Recipe credit: Darshana Muzumdar
Serves 4 people as a part of an Indian meal.
Important: Always rub oil on your hands before handling yam even if it is dry. Wash the yam and let it dry before handling it otherwise it causes itching. Remove the peel with a knife and grate or chop as required.
Ingredients
- ¼ kg suran/yam
- ¼ cup grated fresh coconut
- 2 or 3 green chilies (adjust as per taste) slit or chopped
- ½ tsp mustard seeds
- ½ cup cashews soaked in water for an hour
- Juice of 1 or 2 limes
- 1 tbsp coconut or groundnut oil for frying the suran (use more if necessary)
- Salt to taste
- Coconut or groundnut oil to apply on your hands
Method
- Do not handle suran (yam) without following these instructions or else you will end up with a lot of itching: Wash and dry your hands well. Apply oil on your hands and only then remove the outer hard covering of the suran with a knife. Wash and dry the suran well.
- Grate or chop finely the peeled, washed and dried suran and shallow fry it in hot oil till it is crisp. Transfer this on to a paper kitchen towel or tissue placed on a plate to absorb as much oil as possible.
- Put the coconut in a blender jar.
- Rinse and drain the soaked cashews and add them to the coconut in the jar.
- Heat oil in an iron tempering ladle. Add mustard seeds and let them pop.
- Add chillies and fry them till they change colour and become lighter.
- Add these to the coconut and cashews in the jar, add the lime juice and grind them all to a fine consistency with as little water as possible.
- To preserve the crispness of the yam, add the ground masala and salt to the yam in a serving bowl and mix gently just before serving.
For the Whole-Food Plant-Based (WFPB) version:
- Steam the grated suran/yam and green chillies with a little water instead of frying it.
- Do not use oil. Heat an iron tempering ladle. Add mustard seeds and dry roast them till they pop.
- Proceed as above with the rest of the recipe.