Day six in beautiful Kerala, India continued in the gorgeous hill station of Munnar, where I had the amazing opportunity to cook a spicy Indian jungle food lunch with local ingredients and Kerala highland spices! Come along with me on my latest gastronomical adventure in Munnar, Kerala, India!
I was in for an amazing and mouthwatering afternoon in Munnar! Munnar is the tea capital of southern India, and our hotel, the Dream Catcher Resort, stands right in the middle of a tea plantation! My boy Ebbin and I headed off into the jungle on a beefed-up go-kart to go cook some incredible, spicy south Indian food!
I had to hold on, as the dirt road up in the hills was super bumpy. We arrived at the site. It was super dry. From there, we had a spectacular view of the second-highest peak in south India!
I also met the cooks there, who were cleaning up some goat. We’d be making beef fry, beef liver roast, mutton, kanthari chili prawns, and more. To spice them, we’d be using local spices like garlic, ginger, star anise, bird’s eye chilies, and much more. This would be the ultimate non-veg feast! I hadn’t tried most of these dishes and I couldn’t wait!
All of the spices and chilies come from their own plantation. There were so many of them. They began chopping and mashing the vegetables and spices. Then, they added the prawns into the masala with salt and coconut oil.
Our dessert—pumpkin payasam—would consist of pumpkin, cashew, jaggery, and raisins.
While they began preparing the meal, Ebbin showed me the plate I’d be eating off of while they added the raw goat legs and covered them in the mixture. Then, I tried a fresh, juicy tomato. Then, they started on the Kerala beef fry. While we waited for that to cook, the mutton soup finished cooking. I used a jackfruit leaf as a spoon. It was so tasty and was full of herb and mutton flavor! It had to have been the healthiest soup I’ve ever had. Everything was so fresh!
Meanwhile, Ebbin got a bay leaf to use as a spoon. It was his first time having this mutton soup, too!
Finally, the shrimp were ready. It was so succulent, buttery, and spicy! They were so soft and tender that they fell apart in my mouth! The chilies hit me right away. It was one of the spiciest seafood dishes I’d ever had in my life! My tongue was going to be numb later!
Next, they started building the pumpkin paysam and the mixture for the liver roast. The mixture was flavorful and spicy! Then, once everything was ready, I dove right into the goat. It was the best goat I’ve ever had! The beef liver roast was unbelievable, and the pumpkin payasam was super refreshing and helped cool down the heat.
Then, we headed back to the Dream Catcher Resort, where I needed to get a massage! My back was killing me! We headed up to the sundeck and admired the view. With the forests, mountains, and tea plantations, it was really gorgeous! Then, I got a one-hour massage in the spa for 2,000 rupees/$25.77 USD. It was amazing! I love massages. They’re the best thing to do, especially when you’re traveling.
I felt so at ease after one of the best meals of my life! What a relaxing massage and outstanding day. Huge thanks to my boy Ebbin for bringing me out here. Be sure to subscribe to his YouTube channel and follow him on Instagram. Also, find out how to book a stay at the Dream Catcher Resort by checking out their website!
I hope you enjoyed coming with me to cook spicy Indian jungle food with Kerala highland spices in Munnar, India!
My name is David Hoffmann. For the last 12 years, I have been traveling around the world in search of unique culture, food, and history! Since starting David’s Been Here in 2008, I have traveled to over 1,100 destinations in 77 countries, which I welcome you to check out on my YouTube channel, travel blog, and social media sites.
I focus a great deal on food and historical sites, as you probably have seen! I love to experience the different flavors that each destination has to offer, from casual street food to gourmet restaurant dining. I’m also passionate about learning about the local history and culture.
P.S. Thank you for watching my videos and subscribing!
Some bird eye chili, some onions, you have some ginger, and what else?
This is one of the spiciest seafood dishes I've ever had in my life.
I actually like it. These bird eye chili's are good.
Good afternoon everyone, this is David Hoffman from David's been here in Munnar, Kerala, India,
the tea capital of southern India.
