Arbi/Colocassia/Taro Root/Sepankezhangu Roast

Arbi/Colocassia/Taro Root/Sepankezhangu Roast


This vegetable used to be on the agenda usually on Sundays as mom would have a bit more time to cook. She would usually fry it and season with salt and add lots of chilly powder. It would taste the best when still hot as the outside would be crispy and inside soft. I also used to prefer taking pieces from the bottom of the dish as most of the chilly powder would have settled there, hot, hot, hot!! There is another delicious way of cooking this vegetable by adding some spice mixture and coconut and slowly roasting. I like both but obviously the oil in deep frying is No, No! So I did eventually arrive at a compromise.

I tried to get this vegetable at the asian store and noticed something looking like Arbi. Its name was Mukhi and had no clue what that was. I googled as usual and found it was the Bangladeshi name for Arbi. My brother bought some of this nice vegetable from London as I usually ask him to buy some Indian vegetables every trip. Here is more info on my compromise...

½ kg Arbi

1 teaspoon chilly powder

Salt as required

Asafoetida

¼ teaspoon Turmeric powder

Little over a teaspoon cooking oil

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

Wash the Arbi well so there is no mud. Steam it for about 30 minutes. You could pressure cook but I would be wary of over cooking it as it may become mushy.

Peel the skin. Doing this when still slightly hot makes the process a bit easier. Cut into bite size pieces.

In a mixing bowl add the vegetable and all other ingredients except salt. Mix well and rest for about 10 minutes. In the meantime preheat the oven to 180degC.

Spread the Arbi on a foil placed on a baking tray and cook for 20 minutes.

Give the veggies a quick stir just so they get evenly cooked and cook for further 15 minutes.

Remove from oven, season with salt and mix

In a skillet add little oil to temper the mustard seeds and add the vegetables and mix.

This way you will get a crispy outside and soft inside. To spice things up I added a special powder. If you fancy this, just roast a teaspoon of channa dal, a teaspoon of coriander seeds, 2 red chillies and grind. Add and cook for a couple of minutes. This powder is optional though.

Enjoy the lovely low fat roast! This tastes great with Mor Kuzhambu.