When we talk about brinjal or aubergine we get a picture of a purple bulb shaped vegetable with green stalk. But wait! , did you know that there is a special variety of brinjal that is green in color and is grown only in the mattu villiage of Udupi district. The story of this brinjal takes us back to the days of shri vadiraja thirtha of sode mutt, who used to offer hayagreeva maddi ( a sweet dish made of Bengal gram, Jaggery & coconut) as prasaada to lord Shri Krishna who used to come in the form of hatagreeva ( a white horse) and eat a part of the offering and leave some for Shri Vadiraja Thirtha. One day the other devotees of the mutt added poison to the offering in order to check if it was really the hayagreeva who came and ate the offering and on that day Vadiraja Thirtha was shocked to see that there was no Prasad left for him and the Idol of lord Krishna turned blue. And He had a dream where Hayagreeva told him about the reason for not leaving the Prasad for him and suggested a remedy handing over the brinjal seeds instructing to give them to the farmers of mattu village which would yield in 48 days.
Till then the brinjal was prohibited in the bhramin or satwik cuisine for its poisonous property called nanju in native language.
In order to take the poisonous element the brinjal is soaked in the water for some time until the water turns dark and the brinjal loses its astringent taste.

On today’s date the crop is being cultivated in more than 300 acres in the mattu villiage and has got Geographical Indication tagging along with various recognitions and awards to the farmers.

Even now the first crop is offered to lord Shri Krishna as a tradition.

Stay tuned for amazing such food stories.

Chef Joy Gonsalves.