Arbi goes commonly by the name of taro root or colocasia. It is a starchy root vegetable and is high in fibre content. In South India, arbi is prepared in the traditional style with a bit of tempering and turmeric and letting it crisp in oil till it achieves a beautiful golden colour.
This time I decided to try the North Indian gravy based dish using colocasia called Dum Arbi. This is a delectable gravy dish cooked in a spicy yogurt base and goes well with rotis or dal and rice.
Recipe Details :
Serves: 4 pax
Time: 45 mins
Difficulty: Medium
Ingredients :
- 500 gms of Arbi
- 2 medium sized onions, finely chopped
- 2 tomatoes puréed
- 1 garlic pod, finely minced (optional)
- 2 tsp ginger, finely grated
- 1 tsp red chilli powder
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp kasuri methi
- A pinch of asafoetida (optional)
- 1/2 cup yogurt
- 1 tbsp of oil
- 1 green chilli, finely chopped
- Oil for deep frying
- Salt to taste
- Coriander leaves, finely chopped for garnish
Method:
- Wash the arbi nicely so that the mud is washed away. Add the arbi in a pressure cooker with lightly sated water (enough to cover) for 3 whistles on medium flame. Switch off the flame once the whistles are done.
- Wait for the cooker to come to room temperature. Upon cooling, open the cooker and peel off the skin of the arbi.
- Cut the arbi into equal cubes, it will be a bit slippery, so cut with a blunt knife if required.
- Cool the vegetables for a few minutes.
- Heat oil in a pan for deep frying. Add the arbi cubes in this pan and fry them till golden brown outside and remove them on an absorbent paper and keep them aside.
- Now in another pan, take 1 tbsp of oil and add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds and asafoetida.
- Add chopped garlic, green chilli and onion and sauté it till the onions become translucent.
- Add ginger and tomato purée and again sauté it for 3 minutes. Add red chilli powder, turmeric powder and garam masala and saute it till oil separates.
- Add the yogurt now, mix it well and stir it continuously in the pan till it comes to boiling point. To balance consistency, add water (around 1/4 cup) to boil the gravy again – keep stirring it at this stage.
- Now add the fried arbi cubes, salt and mix it well so that the cubes get coated uniformly with this gravy. Cover it with a lid and cook it for 5 minutes on low flame.
- Switch off the flame, garnish with coriander leaves and serve it hot.
Tips:
- Fry the arbi in batches – do not overcrowd the pan.
- You can shallow fry too , as long as you cut the arbi into small cubes.
3 responses to “Dum Arbi / Colocasia Curry”
Looks really delcious deepa, never tried arbi in this way. I miss eating arbi so much as it’s hard to get good Arbi in the city I live and I am not a big fan of frozen arbi, I guess it gets sloppy.
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Thanks Anjali. This is definitely better with the actual vegetable instead of the frozen version. You don’t get it in the Indian vegetable marts too?
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Not all shops have it.. the version once I got was the fat big ones and they were very hard as compared to the small ones which we get in India.. But if I get my hands on them will surely try this 😊😊
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