Today I'm so excited because I'm here at a dream catcher resort,
in the middle of a tea plantation.
And today what we're doing is we're going into the jungle,
in this Polaris, which is like a beefed up go-kart,
and we're going to make some delicious food.
We're going to eat, we're going to come back, explore the tea plantation,
I might get a massage if my back is broken, I might jump in the pool.
Now, let's get on this go-kart, and let's go.
Gotta hold on.
Man, this road is super bumpy, dirt road, up in the hills.
If you look over here, you can see, it goes straight down, boop, like that.
Whoa, they got the seatbelt super tight.
Right here we have a cardamom field, lots of cardamom.
We just had harvest, we're going to eat some later, right?
Munnar is famous for tea plantations, all spices, as well as it's a hotspot for honeymooners.
So, from all over India, all over the world, people come here for honeymoon,
because the weather is good, it's green, beautiful place.
We're here? Yes. Awesome.
Oh, this is great.
Wow, it's really dry right now, super dry.
And what's that? It's a huge peak up there.
That's second highest peak of South India, Chakramudi.
Good morning. Good morning. How are you?
Very good, what are you doing?
Yeah, just cleaning up the lamb.
Go, okay, okay, okay.
I was going to say, lamb, I haven't seen lamb down here.
So, we have goat.
So, we are now going to make the beef fry, Kerala beef fry.
And this is the liver of the beef.
So, now we are going to make the beef liver roast.
Beef liver roast.
My favorite thing is liver.
Of all the organs, the liver.
Maybe the heart as well.
Yeah.
With black pepper? Yes.
Super spicy. Sure.
Let's do it.
This is like the ultimate non-veg feast.
We got goat, we have beef and beef liver.
And what's this?
Fresh mutton, making for a stoke.
Kandari chili prawns.
Making for garlic, ginger and curry leaves and tulasi.
This one missing.
Tulasi, garlic, ginger and this one.
Basically, he's making bird eye chili with shrimp.
I haven't tried it.
Kandari shrimp?
Kandari shrimp.
Amazing, amazing.
I haven't tried half of this stuff.
I cannot wait.
We got goat, beef and shrimp.
Wow.
And we have chili.
Can I try one?
Yes.
Try a little bite.
How spicy?
This one.
Yeah, the bird eye chili.
All the spices which grown up in Munnar.
Our own spices.
We have our own plantations.
We are using all the spices from our own plantations.
That's only the specialty of ours.
So that's the reason we can just use only a little bit of quantity.
With the real taste of the spices.
I'm hungry, man. I'm hungry.
Really? Give me some time.
No, no time. Fast.
So he just bashed the bird eye chili.
Oh wow.
It's potent. It's so potent.
Oh my god, I cleared my senses.
This is shallots, ginger, garlic and basil leaves.
Bird's eye chili, curry leaves and basil leaves.
He has added shrimps into that masala.
And he will add salt and coconut oil.
Then he will mix everything together.
Fresh coconut oil.
Yes, mixing.
He mixed everything and now he will keep it in sunshine for sometime.
Maybe around 5 minutes and we can eat.
No, no, I'm joking.
What?
We have to cook it.
Sure.
Now he wrapped everything inside banana leaves.
Now he will put inside the fire.
Directly inside the fire.
And everything will be baked together.
And banana leaf flavor will come into that shrimps.
And we can eat. Really we can eat.
That is the real one.
The other one was fake.
That's going to be spicy, right?
That's going to be spicy. Super spicy.
But also sweet and crunchy.
That is the dessert.
We are going to make that payasam.
These are pumpkins and this is jaggery.
And some nuts and kismis, otherwise raisins.
So they are going to make pumpkin payasam.
So we are starting with coconut oil.
Putting the fennel seeds.
Then little bit of cumin.
So we are adding some cardamom.
Whole cardamom.
And some cinnamon.
Crushed red ginger.
And garlic.
Also we are adding the green chilies.
And also some little bit of curry leaves.
So this is onion.
This is salt.
So now we are adding little bit of salt on here.
And this is basically a stir fry for the go.
