Lotus Root Gravy

Kamal Kakadi ki Rasedar Sabji

Once i had been to my freinds house for dinner, she being from Meerut, India had a very good idea of cooking the Lotus Root.She had made a mix vegetable curry in which she had added this ingredient & my husband became die hard fan of this sabji especially he loved the taste of Kamal kakdi. And i had to try it so i started making it on a regular basis.

About Lotus Root

Lotus roots or kamal kakri are eaten all over Asia. In north India, they are cooked either in a curry form or like a dry form.In some parts cooks, stuff lotus root canals with meat or spices and then cook them whole, in an oven. You can also add them in other vegetable curries or Nonveg curries. If buying fresh, select the ones with both ends unbroken, as the broken ones often have a lot of mud and rubbish inside. Tinned ones are also very good, but the flavour is not the as good as that of fresh ones. I generally buy the fozen ones from Indian store, as per the manufacturer these are freshly cut and frozen. I don't how far it is true but it has similar taste as that of fresh ones we get in India. So after searching through lots of websites for different ways of making this sabji, i invented my own recipe one day & my hubby loved it, the recipe is as follows,

Ingredients

•	340 gm. frozen lotus roots(i.e. 1 packet)
•	2 medium peeled and cut into 4-6 pieces each
•	1 large onion roughly chopped
•	1/2 inch piece of ginger, peeled
•	2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled (optional)
•	2 medium tomatoes, chopped finely or 200gm. tinned tomatoes.
•	1 tbs. cooking oil
•	1 tsp. cumin seeds
•	1 tbp of Ginger Garlic paste
•	1 pinch Asafoetida 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
•	1/4 tsp. chilli powder or more if you prefer spicy
•	1 tsp. of coriander powder
•	Salt to taste
•	1/2 tsp of Punjabi garam masala or Chole masala
•	1 tbs. chopped coriander leaves for garnish

Instructions

1.	If you are using fresh ones then w ash and scrap the skin & Slice into 1/2 to 1 cm thick rings
2.	Steam or boil them for 5-6 minutes in a microwave & then drain if you are very health concious, otherwise i generally fry them as it takes lot of time to cook.( If frying then drain the oil by putting them on a paper towel). Sometimes to fasten the cooking process i also fry or boil the potatoes which ever is convinent.
3.	Grind together onions, ginger and garlic in a food processor or chop/grate very finely by hand .
4.	In the same pan in which you have fried the roots, add cumin seeds and a pinch of asafoetida powder and let the seeds splutter.
5.	Add onion, ginger and garlic paste and fry until golden to dark brown (not burnt).
6.	Add chilli powder fry for a min ( as it gives nice red color to the curry) & then add all the other spices, except garam masala and stir for 10 seconds, to release flavours. Do not burn.
7.	Add tomatoes and stir fry, until oil separates at the edges.
8.	Add prepared lotus roots and potatoes, stir fry for a minute. Add 1 cup of water, more if you like thinner gravy.
9.	Boil briskly for a couple of minutes and then simmer for 10 minutes or until roots are tender.
10.	Stir in garam masala.
11.	Adjust salt and chillies to your own taste.
12.	Turn heat off and add fresh coriander leaves. Few Suggestion:- Serving with plain roti is fine but the curry tastes better with paratha or puri. If you don't like very spicy curry you can add 1 tsp. of sweet paprika powder instead of red chilli powder or reducing the qty of it to get red color. You can also add little milk or yogurt to give richer look to the curry.