The Fantastic World of Mangalorean Catholic Masalas and How to Use Them

Mangalorean Catholic cuisine is known for its distinct masalas — tel-piyao, jeera-meeri, bafat aalen, soon-sasav, shirko shindaap, among others. While each blend carries strong associations with certain dishes, these spice mixes have always been versatile, finds Ruth Dsouza Prabhu.

You truly begin to appreciate the food of your home when you are far away from it.

It was 1999. I was 65 kilometres away from Mangalore, studying in Manipal. The distance may not have been that far away from home, but, it was only then I realised just how much I missed my mother’s cooking. Like most fussy teenagers, looking for only cool things to eat, I turned my nose up at lunch staples of fish curry, rice and vegetables. I got bored of the Sunday pork bafat and sannas. I would load up my plate and walk over to my Parsi best friend’s home two doors away and exchange lunches on weekends.

I began to pay more attention to my plate, on my return from the hostel, and later, on leave from work. I developed a new-found love for my mother’s food. It was around the time that I learned about Mangalorean Catholic cuisine’s range of masalas, created by specific ingredient combinations. These masalas are associated specific dishes — bafat masala (a ground spice masala, also available as a powder) with pork, shirko-shindaap (vinegar and sliced onions, ginger, garlic, green chillies) with fish, jeera-meeri (cumin-pepper) with chicken, thel-piyao (oil and onions) with vegetables likes beans and jeeve aalen (raw masala) for pickles.

It was only after getting a kitchen of my own that I realised, each of these masalas was versatile. Across generations, home cooks have instinctively adapted them to seafood, poultry, meats, and vegetables. Yet, the perception of rigid pairings persisted. The truth? The smoky depth of jeera-meeri can elevate fish just as well as it does a meat or poultry curry. The tang of shirko shindaap with the addition of a few ingredients and spices can balance rich pork dishes as beautifully as it does seafood. Thel-piyao is more than just a base for stir-fried vegetables, and can form the foundation of countless curries and stews of fish and meat.

Here is a primer on how to explore the versatility of Mangalorean Catholic masalas.

Let us start with the classic bafat masala — no Sunday is complete without pork bafat and sannas at home. The bafat powder is a combination of dry chillies (a mix of Bydagi and Kashmiri usually), cumin and coriander seeds, mustard, pepper corns, cloves, cinnamon and turmeric. Each ingredient is dry roasted and then powdered together to give a vibrant, red, aromatic masala. A wet masala version we use in the family includes onions, poppy seeds, tamarind and turmeric. The powder and the wet masala can be used together or individually for the pork.

Add some coconut while grinding the wet masala and you now have a great base to use with a red meat like mutton. Cook the mutton separately and simply mix the masala and the meat with its water for a flavourful gravy. Up the deliciousness with some coconut milk and a tempering in ghee with onions, garlic and curry leaves. This same masala can be used for eggs and vegetables, like the whole range of gourds.

Shirko-shindaap is a masala that is primarily used for fish like pomfret, mackerel, and ladyfish. It is light and tangy because of the vinegar and is perfect for those humid summer days when you want a non-coconut curry for lunch. The shindaap or the slicing part of the masala includes onions (you can use shallots too), garlic, ginger, and green chillies. To this, you add dry roasted red chillies, coriander seeds and peppercorns and blend it into a nice paste with vinegar. Bring it to a rolling boil on the fire and thin it down with some water. Once boiling, add in pieces of fatty fish like a tuna, and you are set for lunch.

A great substitute for fish is chicken. Cook it with a little water separately and when the shirko shindaap masala has reached that rolling boil, add in the chicken and its water. Garnish with some coriander leaves. To add more depth of flavour, some homes use a touch of kokum water, and reduce the amount of vinegar.

Jeera-meeri, cumin and pepper is a masala that combines these two core ingredients with garlic, onions, dry chillies and tamarind. This is the basic masala and is used for fish — mullet, salmon, ladyfish, pomfret. My mother, in fact, even adds potatoes to this fish curry. Jeera-meeri is perhaps the most versatile of Mangalorean Catholic masalas. To this base, add whole cloves, poppy seeds and cinnamon while grinding, and you get an aromatic masala ideal for a chicken. Remove the poppy seeds, increase the garlic used in the grinding and use pepper powder instead of whole pepper and this makes a base for an excellent beef curry.

The thel-piyao — oil and onions — can be used with a seasoning and a vegetable of your choice (beans, carrots, capsicum, all the gourds and pumpkins). The flavours are simple and this is the best way to make an ingredient the hero of the dish. To this base, add in tomatoes and then some prawns and toss them together with some turmeric and chilli powder. Or, you can add in some chicken, and allow it to cook in the juices that release, giving you a light, soupy dish.

And lastly, there is jeeve alen. This is a raw masala, meaning the ingredients have not been roasted on the fire before being ground. I first heard of this in relation to instant pickles made for weddings or a sudden houseful of guests. Produce like green mangoes, bimblis, or hogplums are brined for a few hours. Then, grind red chillies, cumin, coriander, garlic and any pickling spices with vinegar. Toss the brined produce directly into this masala, mix well and voilà you have an instant pickle.

Now this same jeeve alen, ground with fresh (not roasted) coconut gives you a unique tangy masala that can be used to cook poultry, red meat and even vegetables. Bring the masala to a boil on the fire and simply add in your proteins or vegetables and cook! Temper with ghee, onions and mustard.

Mangalorean Catholic masalas often take the thinking out of everyday cooking. Have fish? Will use jeera meeri. It’s a Sunday? Let’s grind bafat for the pork. Unexpected guests for dinner? Let’s make saar (with tomatoes or dal) and some beans thel piyao.

The versatility of each of these masalas means that adding or subtracting a few ingredients and pairing them with another core ingredient, makes for delicious variety.

Over time, mixing and matching of these masalas with core ingredients has become common in our homes, so a mutton jeera-meeri or a chicken bafat are now a part of the family table as are their fish and pork counterparts. For this, we thank the many cooks helming the hearths of Mangalorean Catholic homes and their desire for experimentation.

Ruth Dsouza Prabhu is an independent journalist, food writer and author based in Bangalore.

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