Lots of onions.
Chilies.
Salt.
Kashmiri chili.
Wow.
Look at this.
Nice and red.
So you said it's less in spice, right?
Less in spice and good in color.
And this is good in spice and less in color.
Okay.
Wow.
I love this.
This is almost like a stir fry for go.
Gotta get everything that's not mixed.
Mix it in there.
Black pepper.
Oh yeah.
Throw a lot in there, man.
Extra.
This pepper is from our plantation.
From your plantation?
Yes.
Can I try some?
Yeah, sure.
You want to taste it?
Is it too hot?
Hot? Really?
Give me a little bit.
So I'm going to try some of their black pepper from their plantation.
Very nice.
Not too spicy.
Smile.
Meat masala.
Meat.
That's normally made for non-vegetarians like us.
So meat masala is a mix of many different spices.
Cardamom, cinnamon.
Just a variety, right?
And they usually use it for meat dishes.
And this one?
Finally we are adding turmeric powder.
Turmeric powder, okay.
Turmeric powder.
The smoke is hitting me.
The masalas.
The aroma is just like.
Oh, the cloud.
Can't see.
Sliced tomato.
Here in Munnar, plantation workers.
Not only in Munnar, Kerala.
Many places.
When we go for walking, we eat food inside this.
This is natural.
Organic.
So, are you ready to go for this?
This is great, dude.
Yeah.
And which is this from?
Which tree?
This is from Arakanat.
You know this chewing pan?
They have some betel nuts.
They call it betel nuts.
But it's actually Arakanat.
Arakanat trees.
Its leaf has this.
We added some water.
So that we get the pasty masalas.
So now we are adding up.
Good.
We are mixing up.
And it will take around one hour time to cook.
We had a light breakfast.
So you can have a tomato.
Yeah?
Yes, we can.
Nice burst.
Because it takes some time for cooking.
It's an hour, right?
Yeah, it's an hour.
Now we are going for the first step of making Kerala beef fry.
Salt.
Turmeric powder.
Black pepper.
Red chili powder.
Kashmiri chili powder.
Meat masala.
Coriander powder.
Also we are adding some green chilies.
Curry leaves.
Then mix up with water.
Finally we are adding some little bit of coconut oil.
So now we have to cook this for around 10 to 15 minutes of time.
We'll be back.
Black pepper.
We've gone through the process of each dish.
You know we saw the shrimp get mixed up with delicious masala, chilies, different spices,
wrapped in banana leaf and then put in tin foil.
After that they put it onto here.
It's cooking, it's baking.
Next to it we have delicious goat.
So many different ingredients there.
Takes about one hour.
Once he was done mixing everything, he added water.
Then he added the three legs, right?
Three legs of the goat.
Put it in.
Closed.
Waited 10 minutes.
Opened up.
Mixed it up again.
Closed.
Keeps doing that over and over for 60 minutes.
Then behind us we have a delicious soup being cooked.
And that's a mutton soup.
And then he just mixed up a few more things.
Peppers, garlic, ginger.
And then he mashed it all up, right?
Just banging it, banging it, banging it, banging it until it couldn't bang anymore.
And then he put it in.
And he also put some curry leaves in.
This is gonna be a phenomenal meal.
We gotta wait at least one more hour for everything to be done.
I am so excited.
It looks so good.
Firewood cooking.
I am waiting for that.
I am waiting to eat that.
So now we are placing the pressure cooker for food.
So he put the beef pressure cooker right where the prawns were cooking.
That's done.
This is going on the fire.
It's about 30 plus minutes for it to cook.
And our soup is ready.
Mutton soup.
And the natural spoon.
And this is jackfruit.
This is jackfruit leaf.
And they also have bay leaf.
And I am very thankful they gave me a seat in this jungle.
Pretty amazing.
This is how we do it.
What?
Look at this.
The mutton broth with all the spices.
You got the curry leaf.
It's not spicy at all but
So like
Damn it's like straight up mutton.
Like goat.
So there are no spices in here.
It's just fresh herbs.
Look.
