Curried Suran

Last night, I finally got around to making the suran (did you know that it is called elephant foot yam?) that had been sitting in my kitchen for some days. I love yams but hardly ever cook them, as the recipes are so complicated and time-consuming. Last night, I followed my Nani's recipe (at least I think it is my Nani's recipe), and the result was just yummy and totally worth all the effort. This particular recipe is also used to make a traditional fish curry on my Mom's side of the family, although the way I make the onion-garlic-ginger masala is not quite authentic; I just make it in a different way to save time with the same (or similar) results.

Ingredients:

500 grams suran, boiled, peeled and cubed
4 medium sized onions, sliced
10 cloves garlic, chopped into big pieces
2 inch piece of ginger, sliced thin
1/2 tbsp paanch phoron
2.5 tbsp mustard oil
4 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup yogurt
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp coriander powder
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp garam masala

Method:

1. In a pan, heat the vegetable oil and shallow-fry the boiled suran pieces on low heat until golden brown on all sides. Keep aside.

2. Whip the yogurt to a smooth consistency. Add the turmeric, red chilli and coriander powders to it and mix well. Keep aside.

3. In a separate non-stick pan, heat 2 tbsp mustard oil. Add sliced onions and the chopped ginger-garlic. Saute on medium-to-high heat for 5 minutes, making sure it doesn't burn.

4. Reduce heat, and saute until brown. Puree this browned onion-garlic-ginger mix in a blender.

5. In the same pan, heat half a tbsp of mustard oil. Add the paanch phoron and allow all seeds to splutter and brown.

6. Add the pureed onion-garlic-ginger masala. Saute until the oil starts to leave the sides.

7. Add the yogurt-spice blend and mix well. Saute until the oil starts to leave the sides once again.

8. Add water to the masala for the gravy, depending on how thick you want the gravy to be. I added very little water as I wanted the gravy to be semi-dry.

9. Add the suran pieces and mix so that the masala coats the suran pieces completely, taking care not to break the pieces.

10. Remove from heat and sprinkle garam masala over it.

Serve hot with chapatis and some kachumber salad.