Pidikarunai Masiyal | Elephant Foot Yam Recipe

Karunai Kilangu / Kizhangu is a edible tuber plant. Its one of the oldest plant to provide food. Its called elephant foot yam due to its huge size and resemblance with elephant foot. There are two types of karunai kilangu pidi and chatti. Pidi is oval in shape and chatti is round. Pidi is more itchier than chatti. You can use any type of kilangu for this recipe. If using pidi add extra sour ingredient(lemon/curd/tomato/tamarind/amchoor powder) to remove itchiness. This plant is grown primarily in Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the tropical Pacific islands. In India its grown mostly in Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh,Tamilnadu, Maharashtra and Orissa. It is popularly known as "oal" in Bengali, suran or jimikand in Hindi, karunai/senai kizhangu in Tamil, suvarna gedde in Kannada, chena  in Malayalam, oluo in Oriya, kanda gadda in Telugu and kaene in Tulu.

Elephant’s foot yam has a very cooling effect, so it should not be consumed by those suffering from respiratory ailment like Asthma or sinus allergy.This vegetable is good for diabetic patients.It is used as an Ayurvedic medicine to cure piles and hemorrhages. It is high in Vitamin B6, and contains Vitamin C and A. Potassium, Phosphorous and Magnesium are the key minerals found in it. This is easy and tasty recipe to get all the benefits of this vegetable.

Pidikarunai Masiyal | Elephant Foot Yam Masiyal Recipe Cuisine: South India  |  Recipe Category:Poriyal Prep Time:  10 minutes   |  Cook time: 30 minutes    |  Serves: 4-5 ELEPHANT FOOT YAM – ¼ KG TOMATO – 2 NOS ONIONS – 2 NOS SOUR CURD – 1 TBLSPN RED CHILLI POWDER – 1 TSPN CORIANDER POWDER – 1 TSPN TURMERIC POWDER – ¼ TSPN SALT – TO TASTE TEMPERING OIL – ¼ CUP MUSTARD – ¼ TSPN CUMIN SEEDS – ¼ TSPN GREEN CHILLI – 2 NOS (SMALL) CURRY LEAVES – FEW

METHOD OF PREPARATION

1.  Finely chop tomatoes, onions and slit green chillies.

2. Pressure cook elephant foot yam with 2 cups of water for 3 whistles or more till it becomes mashy. Drain the water and peel yam. To the peeled yam then add curd, salt, turmeric powder, red chilli powder and coriander powder and mash everything together.I have used 1 tblspn of sambar powder you can replace it with given proportion of red chilli and coriander powder

3. Take a pan heat oil, once oil is hot temper it with the given ingredients

4.Add Onions saute it till translucent then add Tomatoes.

5. Once Tomatoes become mushy, add the elephant yam mixture and cook it till the oil separates from the pan and the masiyal should become non sticky in the pan like a dove

5. Transfer it to serving dish and serve it hot with rice, curd rice, rasam , idly

Note

• Elephant foot yam should not be new, older is preferable
• To avoid itching in tongue use sour curd, if curd not available add 1 tblspn lime juice or 1 tblspn thick tamarind extract.
• If you use gingelly oil it will give better taste