Steaming

Steaming is the quiet technique of the temple kitchen: nothing burns, nothing browns, and the food stays soft enough for offering and sharing. The idli is its monument — fermented batter steamed in plates or, in the older way, in moulded cups.

Older still is the leaf: kotte kadubu steamed in jackfruit-leaf cones, Kanchipuram’s idli once in mandharai-leaf baskets — the leaf seasons as the steam works. Steaming also sets dhokla, patra and the modaks of Ganesh Chaturthi. Wet heat keeps the Kachha character of the food — fresh-eaten, not kept.