Kappa Puzhukku ( Mashed Cassava ) with dry cassava

If you invite a Malayalee home, what will you serve, if you want him/her as a friend forever? Kappa, of course! Kappa is Malayalam (language of Kerala) name for Tapioca/ Cassava.

It is not pronounced with a long a, but with a short a, as in Kaplan. Kappa has a lot of history associated with the life of a Malayalee. It is not blue blood, but kappa starch that runs through the true blue Malayalee veins.

Some 150 years ago, when His Highness The Maharaja of Travancore, was searching for a food crop which could be grown easily and quickly, he discovered kappa, thus controlling the harsh famine that had gripped Kerala. Though kappa was not a native and was introduced by the Portugeese, it soon became the staple food mainly due to its ease of cultivation.

Many new farmers first plant kappa, then make money from it to plant other crops. This tuber full of starch replaced expensive rice at many homes in Kerala. Though initially looked down by the ‘rich’, they couldn’t stay away from the heavenly taste and now it is served equally in Exclusive Star hotels to small food shacks.
Excerpt: Now with boom in tourism, tapioca and fish curry have become the mascot of Kerala cuisine. When you have too much kappa harvest, what you do? Peel, boil, slice and dry them for the rainy days.

Inji’s Thattukada
Today’s Special – Kappa Puzhukku or Mashed Cassava.
with Onakka (Unakka) kappa / with Dry Cassava
*** thattukada - a temporary street food shack, with the most delicious food

Last week, I bought dry kappa slices, a 5.5 pound bag for $6. Making kappa puzhukku from dry kappa is first for me. Normally, we make this dish from fresh kappa. But dry kappa gives it a different flavor and taste altogether.

After washing the dry slices 3 or 4 times, soak it for 8 hours. (For fresh kappa, this is skipped. For fresh kappa - Peel the brown skin and the pale pinkish skin,cut into 2 inch slices and discard the thick fiber(?) in the middle)

Add double the amount of water to cook and when it boils, strain the water. Add water again and strain, when it boils. Straining water is very important in the preparation of fresh or dry Cassava, since it contains free and bound cyanogenic glucosides which are converted to cyanide in the presence of linamarase, a naturally occurring enzyme in cassava.

Now for 3 cups of kappa, add 1.5 cups of water and cook again. Do not close with lid. When semi-cooked, add coarsely ground 1 cup of coconut + 1 tsp of cumin + 8 green chilies paste and cook again. When it is almost done, start stirring and mash the kappa thoroughly until the water completely evaporates, like the picture below.
Add water in smaller amounts, if kappa is not cooked to a mashing consistency. It should not be mashed like potat,the pieces should maintain it's shape,but mashed. Hope you get the idea from the picture.

Heat 2 tsp of coconut oil, splutter 1 tsp of mustard seeds, 3 sprigs of curry leaves, 3 dry red chilies split, sauté well and add to this dish.Serve it with fish curry. There are many heavenly combinations instead of fish curry, which I will leave to the kappa loyalists to comment. This is one dish you can serve it as breakfast, lunch, evening snack and as dinner.Now only if the Corporations in Kerala, served kappa and fish curry in their cafeterias, Malayalees will stay loyal to the company forever and will never ever call for a strike :-)