The bright green leaves bubble and boil in my pot of water and the colorless liquid miraculously and rapidly transforms into a brilliant indigo hue. Justicia Wynaadensis is performing its magic in my kitchen and I am transfixed by the process which I have finally had the pleasure of personally witnessing!

Justicia Wynaadensis, also known as Maddu thoppu, is a shrub that grows prolifically in some regions of the Western ghats of India.

This plant is very special to the Kodavas (the people of Coorg). Maddu means medicinal and thoppu translates to leaves, in the Kodava (Coorg) language.

In the monsoon period of from mid July to mid August which is known locally as Aadi or Aati maasa or Kakkada, this plant comes into prominence by virtue of the indigo hued concoction that is extracted from it, which is said to have 18 different medicinal properties.

It is said the though the plant grows well all year round, it is most potent during this period and more specifically on the 18th day of Aadi which is called Kakkada Padinet. Padinet which translates to 18, usually falls on August 2nd or 3rd every year.

The Kodavas harvest these leaves and boil them to obtain the medicinal inky blue potion which is then consumed by incorporating into various dishes like maddu puttu which is a phirni or halwa like sweet made using ground rice or rice flour. Payasam is another sweet made using the liquid. The possibilities of using this extract in various recipes, is endless.

After years of yearning for this thoppu, I was fortunate in 2023 to finally get a big bunch of these leaves from a friend just before the Padinet!

So I followed the process of extraction that she taught me and then went on to create my own version of an indigo colored, exotic looking rice phirni of sorts.

This is how you do it – 

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A post shared by Caroline Radhakrishnan (@currylines)

I also froze the remaining liquid because I did not want to waste it after all the effort. I however never used the blue ice for consuming because I was getting enough pleasure just gazing at it from time to time 😎

For more pictures see My Facebook – Maddu Thoppu

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