Indian cooking: Reviving lost ingredients, from elephant tusk okra in Kerala to Goa's nutritious giresal rice

Lotus corms; Goa's rare tubers; and raw and boiled khesari dal pods.

Mumbai-based home chef Alka Keswani, creator of the Sindhi Rasoi blog, recalls enjoying plates of hot, boiled D^adhri (boiled grass pea or khesari dal pods) with winter spices and Lor^h or lotus corms growing up in Ulhasnagar. “These aren’t completely lost, but rarely available now.”

Similarly, Oliver Fernandes, co-founder, The Goan Kitchen, who along with partner Crescy Baptista, hopes to preserve Goa’s rich culinary legacy, laments that the fruit Ottamb, used as a souring agent in pork dishes, has disappeared and been replaced by dried mango.

India’s rich agricultural diversity once sustained people. But times have changed and with it, food habits and ingredients. According to a United Nations Report (2019), 25 percent of studied plant groups are threatened with extinction.

Goan tubers

Ingredients lost from Indian kitchens

Across India, several ingredients which were an integral part of our diets, have gone missing or are out of our mind space, as the current generation isn’t well-versed with these.

Oliver recalls, “Giresal rice, which was the most fragrant rice in my childhood, has disappeared. Earlier, Goa had a lot of varieties of rice, grown as per location. Korgut would grow in saline water. Today, everywhere it’s Jaya and Jyoti. Again, tubers like Kat-kongaam, chirko, Kongeo, karande, zhadd kongam, which were seasonal staples have disappeared.”

Food historian Rakesh Raghunathan says that several indigenous varieties of rice that were grown and were available in southern India, are lost.

Millets, too, were forgotten, but thankfully being revived. Anuradha Joshi Medora, founder and chef at Charoli Foods, Mumbai, explains, “The indigenous minor millets of Madhya Pradesh were cultivated through the traditional rain-fed farming systems and nutritious, coarse cereals had a special place on our food plate, but post-Green Revolution, their use has reduced and replaced by cash crops especially, wheat.”

Climate change and other factors

Climate change alone cannot be blamed. Modernisation, green revolution, lack of demand, influence of Western culture, too, have contributed.

According to Pinaki Dasgupta, a Delhi-based marketing professor who is passionate about food, especially Bengali cuisine, “Predominantly, links are getting lost, as lifestyles change - people get busy, women have stepped out for careers, leaving them with little time to indulge in food preparation, nuclear homes (missing grandparents who could have carried the legacy forward), have all added to the lost cuisines.”

Master Chef Farman Ali of Falak, an Indian restaurant at The Leela Bhartiya City, Bengaluru, analyses, “Some ingredients may be challenging to procure, requiring extensive cleaning and cutting, while others may have been banned due to adverse health effects. As cuisines have evolved, certain ingredients have become region-specific, limiting their widespread usage.”

Chef Farman Ali of Falak

But all is not lost

There is still hope, as several individuals and organisations are passionate about preserving the rich legacy of Indian cuisine.

Mukesh Gauthaman, a chemical engineer from Kurulkuttai village, Tamil Nadu, formed Eegai Kuzhu, an informal organisation of village youth, aimed at preserving and reviving disappearing crops and vegetables.

Similarly, Chennai researcher Akash Muralidharan is trying to revive South India’s lost culinary history, with the Forgotten Food project, which began as an effort to trace vegetables which are not being cooked anymore. He aims to reintroduce the people of South India to elephant tusk okra and the decalepis root and reverse the decline of biodiversity. He managed to find Thummatikkai, or ‘country cucumber’, difficult to source in the city, in rural markets as a dried version, and is thus, optimistic.

Decalepis hamiltonii is also called maredu kommulu (Telugu), makali beru (Kannada) and magali kizhangu (Tamil). (Photo by Vinayaraj via Wikimedia Commons 3.0)

Indian biodiversity pioneer, Prabhakar Rao, founder, Hariyalee Seeds, has been preserving species of endangered and heirloom seeds, collected from across India. He has stabilised some of these genetically and environmentally and saved about 260 varieties of vegetables.

A potential revival strategy, according to Chef Farman Ali, also lies in the creation of powdered versions from fresh ingredients, for convenient storage.

Documenting

Lack of knowledge and awareness, result in reluctance to source and use some ingredients. And thus, documentation comes handy.

“The newer generation aren’t exposed enough to the traditional Bengali cuisine and hence over time the links are lost. YouTubers like Bongeats, content creators, food writers, are trying to revive these. However, owing to lack of documentation, some from the pre-Mughal era are lost,” quips Dasgupta.

Documenting these ingredients, cooking methods, tips, are crucial. Oliver acquiesces. “Culinary schools should work towards inculcating an interest in their students, who are eventually the custodians of the future. They should interact with farmers, chefs or environmentalists, else, it would be a huge task to preserve and sustain heirloom food varieties. The government and farmers need to research and preserve these with an accessible seed bank. Chefs should be made aware of these ingredients and consumers should support culinary initiatives that promote these.”

Raghunathan agrees that documenting is key. It would help revive varieties of indigenous rice by making people aware of their existence. The knowledge, available among the farming community, needs to be documented to be shared with the outside world.

Food historian Rakesh Raghunathan

Lead by example

Creating awareness about ingredients and teaching the current generation how to use them, plays a role in the revitalization. Raghunathan feels that the younger generation is keen to use the indigenous varieties of rice, but there’s lack of knowledge. “In 2022, in a food festival, I cooked dishes with indigenous rice varieties, and apart from Indian dishes, I made risotto, sushi, arancini, thus showcasing their versatility. Furthermore, not many are aware that some rice varieties need to be soaked for a longer period, and the rice gruel fed to a baby, is actually a nutritious, indigenous rice variety,” he adds.

Anuradha, too, integrates many minor millets in her pop-ups and interactive chefs’ tables. “Education is key to revival,” she says.

At Falak, awareness is fostered through authentic dishes which, the chef hopes, leads to appreciation and utilization of these ingredients.

Master Chef Farman Ali reiterates, “Exploring different regions and learning from chefs and home cooks, providing an authentic experience that goes beyond information, delving into the nuances of flavour profiles and culinary traditions, helps.”

Some companies are also taking processing and packaging indigenous ingredients, to make them accessible and easier to use. For instance, Goa-based Wakao Foods is packing ready-to-cook jackfruit options. While kathal or jackfruit is still popular and widely available,Sairaj Dhond, founder, Wakao Foods, Goa, explains, “Jackfruit is a difficult fruit to cut and cook, making it is time-consuming. Our ready-to-cook options have... made Jackfruit more accessible. By introducing Jackfruit to a broader market, we safeguard its place in Indian culinary heritage, preventing its potential loss in years to come.”