Growing up in the South of India, most of us salivate over the thought of a well made vatha kuzhambhu. While it can be made with all sorts of dried ingredients (vathal), a traditional vatha kuzhambhu is usually one that’s made with the dried sundakkai.
Growing up in the South of India, most of us salivate over the thought of a well made vatha kuzhambhu. While it can be made with all sorts of dried ingredients (vathal), a traditional vatha kuzhambhu is usually one that’s made with the dried sundakkai.
For as long as I can remember I have only associated the sundakkai with the vathal. A few years ago after a good spell of rains, a healthy, rather tall shrub in our garden caught my attention. The leaves are quite similar to that of the brinjal but the stems and branches grow quite tall and wide. A week or so later we noticed a cluster of green berries nestled among the profusion of white flowers.On realizing that it was indeed a sundakkai cheddi (plant), I wondered why I had never really seen it used much in it’s green state in our South Indian dishes.
Later that day seizing the opportunity to talk to my grand aunt, who is well known in the family for her culinary prowess, I asked her about this green berry. My family in recent years have become quite used to my food inquisitiveness and have been extremely supportive. So she patiently told me that while it was a much used ingredient in a kootu or sambhar or poriyal, it’s less popular now because ,” you children will not eat anything bitter”!
I smiled at that and wondered when they started to pay attention to any of us fussing ! After all didn’t we grow up eating as we were told?! Anyway after hearing that it is quite edible even at the fresh stage it was time to begin my sundakkai recipe trials. It is most tempting for a home cook to work with an ingredient that not only grows wild but is completely free of harmful toxins.
After conferring with my kitchen help, we went about making, over the course of a week, three dishes using the green sundakkai as the main element. One was a poriyal with potato, next was a sundakkai mor kuzhambhu and finally an Andhra version of a sundakkai paruppu using thuvar dhal (pigeon pea lentils). The family took to this berry without a fuss and seemed in fact to enjoy the unique bitter taste that it brought to the dish.
Once we got comfortable with the taste properties of this special fruit/veg the next option was to look it up online to see if it featured in any other cuisine. The results that the search brought up were quite amazing. The botanical name for the sundakkai is Solanum torvum and is known in English as the turkey berry. The highlight of all this information for me was the revelation that it is also known as the pea aubergine or pea eggplant. I remember then placing my palm on my forehead because just the previous evening a dear friend had paid a fetching price for a pack of pea eggplant that was sourced from out of town.
Now for those who aren’t familiar with Thai cuisine, the pea eggplant is one of the main ingredients when making an authentic Thai curry. It is added right at the end along with the holy basil leaves and cooks in minutes when dunked in the hot bubbling liquid. Naturally I was more than thrilled and since then no Thai curry at home is ever complete without the addition of at least a few of these little green spheres.
They grow and are are consumed in several countries like Sri lanka, Ghana, Liberia, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia etc and are known for their immense curative properties. The list is quite extensive. It is thought to treat anemia, night blindness, coughs and colds, stomach and intestinal disorders, gout and fevers.
While it is difficult to keep track of an ingredient and it’s positives, it is easy to remember to eat local and seasonal whenever possible. The small green sundakkai cooks quickly and is best paired with sour flavours to combat the bitterness. The texture is a bit chewy but not unpleasant in any way. Given the freshness, ease of availability and health benefits it would be such a shame if we didn’t make an effort to integrate this rain fed green nugget into our daily meals. My sundakkai plants are laden with berries now and I do plan to make the best of it.