Many of you might be familiar with the yam plant, but if you are not, then this post is for you. The photo above shows an unripe yam plant – it will look green and fresh. Once the leaves turn yellow, the yams will be ready to harvest (look at the photo below). When I was in India last December, I got the chance to harvest and cook a yam straight from our backyard. Nowadays, it’s hard to find a lot of yam plants in people’s backyards in my hometown. Maybe it’s because people prefer to keep their yard clean, without fruit and vegetable plants everywhere. Maybe it’s because people are getting too lazy to plant and harvest yams themselves. Either way, I felt a little sad about that. Though there is the lack of yam plants in people’s gardens, plenty of yam is available in the markets.
I have already posted the recipes of senai kizhangu roast and senai kizhangu koottu using frozen senai kizhangu, which we usually buy from the nearby Indian grocery store. Here are the links to my old recipes; 1. Senai kizhangu roast, 2. Senai kizhangu koottu.
From our very own harvested yam, I made senai kizhangu fry and kootu. This is a super tasty dish, you should try it.
Ingredients
- Fresh yam —————————— 2 lb
- Chili powder ————————– 1/2 tsp
- Turmeric powder —————— 1/4 tsp
- Garam masala powder ——– 1/2 tsp
- Cooking oil —————————- 2 tbs
- Salt to taste
How To Make
- Take the skin off from the yam
- Slice it into medium thick slices as shown in the pictures below
- Take a steamer or idly cooker, place the yam slices inside and close with the lid
- Cook it until the yam slices become tender (around 10 minutes in medium heat) and switch off the stove
- Open the lid and wait for it to cool down
- Then marinate it with chili powder, turmeric powder, garam masala and salt
- Keep it marinated for 10 minutes
- Place a non stick or iron pan on the stove in medium heat
- Add a table spoon of oil and wait until it gets hot
- Place the marinated yam pieces and cook for 4 minutes
- Then flip them and cook for another 4 minutes
- Switch off the stove, the yummy yam fry should be ready to serve
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