“Kooka (Chinese Potato) Tomato Gojju” … Gojju is a simple- tasty side dish from GSB Konkani Saraswat Cuisine that tastes best served with dalitoy- rice along with other dishes during meals … do try this combo of kooka along with tomatoes, it tastes excellent served with rice ... Yummilicious …
** Gojju is a side dish from GSB Konkani Saraswat Cuisine often served along with other dishes during meals. There are many varieties of gojjus prepared with different types of veggies along with either tart veggie or with addition of tamarind paste etc. In my home, we love these side dishes very much and I have prepared them in different combos and each one of them has turned out excellent in taste.
** Kooka ie Chinese Potato is in season now ie from the month of November to February and I prepare it often be it as upkari, gojju or addition to curries. I had shared a recipe in which I had prepared it in combo of curds and here I have used tomatoes and both are delicious in their own way. I have shared plenty of gojju recipes to which I am sharing a common link at the bottom of this recipe, do check them out.
** Here is my recipe for “Kooka (Chinese Potato) Tomato Gojju” … my style …
** Ingredients :
Kooka/ Chinese Potato : 25-30 large sized.
Tomatoes : 3 large sized or 4 medium sized.
Green Chillies/ Tarni Mirsanga/ Hari Mirchi : 5-6 chopped to pieces.
Hinga Uddaka/ Water prepared out of Asafoetida in gummy form : 1 tblsp
(Check how to prepare hinga uddaka at the bottom of this recipe)
OR
Hing/ Asafoetida Powder : 1tsp
Salt/ Namak/ Meeta : to taste.
** For Tempering/ Pannaka/ Tadka :
Coconut Oil/ Nariyal Tel/ Narlel Tela : 1 tsp
Mustard Seeds/ Sasam/ Rai : 1 tsp
Jeera / Cumin Seeds : ¼ tsp
Urad Dal/ Black Gram Dal : 4-5 only
Curry Leaves/ Kadipatta/ Karbevu : 6-8
** About preparing Kooka/ Chinese Potato : Cleaning kooka/ chinese potato is the biggest task. I have changed my method of cleaning, but your can prepare it anyway that is suitable to you. Having said this, cleaning also depends upon the quality of the kooka available to you. In Mumbai, sometimes we get really good ones, that peel off easily while sometimes we don't. So I will add in a few methods of peeling of the skin and you may follow as per the variety you get using trial and error method.
** Method 1 (Traditional) : The traditional way is to put kooka in a gunny bag (Ghoni) and tightly packing it and then banging/ hitting it on to a stone firmly while rotating the bag all round as you go through the method. This loosen the skin and most of it comes off. Just scrub it with both hands retaining it within the gunny bag to loosen it more. This method is not used much now as it is difficult to access gunny bag. Even rice have been started to come in plastic type bags. If you have one, you can sure try this out. My mother used to make it this way and during childhood we used to loved doing it for her. We really did enjoying banging around the gunny bag to loosen the skin of kooka.
** Method 2 : One way of peeling the outer skin is, You can either just use the potato peeler and peel the kooka's using it.
** Method 3 (I prefer) : I soak the required amount of kooka in plenty of water for about 5-10 mins, changing them a few times if they are too muddy. This loosens the dry mud that is sticking to the kooka. The I try loosening off the mud right there in the water by rubbing them between finger. Some kooka are well behaved and peel off easily, while some are stubborn and just don't listen making it difficult. So use the potato peeler and zap it comes out faster than when you run it on the drier one mentioned first.
** Method 4 : Recent method often used these days when in need to peel off the skin of large quantity of Kooka/ Chinese Potato is soaking and washing well to remove the muddy portion of the same and then pressure cooking it to one whistle. Once the pressure in the cooker is released, drain off the water and add plenty of cold water to arrest further cooking of the kooka. Let rest for 5 minutes, the outer peel is easy to remove by peeling method similar to how we do so of potato or alvamande.
** Important step of soaking in water once its peeled : It is very important to drop the skin peeled kooka/ chinese potato into water to prevent it getting discolored. So keep a bowl with plenty of water ready and drop the peeled kookas immediately into them. Once done, wash them in plenty of water, rinsing many times in fresh water and remember to keep it soaked in water till the preparation/ cooking time.
** Whichever method of peeling of outer skin is used we need to pressure cook the kooka/ Chinese potato to soft consistency. For this recipe I have used the pressure cooker method to remove the outer skin so that I need not double cook the same. To get soft consistency I have pressure cooked to 2 whistles, allowed it to completely cool down to room temperature and then peeled of the skin. This gave me soft cooked kook which was very easy to mash with a potato masher, you may follow any method.
** Wash and make a few slits on tomatoes and pressure cook them to 3-4 whistles on medium heat in pressure cooker pan. When able to open the lid, do so and allow cooling completely to room temperature. When able to handle, gently peel off the outer skin of the tomatoes and then cut the inner soft cooked fleshy portion to pieces. Now using a potato masher mash the tomatoes to a soft thick consistency. Add this and the mashed Chinese potato together in a bowl and mix well.
** Add ¼ to ½ cup of boiled and cooled water and once again mash together with the potato masher to get an evenly mashed gojju consistency. Add green chillies crushed or cut to pieces along with hinga uddaka (prepared asafetida water), salt to taste and mix well. Check the consistency and add water only if required, remember gojju is of thick consistency, so avoid excess addition of water to retain texture.
** Note : DO NOT USE MIXER/ HAND BLENDER for mashing either the Chinese Potato or the Tomatoes. It should not be mashed too fine like dal and there should be some tiny granules/ pieces of the veggies left in them.
** For tempering/ Pannaka/ Tadka : Heat coconut oil (optional, you can use any oil) in a small pan, when hot add mustard seeds and when they begin to splutter add urad dal and jeera seeds along with curry leaves and fry for a few seconds. Remove and pour this over the prepared Chinese potato- tomato gojju and mix well. If adding hing/ asfoetida powder then you need to add it along with curry leaves.
** “Kooka (Chinese Potato) Tomato Gojju” is done and ready to be served. Gojju always tastes best served immediately or at the most within an hour or two hours of preparation. As gojju is not cooked it does not remain good at room temperature for long time and if you need to serve at a later time then you may keep it fridge in an air tight container and remove it about 30 mins before serving to bring to room temperature. However, the taste is somehow lost if not served fresh and I recommend serving this gojju fresh to enjoy its taste. Gojju is a side dish often served in Saraswat homes as side dish along with other dishes like Dalitoy- Rice- veggie upkari/ bhaji during meals.
** For Preparing of Hing/ Asafoetida Water From Gummy Hing : Hing water is prepared by putting a small marble sized gummy hing (available in South Indian Stores) into a glass bottle and adding about a small cup of boiled and cooled water to it. Within a few hours the hing will slowly melt and you will get a thick whitish liquid. This is known as hinga uddaka/ asafoetida water. You can store this in fridge and use sparingly as and when needed. We GSB Konkani Saraswat Community usually prepare the same and keep it in the fridge always and use the same for dal, patrado or any other hummana etc. If you do not have the gummy hing or have never used or seen it, check out the picture collage, I have shared the same. Again, if not available, no issues, you can add hing/ asafoetida powder in which case always add it into the hot oil while tempering to get a good aroma.
** Sharing a common link below to all “Gojju” recipes shared in the Blog, please browse through them in leisure and try them out too …
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