MASALA BOX-Kerala Blessed with Nature’s Bounty 

This Pandora’s Box a must in every Indian household is the tool to the most delicious food. Each spice competing with the other for texture, aroma, fragrance, and medicinal value.

No wonder colonial wars had to happen to own them and VASCO DA GAMA had to make three rounds to finally succeed to set a trade for these. The state today is a major exporter stamping its dominance for spices.

Blessed with the most suitable Climate the state top’s the chart as the “Recipient of Natures’ Bounty”.

Getting to Know the MASALA BOX

Sitting on the window sill while Growing up as I child, observing mom adding these spices with sheer precision and filling my nostrils with the aroma the wait for the mouthwatering food use too long.

Later learning the culinary skills the aromas and the names stayed making a routine to be used in our day-to-day life. The Masala Box passed as a legacy until my trip to Kerala.

“EUREKA MOMENT”

Never had I paid so much attention to any of the above Spices. My “EUREKA MOMENT” came when I visited a spice Plantation. Family owned and passed as a legacy and generations after generations working towards bettering the craft.

Yes, CRAFT. A craft to understand nature, to understand the climate, to understand every plant, to then nurture them like babies, to understand the aroma and its uses it’s easier said than done.

A legacy by the ancestors of Nature

Vasu Anna and his family are the proud owners of this 100 and more year’s old plantation. Staying on the property in this beautiful red-tiled, yellow exteriors with wooden pillars house with a canopy of swaying coconut trees.

A heap of coconuts in the corner with a huge chopping knife is being segregated. We are welcomed by JYOTHI the property manager. She gives us the history of the plantation and spice trade of Kerala.

Humidity giving way to a bout of torrential rains, with the mud smelling of fresh rains I am seeing the spices for the first time in their absolute fresh and purest form. For me, it’s a “EUREKA Moment”

CARDAMOM: Black beads Secured in a POD

Seeing raw cardamom growing on a small creeper trying to hold it self-clinging to a fig tree, small white and purple flower blooming on this climber giving hope of rich cardamom produce.

A spice with a very peculiar aroma and flavor used in many sweet and savory dishes, This “Queen of Spices” is hugely popular. Seeing the RAW pod on the clipper and then the dried fragrant pods hugely expensive categorized with shape, color, the aroma is fascinating and I salute the Queen for its uniqueness.

Black Gold_PEEPER

Used mostly by the outside world to spice up the majorly bland food, in INDIA black pepper is used mostly as whole and lesser in powdered form. This “KING OF SPICES “is grown in many parts of the world, but has an important significance to the one grown in Kerala with medicinal values like Anti-inflammatory and antioxidant.

The small shrub-like plant small circular drupes of green, they when plucked make you wonder about its dried black form. Though when ripe make a beautiful sight with red drupes amongst the greens.

Tasting it raw was a bit acrid but you can get the taste. This most traded spice marks the change of the history of the Indian spice trade. Now I understand the flavors and the aroma crazy fan club of Biryani.

CLOVES_The Flower

Ohhhh this was a wonder as I see the raw flower bud, I remember the many toothaches and my present toothpaste. Why is it so hugely used and eaten?

All parts of the clove plant the stem, leaves, and flowers are very strongly aromatic. From the corner of my eyes I see a man climb up this thin tree with green blooms few having white tiny flowers on the head while others turning red and purplish.

As he climbs down and empties his bag of flowers that he has plucked and handed over to another while he goes on. This lady meticulously separates the stem from the flower and then tells me she is putting them to dry in the sun for the next 3 days.

The fresh buds are soft but superbly fragrant, a little sweet and bitter. While I see the dried product of black cloves, I remember a small box of “Queen of spice” Cardamom and the Cloves in my bag used for multiple purposes as a mouth freshener, to reduce blood pressure, and anti-inflammatory that too passed by mama and understands why.

NUTMEG and MACE 

I have seen my folks getting crazy about nutmegs while purchasing, smelling them, and then preserving them as one of the most precious of spice.

Mostly used in deserts. This fruit of an evergreen tree-bearing fruit throughout the has a sweetish taste.

But the real magic unfolds in front of me when JYOTHI plucking a ripe fruit of NUTMEG opens it up, inside is a lacey red covering with the brown seed tightly secured in, and to my surprise, the lacey red is MACE (JAVITRI) used in our homes another very important and fragrant spice.

It’s one tree but 2 spices the JAIPHAL and the JAVITRI. Both distinctively aromatic. It’s no doubt a EUREKA MOMENT. Both with multiple health benefits as Stregenthing body tissues, cognitive function with developing immunity. It’s an incredible day of discovering Pandora’s Box. With me craving to have the pies, croissants, and …

Cinnamon_can’t forget the ROLLS

My rolls smell splendid. The aroma wafts through my nostril as I drift away. I have half-heard Jyothi explain about the Bark of the tree and the process of it.

Oh my God, this wonderful aphrodisiac of spice goes through a lot. Gratitude to whosoever discovered it, and my quest to know it closely. A two years tree is being cut, cleaned, and bundled for its future process.

The bundles are washed in tanks to remove the dirt and then scaled off with the upper crust. The inner soft bark is then removed and dried and grounded to make a powder. An absolute labor of love and hence the rolls tasted so delicious.

Vanilla_knew as a bottled essence 

I knew vanilla in my ice cream and a bottle of essence bought from a dept. Store to add to my pudding. Here I stood listening to the complex process of vanilla pods emanating a very strong essence. Vanilla vines majorly growing in coastal areas cling to the trees around and the pods are used to extract the essence.

I knew these and each one my absolute favorite 

Ginger: Adding a superb flavor to my everyday cup of tea, this spice is grown underground. The state is recognized for its high-quality ginger. With high benefits to maintain the body metabolism this important household spice flavors many dishes and mocktails.

TUMERIC: The natural food color and spice very auspicious in all Indian homes with huge medicinal value, but I thanked God and mom, I knew this spice had learned certain things and not taken things as they came.

TAMARIND: the Indian sweet and sour mouthwatering spicy fruit having edible spice, I knew this too as plucking them was no easy than when we were at school, but when we did pluck savoring them was like heaven.

In the star-studded planation’s I saw the commoners like Basil, curry leaves, star-shaped anise, Malabar Tamarind, cumin seeds but each stands out with its unique fragrance, taste, and qualities. The absence of any flavor is hugely missed.

MASALA BOX

Overwhelmed with my “Eureka moment” I hoarded spices that day from Vassu Anna, who was happy to part both with knowledge and the spices. Could see his labor of love which is to be passed on to future generations.

I though respect and Love my MASALA BOX each day thanking God for Nature’s bounty and filling our lives with natural fragrances.

Now that the colonial wars were won keeping this nature’s gift for us, we as individuals need to protect what we have. How each individual being responsible towards nature. How Be a responsible tourist. Do not leave carbon footprints. Buy locally grown authentic products.

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