Colocasia leaves are used for preparing different culinary delights across Asia in general, and Indian subcontinent in particular. We saw how the leaves could be used to prepare a very delicious South Canara dish – Pathrode.
It is not just the leaves but the roots and the stems too can be used to prepare various delicacies. Today’s dish is made from Colocasia stem. Let’s see how.
Colocasia stem Saaru (Rasam) is the simplest side dish that goes very well with hot rice. The stem being spongy soft, coupled with the fact that bare minimum ingredients are needed, it hardly takes any time to prepare it.
So, let’s get started with the recipe:
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Total time: 15 minutes
Servings: 2
Ingredients:
Cleaned, cut colocasia stem: 1 cup
Jaggery: 1/4th cup
Chilli powder: 1/2 tsp.
Garlic: 5 pods
Tamarind paste: 1/2 tbsp.
Salt to taste
For Tempering:
Mustard seeds: 1 tsp.
Ghee: ½ tbsp.
Method:
- Wash, clean and carefully peel the outer fibers of the colocasia stems
- Chop them into small half inch pieces
- In a pot, transfer the chopped colocasia stems and add water enough to dip the veggies completely
- To the above add jaggery, tamarind paste, chilli powder and salt and cook in medium flame for about 10 minutes (or until the vegetable is cooked)
- Remove from flame once cooked. In a tempering pan, add little ghee and fry the garlic pods until golden brown. To the same pan, add mustard seeds and let it spurt. Once it starts to spurt, transfer the contents of the tempering pan to the cooked colocasia stem rasam
- Colocasia stem rasam is ready to serve!!!
Note:
- Make sure not to overcook the stems. It tastes best when it is soft and cooked, but on a crunchier side
- This recipe is medium on spice. You may increase the spiciness accordingly
- It tastes even better if you mince or smash the garlic pods
Colocasia stories:
This is one plant which used to travel with us wherever we went and stayed, across India. So, our favorite pathrode used to be our Sunday breakfast, atleast once in a month or two. Well, we simply cherished the sweet pathrode to the core. We used to be equally hung-ho about the next big thing, the Colocasia stem rasam. The slightly crunchy, slightly mushy vegetable with tangy tamarind and sweet jaggery absorbed in it, tasted heavenly!!! The garlic tempering enhanced the taste even more !!! Those memories still seem so fresh and recent. Wow… my mouth is watering as I am writing about it… This is one signature recipe of my mom, which I would love to retain as is here.
Nice one similar to cocum