Spicy Colacasia (Sookhi Arvi Curry)

For day 2 of BM# 5, I have a quick and easy arbi/ arvi/ chamadumpa/ colacasia fry that I made for our weekend lunch and it turned out spicy and yummy. My mom makes really good chamadumpa vepudu (arvi fry) that are crisp and delicious. I’ve tried a number of times, but my curry usually ends up being mushy and not crisp. I think the arbi that we get here are a little too mealy and disintegrate when boiled and I might be boiling them a little too much too.

When I saw the recipe and the drool worthy pictures in Pure & Simple cookbook by Vidhu Mittal that I borrowed from the library, I wanted to give the dish a try. My all time favorite dish with arbi is this curry with peanut-garlic sauce from 660 Curries by Ragavan Iyer, but this dish turned out equally good and can be made within 30 minutes.

Ingredients:

Arbi – 8-10, medium sized

Ajwain (Carom) seeds – ½ tsp

Hing (Asafoetida) – ¼ tsp

Red chili powder – ½ tsp (add more if you want more heat)

Ground coriander – 1 tsp

Amchoor powder (dry mango powder) – 1/4 tsp

Salt – to taste

Method:

• Pressure cook arbi for only 1-2 whistles. Once the arbi are cool enough to handle, peel them and squish them or flatten them a little bit with your hands, this will give the veggie more surface area to brown and turn crunchy and yummy.
• Heat 2tbsp oil in a sauté pan; add ajwain and hing; once the seeds start to splutter add the boiled and flattened arbi.
• Add the dry masalas and salt and mix to coat the veggie uniformly. Cook on medium flame until golden brown crust forms on both sides, this will take about 5-6 minutes.

Serve hot with steamed rice and dal.

Lets see what my fellow marathoners have been cooking up today:
Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Aarthi, Divya, Jayashree, Kaveri, Pavani,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets:Gayathri, Priya Suresh,
Seven Days of Microwave Meals: Monika,
Seven Days of Regional Specials:Harini, Vaishali, Suma, PJ
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Kalyani
Summer Coolers: Jayasree, Kamalika, Srivalli