A well-stocked pantry, when it comes to Indian cooking, is half the battle won. In Karnataka’s kitchens, a pantry is judged on its range of masala powders – there’s a powder for each stock recipe, be it rasam, sambar, or bisibelebhath. All that is required of the cook is to toss in spoonfuls just when a dish is coming to a simmer. Even when a recipe calls for a fresh-ground wet masala, the cook can fall back on the dependable powder: mix it with a few choice ingredients and you get the desired alchemy.
With so many distinctive dishes in Kannadiga cuisine, it’s essential that the spices that go into these masalas are chosen with care. Some demand greater heat, thus calling for more chilies or pepper, while others are heavy on spice blends, which means coriander, cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, anise are used in varying degrees.
Before Independence, masala powders were ceremoniously hand-pounded for fresh use. Sometime in the mid-20th century, the flourmill came as a saviour to the housewives who believed in stocking up for longer periods – they could conveniently get a big batch of masalas ground into a powder at the flourmill for a few paise.
Convenience remains the watchword in the majority of kitchens even today, as masalas have found their way into mixers and blenders, or become laden with preservatives and sealed in glitzy packets for sale in supermarkets. In pockets of old Bangalore though, it is tradition that still matters – here masalas are made in a designated corner of the kitchen that disgorge heat fumes like fluffy clouds.
Walk down the bustling bylanes of South Bangalore, and you’ll invariably see small shops selling fresh flowers and fruit, turmeric and vermillion, betel leaves and areca nut, dry fruit and nuts, because god knows there is a temple nearby or a festival around the corner. Amid these tiny shacks, there stands a line of condiment stores selling an assortment of masalas, chutneys, pickles, papads, health food, ready-to-use home remedies for everyday illnesses, and snacks.
One such shop is Adarsha Stores, with its facade of fading red and yellow tones, and pistachio green shelves that have gathered grease and dust over time.
Adarsha’s proprietor KR Ramesh, 58, sits at the billing counter, with a bright-eyed smile on his face and a streak of vibhuti on his forehead. He engages in animated banter with regulars, who walk in hurriedly, knowing exactly what they want, as a younger relative, Yuvraj, manages the inventory at the back of the Gandhi Bazaar store, sorting the stockpile of packets and jars.
“My family has been in this business since 1953,” Ramesh pronounced, with pride. “We have been making and selling masalas for over 35 years now. We are going strong even today. Not a single bad day, in all these years.”
A woman walks in and points to a packet on the shelf. Yuvraj hands her the parcel – a quarter kilo of puliyogare (tamarind rice) powder – and she is on her way out after tending the exact change, even in these cashless times. The exchange lasts seconds.
Ramesh beams and turns around to say, “She has been a regular customer for years. Just two days ago, she bought her monthly supply of masalas, and we didn’t have the puliyogare powder in stock. So she came today just for that.”
The inventory of masalas at Adarsha is long – it has everything from vanigibhath powder (fried brinjal rice), chutney powder (popularly known as gun powder), palya powder (for dry vegetable curries), rasam powder, sambar powder.
The shelf life of these is pre-determined, rather accurately, based on the ingredients. For instance, if a masala has coconut powder, it’s probably going to last a month in the pantry, as opposed to one that has spices and chillies, which can last up to six months.
“Sometimes we get customers who want to carry our masala outside the country,” Ramesh said. “We advise them to refrigerate or deep-freeze it, to enhance the shelf life.” Adarsha’s masalas cost Rs 400 a kilo, and, according to Ramesh, have crossed oceans into North America and Australia.
There are at least six masala powder shops like Ramesh’s in Gandhi Bazaar alone. Go to other South Bangalore areas, such as Jayanagar, Banashankari and JP Nagar, and you’ll find several more.
Why would customers travelling abroad be interested in these unlabelled, unglamorous packets of masalas, when they can pick branded ones off supermarket shelves that promise longer shelf life?
Vishalakshi D, a housewife who has been making masalas and supplying them to a loyal clientele in South Bangalore for two decades, stresses that homemade magic cannot be replicated by bigger brands.
“We don’t use any preservatives, and our masalas give the dishes a homespun flavour,” she said. “We have never felt threatened by the supermarket brands, because our ingredients are top-class, sourced from trusted city market vendors.”
Mounds of masalas air out on little trays in a storage room in her house in NR Colony, as Vishalakshi looks longingly at the lot. “I couldn’t imagine a day without masala-making. Our masalas have retained their taste and texture through the years, and it gives me so much pride to think that I have been helping people make happy memories with home-cooked food, in so many corners of the world.”
Shalini and her mother-in-law, who make masala powders on order in their well-equipped suburban kitchen in Sarjapura in southeast Bangalore, believe that brands may be popular in bigger stores, but health-conscious people choose authentic, taste-of-home masalas.
“The store brands are full of food colouring and additives – why would anyone knowingly want to infuse their food with those things?” Shalini asked, adding that even cooks who cater for weddings and parties get masalas from them.
Masalas made at homes are cheaper than the ones available at the condiment stores, going for Rs 200 to 270 a kilo, and possibly more flavourful – they bear the seal of homemade goodness. They also eliminate the need for plastic packaging, often going from a mixer jar to a customer’s steel dabba, unless meant for long-distance travel.
At home or in stores, the masala makers of Bangalore are a dedicated lot – they don’t need an ad in print or on social media to sell. With their masterful, spicy strokes in the kitchen, they know their flavours will never fall out of favour.