Saraswat Cuisine

 

Have you ever heard about Brahmins who eat fish? Well there is a community of Brahmins who eat fish and consider it as a vegetable of sea and they are Saraswat Brahmin. Who are saraswat Brahmins? Where did they came from? Where are they now? What do they eat?

This all are the obvious questions that you might have even I had the same.

Who are Saraswat Brahmins?

The word saraswat comes from the Saraswati River, the name of an extinct river mentioned in rig Veda and many ancient text. The area were they used to live be called as “saraswat desh”. There was famine so they were not able to farm and were forced to migrate and when the river dried up they were left with only fish and started consuming it and considered it as vegetables from river. There are majority two types of saraswat Brahmins one is Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin and other is Gowd Saraswat Brahmin

 

Where did they migrated?

So as the river dried some moved to Bombay and were known as chitrapur saraswat and other moved to Bihar and Bengal but when Mahmud GAZNI attacked they came to Goa and settled there later on Portuguese came to India and forced to change their religion and during that time many saraswat migrated to Kerala and Karnataka by sea. Those who migrated to Karnataka they didn’t faced any problem in fact they became pioneer in setting banks. Two banks set by saraswat are Syndicate bank and Canara bank. But those who went to Kerala faced problems because over there local Brahmins didn’t considered them as a Brahmins because they used to consume fish and didn’t allowed them in there temples. So saraswat gave up eating fish and anything that grows below ground, so in some manner their meal became similar to Jains. So except from saraswat of Kerala everyone else consumes fish. So they basically migrated to different parts of konkan region.

 

Cuisine of Sarswat Brahmin

Majority of saraswat Brahmin have a pesco- vegetarian meal (to include fish as only source of meat). There cuisine revolves around local ingredients, coconut and rice. Importance is given to balance the meal yet every preparation will have something digestive ingredient such as ginger, curd etc.

Tamarind is the main souring agent. Sometimes a special variety of gambodge or Malabar tamarind that is called dharbe sol is used. Carambola, karmbala or star fruit is also a popular souring agent. In Kerala, recipes typically do not contain onion or garlic, making their cuisine similar to Jains. Karnataka’s recipe do use them often. Asafoetida is another important ingredient used in their cuisine a pinch of it will be there in all lentils preparation.

If one aims to list down the spices used in GSB cuisine, it is limited to mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, coriander seeds, curry leaves, cardamom, turmeric powder, red chillies, red chilli powder, green chillies, tamarind and asafoetida. Jaggery is most popular sweeter which not only gives sweetness but texture and colour to dishes too.

Teppal is an ingredient commonly used by the families in Karnataka. This is a fruit of the plant grown in Karnataka and Maharashtra which is a species similar to Tirphal and Szechuan pepper it looks like big size black pepper berries. This bears fruits during monsoons. During the season, fresh fruits are used while in offseason the seeds are discarded and only the outer layer of the fruit is dried and used in most of the preparations. Mostly used in fish preparation and vegetarian dishes using coconut masala. It has a strong woody aroma. At the time of eating the curry, the Teppal in the curry is not consumed and is discarded. These are slightly crushed in one table spoon of water and added to the gravy while boiling.

Kokum is yet another spice commonly used in Karnataka. Also called Birinda Salle, kokum is used in Kadi preparation. Kadi is made as a thin curry or a watery drink using kokum, coconut milk, asafoetida, chillies and cilantro leaves. It is known for its digestive properties. It is quite popular in the entire Konkan region.

A typical Breakfast in a Gowd sarsawat Brahmin home may have included of Undi(rice dumpling), polo (dosa/rice crepe), along with tambali(chutney) and or Sambhar. Shevaiyn phann (thin rice noodles with savory seasoning) or Phow (flattened rice - poha), Goda Phow (with sweet jaggery) or Meet Miryasange Phow (savory with salt and chillies) would be other breakfast specialties.

Lunch and dinner would commonly have Dali Toi (lentil soup) and sheeth (rice). A typical lunch would have Sheeth (rice), Hoomann (spicy curry), ukari (stir-fry), ghassi (spicy coconut gravy), nonche (salt pickled vegetable), Papodd or appol (crisp), and Toi (thin lentil soup) or Kadhi (thin yogurt curry). Kadhi is made to serve the dual purpose of Mukhashuddhhi (mouth purification, perhaps after all the relatively spicy stuff) and jeervonn (digestive Kadhis include asafoetida, Vomvom, Jeera, fennel seed). Last the godsaniche (sweets), typically doodah payas (milky rice pudding).

 

This was a brief about cuisine of Brahmins who consume fish and there are many more such communities whose cuisine is yet to be explored by us. If anyone of you knows about any of such community please tell in comment section below.

 

“To know a community is to know its food”

                                   -Gill Marks