Cooking With Colocasia

There are countless varieties of Colocasia in our region. But this one
pictured above with droplets of rain, happens to be my favourite. Why?
Because this variety does not cause any irritation or burning of the
tongue and throat. If not cooked properly, consuming other cultivars
can be a most unpleasant experience.

Locally known as Neel kosu, it grows to a height of 5 ft. or so. The
stems are a deep purple. It does well in full sun too but mine has
partial shade. A south-east Asian native, this is a popular vegetable.








Edible and non-edible varieties grow side by side. Ignore the haphazard
planting, and the weeds!!












The stems can be made into a delicious dish, after chopping them
into smaller pieces. I usually cook with green chillies, onions,
garlic, coriander, salt, tomatoes,cumin, and ginger paste. My
favourite garnish? Chopped culantro/serrated coraiander.










The leaves can be fried in a batter of chick-pea or gram flour. I
made some today and they vanished in a jiffy! Rice flour also
works out well. You need to make a batter with the flour and
add salt, chilli powder, coriander and cumin powder. You can add
more masala (spices) but even with these basics, they taste good.

Remove the hard portion from the centre of the leaf and cut it into
two or four pieces, depending on the size of the leaf. Rub the batter
on the inverted side and fold as shown in the photo. Secure with a
toothpick. Dip the folded leaves in the batter and shallow fry in oil.





Embellishments, in order to enhance the look of a particular dish
may be attractive, but sometimes they take away the attention from
the main object of discussion. Keeping that in mind, there's no
garnish here. Just the folded leaf, fried to a golden brown.