Taste of ginger.
Oh the curry leaf.
This is probably like the best thing to have after like a hangover.
The next day you feel bad.
This will like pick you right back up.
You also have chunks of flesh throughout.
Just got to pick them up.
Bunch of cardamom in here.
Big chunk of cardamom.
Also peppercorn.
So many different raw flavors.
This has to be the healthiest soup I have ever had in my life.
The herbs come straight from this forest.
Cardamom, peppercorn, ginger, curry leaf and mutton.
This is amazing.
Can I eat this too?
David I got bay leaf.
You got jackfruit leaf.
See this one.
This is first time I am ever trying such type mutton soup.
Even in Kerala.
Full stack.
There are no spice powders.
The shrimp is ready.
Look at this.
Oh my god.
I can't wait to eat this.
Looks so good.
Thank you so much.
Look at this.
Shrimp with bird eye chili.
So I am going to start off by eating a shrimp without the bird eye chili.
That's a little too much.
Very buttery.
Got succulent.
Spicy.
Oh it falls upon your mouth.
It crumbles.
Very mushy.
What else is in here?
Some onions.
You know what?
Maybe I should try the bird eye chili with one.
Let's try it.
It's really hot.
It's probably the hottest one ever.
Hit you like right away.
Oh wow.
Man.
The spices throughout.
Oh you can see.
The seeds of spices and the chili.
Pretty sure there is garlic right here.
Some lemon.
Right here we have some onions.
Some seeds of chilies.
Some garlic.
Also some ginger right here.
Spicy.
Shrimpy.
Too much.
Some bird eye chili.
Some onions.
You have some ginger.
And what else?
That's basically it.
Look how many bird eye chilies you have here.
This is one of the spiciest seafood dishes I've ever had in my life.
I actually like it.
Bird eye chilies are good.
Oh it's really spicy.
Very spicy.
But tasty.
Very good.
It's very spicy.
But these bird eye chilies are good for fighting against cholesterol.
Bad cholesterol.
But prawns, they're not.
We are making the payasam.
The first we pour the ghee on the pan.
After that we can add the cashew nut.
And the dry seeds.
It will become brown.
We can add the jaggery.
Now this lamb roast in banana leaf, almost 75% is over.
So now we are taking back this leg piece.
Then we have to roast up this masala again.
Without goat.
Goat for half an hour rest.
So meantime we can just make the masala.
So now we are going to start beef liver fry.
In Kerala, we use only coconut oil for cooking.
Not only that, we cook with coconut oil.
We love coconut.
We cook coconut oil, we eat coconut.
We make curries with coconut.
Yeah, it's yummy yummy food here.
With coconut flavour.
Cinnamon.
Cumin.
So we are adding little bit of garam masala.
Finally we are adding little bit of black pepper powder.
And the last ingredient he added to the masala was coriander leaves.
As you can see it's turning like this beautiful rich brown.
The aroma is really popping.
But I can barely smell anything because I'm still burning.
90% of the process is over for the lamb roast in banana leaf.
So now we can come back with again.
And right here what he's doing is he's adding all the herbal spices for the beef liver.
There's so many.
It's similar to what he did last time.
You got onions, curry leaves, chilies, coriander.
I mean it doesn't stop.
Wow, that looks so good.
For me I can eat that alone.
Like that.
Yeah.
You don't need to add anything else.
The reason why he added so much black pepper is because that is the main ingredient for the liver fry.
It's gonna be spicy.
Super spicy?
Yes.
Like super spicy.
Oh wow.
The black pepper.
So finally we're adding up.
So the goat was done.
And what he did next is he got all the masala.
Put the goat and the masala together into banana leaf.
Wrapped it and then put it here to grill.
Wow, the aroma of the butter.
Smells so good.
I can't lift my back so I'm burning.
Goat's ready.
And I think I'm gonna go crazy.
There's a lot of people here.
We have to eat like 7 people.
So I'm gonna cut some for myself.
Maybe like half a bit.
I don't know.
Maybe a little more than half.
Grab the bag right there.
