Digging out the Tapioca

Shappu curry or toddy shops in Kerala are known for their food as much as their toddy. A Shappu curry kitchen was the first kitchen I entered on my visit to Kottayam, Kerala, and was struck by an astoundingly huge wall of Tapioca stacked neatly. 'Kappa', as it's called was the fastest moving starch in the shop faster than rice or 'puttu', the steamed rice flour cakes.

This was my third meeting with the 'Manihot esculenta' after Mexico and Assam, and it was definitely a sign to dig further. It's clearly accepted that tapioca is a 5000-year-old South American tuber. However, most Spanish colonies traded with India through Philippines and Burma and that explains the Assam connection, which is around 200 years old. But how did tapioca get to Kerala? The answer is that it had multiple entries into India; it also came in and probably much earlier through the slaves of Spanish colonies in Africa.

Well here's another googly: why has this tuber has no mention in recipes of more than 120 years old? The answer is that it started getting used only in the late 1800s. Thanks to the ruler of Travancore in 1880 (Vaishakam Thirunal), who, after the great famine spent a lot of time, money and energy researching alternate sources of starch and zeroed in on tapioca, a tuber that could grow in the backyard and be kept in the ground until required. It's said that the ruler personally went out advocating the use of this starch and demonstrating how to get rid of the bitterness that comes in due to the Cyanogenic compounds. Tapioca is not a good source of protein though and therefore has been intelligently paired with fish curries in Kerala.

'Kappa', remember to utter this magic word when in a Kerala restaurant to get this magic dish, which besides all the nice-to-know things listed above is an awesome-to-eat dish with your fish curry.

Recipe
Kappa Kuzhachathu (tapioca mix)

Ingredients
1/2 kg tapioca, cleaned and roughly chopped into cubes
Salt to taste

For grinding
1 tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp turmeric powder
½ tsp scraped coconut
4 cloves garlic
3 shallots
4 green chillies

For seasoning
2 tsp of coconut oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
5 shallots sliced
Curry leaves

For garnish
Chopped coriander leaves

Method
1. Cook the tapioca pieces in salted water and sieve out.
2. Grind the cumin, turmeric powder, coconut, garlic, green chilies, and shallots coarsely.
3. Mash the tapioca in a heavy-bottomed pan and mix in the ground coconut on medium flame for about 3-4 minutes and then turn off the flame.
4. In a small pan for seasoning, heat oil, pop mustard seeds, add in curry leaves and fry the shallots till they are golden brown.
5. Mix the seasoning well into the cooked tapioca mix and garnish with chopped fresh coriander leaves.