Baka Khar | Wild Elephant Foot Yam with Dried fish

Elephant Foot Yam

I hope you are aware of Elephant Foot Yam also known as Suran in Hindi, Gandira in Kannada and we call it Baka or Songrura in Meghalaya.

This is a traditional recipe from North East India with wild Elephant Foot Yam that we eat while they just begin to shoot and are tender. While cleaning this vegetable, you should be very cautious as they are itchy, and care should be taken by rubbing oil on our palms and hand before touching it. Also please dont compromise on the chillies as it cuts the itchiness, which you might have post eating. The dish is simply superb, and we have it as sides with steamed rice and boiled lentils or Dal. The dry fish adds a lot of flavour in this dish that will make you go slurp. Please do leave your comments and consider subscribing!

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INGREDIENTS

1.    Wild Elephant Foot Yam

2.    Green Chilies 8 to 10 finely chopped

3.    Ginger 1-inch julienne

4.    Onion 1 sliced

5.    Salt as per taste

6.    Dry Fish 5 to 6 small

7.    Khar or Cooking Soda 30ml or ½ teaspoon

North East Indian style Yam leaf recipe

PREPARATION

1.    Rub your palms and hands with oil, then clean the stems by peeling the outer layer.  Then rinse them thoroughly in running water, gather and chop them into small pieces.

2.    Take the dried fish then lightly grill it on a flat pan, flipping them until light brown and keep aside.

3.    now take a pan, add the yam stems, onion, Green Chilies, salt as per taste, ginger and khar. Stir it well, cover and cook it for 20 minutes on a low flame occasionally stirring in between.

4.    The leaves and stems will get flaccid and if it doesn’t, add little water.

5.    Finally add the grilled dried fish - stir it well cover and cook it for 5 minutes.

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P.S. Please avoid this dish if you have allergies as it might aggravate.