampus argenteus, tiger prawn, Penaeus monodon, and in the backwater brackish waters pearl spot, Etroplus suratensis, which Kerala treats as a prized table fish. Spice is the coast's old wealth. Black pepper, Piper nigrum, is native to the hills behind Malabar, and Malabar pepper is a protected geographical name; green cardamom, Elettaria cardamomum, grows on the higher slopes, and Alleppey green cardamom and Coorg green cardamom are likewise protected. The curry leaf, Murraya koenigii, is fried in hot oil with mustard seed, Brassica juncea, to open a dish in the southern coastal manner. These are the ingredients that brought Arab, Jewish, Syrian Christian and later Portuguese traders to the ports, and each community left something in the kitchen. The Portuguese held Goa from the sixteenth century, and their mark is clear in the Goan table: vinegar, the pork vindaloo derived from the Portuguese carne de vinha d'alhos, and the chillies and cashew the Portuguese brought from the Americas. Goa cashew feni, distilled from the cashew fruit, is a protected name. The Konkan interior and the Malabar Muslim community, the Mappilas, developed their own traditions, the latter with the layered rice dishes and the sweet-spiced meat preparations that reflect long links across the Arabian Sea. Syrian Christian cooking in central Kerala favours coconut-milk stews, and the Mangalorean and Udupi kitchens of coastal Karnataka divide the coast between fish-eating homes and strictly vegetarian temple cooking. The monsoon sets the calendar. The fishing fleets are traditionally kept ashore through the heaviest rains, when the breeding season is protected and the sea is dangerous, so that salted and sun-dried fish, and pickles, carry the household through the wet months. When the boats go out again, the first catch shapes what is cooked. It is a cooking of the daily market and the seasonal pause, held together by coconut, sourness and rice.

A coastal meal in Kerala or on the Konkan is built around rice, with a sour fish preparation, a coconut-based vegetable dish, a pickle and a dry fried fish set alongside. The sourness of kokum, kudampuli or tamarind is the thread that links the dishes, and the cooking is usually done in clay or heavy vessels, the fish left to stand so that the gravy matures. In Goa and Malvan the same shore gives a sharper, chilli-heavy plate, served with rice or a flatbread of rice flour.