Yam Kofta Curry

While one thinks of preparing kofta curry, there are lot of option to prepare koftas with. Here is a recipe using the not so common kofta ingredient - elephant foot yam. In my house, yam/chenai is often cooked as mezhukkuparatti ( cooked and stir fried in oil), mostly along with raw banana or sometimes its only yam. Occasionally it features in arachukalaki and in porichakozhambu where cow peas, yam and raw banana are used and its almost like sambhar but taste differs because of the vegetables and grinding ingredients used. When I saw this recipe of Mallika Badrinath, I was happy that I could cook the very common chenai in a different form. This photos were languishing in my drafts folder for a very long time. At last, it has to wait for our dear Valli to announce the Curry mela to come out.

Here are some nutrient information of yam.

Yam is very low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin C, Potassium and Manganese. The tubers are believed to have blood purifier property.

Now have a look at the plant.

Another closer look.


Lets get on to the recipe now.

For koftas

Elephant yam - 1/4 kg
chutney dal/pottukadalai - 2 tblspn
cinnamon - a small piece
cloves -2
red chilly - 4
salt to taste
bengal gram flour- 2 tblspn
finely cut onions - 2 tblspn
oil for deep frying

For gravy

Chopped onion - 1 cup
tomato paste - 1 cup
turmeric powder - 1 1/2 tspn
red chilly powder - 1 tspn
dhaniya powder - 1 tblspn
jeera powder - 1 tspn
garam masala powder - 1 tsp
salt
oil

Grind together

1 onion
2 green chillies
1 inch ginger
1 tbl spn poopy seeds soaked in hot water for 10 mts

Preparing koftas

Remove outer skin of the yam. Wash and slice yam into thin broad pieces

Heat water in a broad vessel. When it stars boiling, drop yam pieces and remove from fire. Keep closed for 10 minutes. Strain and spread the pieces over a kitchen towel to dry up.

Grind red chillies, pottukadalai, spices for the kofta, together to a powdery consistency in mixie.Finally add salt and yam pieces. Grind to a coarse paste. Keep aside 2 tblspn of this paste to add to the gravy for thickness. Mix chopped onions and bengal gram flour to the remaining yam paste. Prepare small balls and deep fry till dark brown and keep aside.

Gravy prepration

Heat oil in a broad kadai and fry onion till crisp and brown. Add ground paste and stir till oil separates. Add salt and all the powders mentioned for the gravy. Saute for a minute and stir in the tomato paste. Cook for few minutes. Add yam paste and enough water and cook till gravy thickens.

Arrange fried koftas in serving dish ,pour hot gravy on top. Serve hot with chapattis or puris.

You can prepare the dish in two parts. Mixture for the koftas can be prepared and refrigerated for later use. Gravy and frying the koftas can be done together, later.

Chocolate & Nut Chiffon

This chiffon had a soft yet crunchy texture. It also had some moisture filling especially when there are some chocolate oozing out from the cake.

If you are looking for some chocolate cake but not rich yet soft then you may try this.

Recipe for 17cm chiffon tin:

1. Whip egg whites until peak form then slowly add in caster sugar continue whipping until a shiny and smooth consistency.


2. Add in the cornflour and whip until just combine.


3. Mix egg yolks, oil, water, flour, cocoa powder and caster sugar in another mixing bowl until everything well combine.


4. Add in 1/3 of the egg white mixture into (2) until combine. Then add half of the left over egg whites mixture continue mixing. Then mix in the remaining egg whites until well combine.


5. Add chopped chocolate and mix until just combined.


6. Pour into the baking tin then sprinkle chopped nuts on top and bake 40 minutes at 170'C.


7. Turn the cake upside down for cooling before unmold it.

passion flower and blue paint

This is one of my favorite plants in the garden. The flowers are different and unique looking, the dark green foliage is beautiful and as a quick grower, it should cover a good deal of this wall before summer. The vine is on the left in this picture.

Here is the flower - this vine sometimes produces fruit, but I'm a bit skeptical of eating produce grown around all this, um, wildlife.

I love how the tendrils are always reaching for something to grab.




We also painted the back door and awning blue... along with our bench, that was looking pretty sad lately. At first the blue was jarring, but it's really starting to grow on me. I would like to replace that awning at some point.



Sorry the pictures are blurred... I'll be switching to Flickr after this post.

And one more - this is the Salleyway I mentioned in a previous post. We're looking for a gate to replace this old, dark wooden door. This picture, makes it look bright in here... it's usually dark and the air is stale. We pressure washed this past weekend and plan on painting it all a light yellow color sometime soon.