That's my fortune.
I think I'm quite ready.
It's like evaporating in my mouth.
Wow.
The masala's not too strong.
Not too spicy.
So much flesh.
Incredible.
This rabbit is a big one.
The best goat I've ever had.
So good.
Super rich in masala.
Love the tomatoes and the onions.
Just fall apart.
You guys will be under there thinking about it.
Really enjoying this one.
So good.
That's only first course.
Next up.
Beef rice and beef liver fry.
Look at this.
The way you do it.
Get in.
Get a little bit of beef.
A little bit of beef rice.
Black gold is good.
For me, this is my favorite internal organ.
The liver.
Why I like it so much is because it's a little dense at the same time.
Very easy to bite through.
It's not chewy.
It's almost like a creamy bite, right?
After all that spice.
I need a dessert to cool me down.
And this is pumpkin spice.
And it also has almonds.
Is that cashew?
No, it's cashew.
It's almost like a pumpkin pudding.
A little warm white.
Lower it down.
Wow.
This is so good.
I feel like I'm just cooling down.
By far, my favorite of the meals.
I don't know if I have a combination between having some super spicy shrimp and having delicious masala goreng.
Wow.
So unbelievable.
I mean, taking it down to the bone.
And having that delicious liver with peppercorn, beef rice, and this.
And everything is fantastic.
All right, guys. I think I'm done.
Let's go see the tea plantation.
And a massage.
My back is hurting.
Back to Dreamcatcher.
How was your experience here?
Oh, my God.
In the wild.
You feel good?
Enjoying God.
As you guys know, I'm here at the Dreamcatcher Resort.
They have a tea plantation right in the center.
All the rooms are around.
We're staying in a tree house.
He's staying in a honeymoon suite.
So we climbed to like the fourth level.
This falls on the fifth level.
And right here we have a hanging bridge over the tea plantation.
Oh, this is so cool.
I've never seen a resort like this.
You can do like this.
If it breaks?
Look at the tea plantation right here.
Love it.
It's up on a hill.
You go all the way to the top.
Is there like a sun deck up there?
Yeah.
There's a watchtower.
Wow.
And there's a pool here.
The pool's right here?
Yeah.
And then here's one of the tree houses, right?
This is a cottage.
There's a cottage.
And right here we have the pool.
Wow.
This is amazing.
The pool overlooking this beautiful area.
Look at that.
The mountains.
Forest.
Tea plantation.
And up here's the sun deck.
You need to have a camper.
Do you like?
So 7.30 you're going to have like a little fire here.
That's crazy.
Look at this.
Wow.
The entire place is for dream catchers.
So if you howl, it's not a problem.
Until another guest is getting a problem.
I'm going to get a massage.
I need a massage.
My back hurts.
And the hotel obviously has a spa.
Right here is the last floor of the building.
The spa's in this building.
The main building.
Top floor.
What we're going through has the hanging bridge.
Restaurant to the left.
To the right you have the game room.
They have ping pong.
They have, I think it's foosball.
And then over here, the top left, they have a spa.
So a massage costs 2,000 rupees for one hour.
It's going to be amazing.
I'm in this steam room.
So it's a steam massage.
It's a full body massage.
But behind us we have a steam box.
I can't wait.
My head hurts.
He's going to start with my head for 15 minutes.
And he's going to make his way down to my back.
Then my legs and my arms.
I love massages.
The best thing to do is get a massage.
They say like once a month minimum.
But if you're traveling like I do,
before and after a trip,
it's the best thing.
Guys, I hope you love this video.
Because today was probably one of my favorite meals of my life.
Everything was so good.
Spicy shrimp.
Delicious beef liver.
Goat leg.
Wow.
After all that food,
I need to really relax.
I feel at ease right now.
Munnar.
Munnar is a must.
If you just got married, come over here.
If not, still come.
You'll enjoy it.
Well guys, I hope you love this video.
If you did, just give me a thumbs up.
Leave me a comment below.
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And we'll see you in the next travel food adventure in Munnar, Kerala, India.
