The staple rice accompaniment of Kodava (Coorg) cuisine: broken rice (rice rava) is cooked with water and a little salt into a stiff dough, shaped by hand into firm, round dumplings, and steamed until soft and slightly springy. It is the classic partner to pandi curry, the region's pork curry.
Kadumbuttu (kadambuttu) is the signature rice staple of the Kodava people of Coorg (Kodagu), the hill district of Karnataka, and together with pandi curry it forms the dish pair most identified with Kodava cuisine — served at nearly every wedding and festival. It is made from rice rava — rice that has been broken or coarsely ground, rather than the fine rice flour of South India's other rice preparations — cooked in boiling water into a stiff mass, shaped into balls while warm, and steamed in a traditional steamer called a sekala. The use of broken rather than fine rice matters: the coarser granules give the dumpling a slightly grainy, distinct bite rather than the smooth paste of an idli, and they hold together firmly enough to be broken into a curry with the fingers. As a rice-and-water preparation with no fermentation, kadumbuttu is very old in form, predating the fermented rice-and-lentil batters of the southern coast.
Soft, faintly springy, and mildly sweet from the broken rice — a quiet, absorptive ball that turns a dark, oily curry into a meal.
The texture is set by how broken-rice starch gelatinizes in a low-water cook. Unlike a soft idli batter, which carries excess water and ferments, kadumbuttu's rice rava is cooked in just enough boiling water that the starch granules swell and burst but little free water remains; the mass is then beaten and shaped hot, before the starch retrogrades and stiffens. Steaming the shaped balls finishes the gelatinization throughout and sets the surface so the dumplings hold their shape without dissolving into the curry. Because no gluten-forming cereal is present, the structure is purely starchy — springy when hot, firmer as it cools — which is why kadumbuttu is eaten immediately, broken open with the hand, and dragged through the gravy.
Variations
A richer benne kadumbuttu folds in fresh butter or cream; some versions add grated coconut to the dough, and the same rice-rava base is shaped flat as paputtu.
On the Palate
Where Kadumbuttu sits in the Indian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
6 steps · 10 min
- 15 min
Bring water to a rolling boil with a little salt (and coconut if using).
- 28 min
Add the rice rava in a steady stream, stir to avoid lumps, and cook covered until it forms a thick, stiff mass.
Watch outCook the rice rava until it forms a thick, stiff mass — too wet and the dumplings won't hold their shape and dissolve into the curry.
- 35 min
Turn the mass out, knead briefly while still hot with wet hands, and pinch off portions.
Watch outKnead it briefly while still hot — let it cool and the starch stiffens, and you can't shape a smooth ball anymore.
- 44 min
Shape each portion into a smooth, round dumpling.
- 58 min
Arrange the dumplings in a steamer and steam until cooked through and slightly springy.
- 62 min
Serve at once with pandi curry or a Kodava chicken curry, breaking the dumpling open with the fingers.
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