"Surna Koota (Soorna Koota/ Yam Curry)" ... a medium spiced curry from GSB Konkani Saraswat Cuisine served as side dish along with other curries ... There was a time when it was specially served during ceremonies, but the recent change over in liking of people has changed things and this one is hardly served now, but in homes it still very much occupies it's space ... Yummilicious .....
** "Koota" ... is a medium spicy side dish from GSB Konkani Saraswat Cuisine similar to sasam or tambuli. This is a dish that is not heated and is served by mixing in the fried veggie just before serving. This is done so to avoid the vegetable turning soft by absorbing in the gravy masala by which it will turn sort or limp and will loose its crispness / crunchiness and thereby loose taste. This side dish, a few decades back was widely served during ceremonies or during festive occasions. However, changing over of taste habits of people in the modern era has somehow made many a traditional dishes take backseat in our daily cuisine or habits. In the quest of adapting to westernized dishes we have forgotten our very own delicious dishes and are actually slowly getting almost lost. I myself am not aware of so many dishes that belong to my community cuisine that my grand mother or her mother used to prepare. When I come across some traditional konkani posts from my friends in my food group “Konkani Delicacies” it disheartens me to know we are losing out on so much of good food.
** My purpose of this blog as well as my food group "Konkani Delicacies" is to add in as many combination and dishes from Konkani Saraswat as possible that is known to me, by which we will at least be keeping some of them live and kicking. I urge all Amchies out there not to shun away from preparing our delicious dishes in their homes or at least make a habit of having them at least twice or thrice a week and make our coming generations aware of these dishes. Who knows, they may love these dishes better than what their friends bring in their lunch boxes too. We never know how tastes changes from decade to decade, that which was a fancy then is not so now and will not be so in future, so keep a track of your roots always and see to it that you follow it to some extent. At the ripe old age, trust me, you will be thankful you did so. I have already posted a few koota recipes before with pagila (kantola/spine gourd), chow chow and purple yam. Sharing a common link to some of the kootu recipes shared in blog at the bottom of this recipe for easier access to the recipe. Please do check them out too.
** Here is my recipe for "Surna Koota (Soorna Koota/ Yam Curry)" ... my style ...
** Clean the muddy part, slice them off well and cut the edible clean portion of surnu / suran /yam into small cubes, you can check out the picture posted above for the size of the pieces. Say about 1/4 inch approximately. Apply a pinch of salt all over the pieces and keep it aside for 10-15 minutes. I have used about 350 gms of suran for this recipe.
** We need to fry these suran pieces for this dish. Now there are two ways of preparing the same you can either deep fry them in hot oil or microwave them. Microwaving does not give exactly the result as that you get from deep frying. But, if for health sake, in order to avoid deep fries if you are not preparing this recipe, then you can rest assured you can prepare the same with just ½ to 1 tsp of oil using microwave method successfully. I always use mw method, but you can use any method you prefer, the choice is entirely yours.
** Put the prepared and kept suran / yam pieces in a microwave glass dish, add ½ to to 1 tsp of oil and mix well, taking care to see that the oil coats all the suran pieces in the dish on all sides evenly. This step is absolutely necessary for perfectly fried suran pieces. Now put the dish in microwave and cook on high for 3 minutes. Remove and mix well and further cook for 3 minutes. Once again mix well, if needed ie if you find it too dry you can apply just a few drop of oil all over again and then continue for another 2 minutes and so on till they are done.
** The whole process took about roughly about 12 minutes for me, though the timings from one mw to another differs. Be careful and do not overdo the same. Once crisp and done, keep this ready aside. If you are not comfortable you can do at intervals of 1 minute once your cross 8 minutes. You can also leave some time after that and check before continuing as microwaving cooks the veggie even after the process is stopped for a few minutes. So please use your judgement. Also once done, leave it in the oven for a good 5 minutes before your remove it so that it has cooled down as so have the waves within.
** In case you do not want to use microwave oven for your own reasons or prefer to do the same on gas top which is actually the traditional method of frying, just deep fry them in hot oil on medium heat till evenly browned and crisp. Remove with a ringed spatula so that excess oil gets drained, then put it on absorbent paper for the remaining excess oil to get done with and keep aside ready. You can choose either of the methods. I prefer the MW method, as I prefer the non oily method. The taste does not differs slightly, that’s all.
** For the Masala to be Ground : Grind to a very fine paste 1 cup of freshly grated coconut (soyi) with 3 spicy red chillies, 3 kashmiri red chillies, 1 tsp of hing (asafoetida) powder or 1 tblsp of prepared hing water and a small marble sized tamarind (chinchama/imly). Grind with as little water as possible to a fine paste. When almost done add ½ tsp of mustard (sasam/rai) seeds and grind further for another 2-3 minutes.
** Remove and add the masala to the fried yam / suran pieces and mix well. Check salt and add if necessary as we have already added some to the suran/yam before frying. DO NOT HEAT this curry. This is similar to tambuli, sasam etc. Just mixed, tempered and served. Also do not prepare the masala way ahead and keep as it may turn out sour. This is one dish that needs freshly ground masala to be added to the fried yams/suran at the last stage. However, if need be you can grind and keep it in the fridge immediately and remove the same 15 minutes just before serving, mix and then do so to.
** For Tempering/ Pannaka/ Tadka: Heat a small pan with 1 tsp of coconut oil (Nariyal Tel/ Narlel Tela) or any other edible oil of your choice. When hot add ½ tsp of mustard (sasam/ rai) seeds, when they splutter add in a few curry leaves (karbev/kadipatta), fry and pour it over the prepare surna koota gravy mixture and mix well. Add more water if necessary to get a semi thick consistency or as required.
** "Surna Koota (Soorna Koota/ Yam Curry)" is done and ready to be served. This dish tastes best served as side dish during meals and usually in GSB Konkani Saraswat homes it is served along with Dalitoy, Rice and a few other dishes. This is also a traditional dish often served during celebrations or festive occasions. Do try out this dish and enjoy with your family and friends. You can also serve this with roti or chapati, though I recommend it with dal-chawal for best of taste.
** I am sharing below a common link to a few "Koota" recipes which I have posted in the blog before, do check out the same and prepare that which you would love to relish.
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Thanks.