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Method Carefully remove the skin from the yam with a sharp knife and parboil it, ensuring that it doesn’t overcook and become mushy. Slice it in about an inch-thick flat ‘fillets’ and then bite-sized chunks. Heat oil in a pan, put the onions in it and stir-fry till lightly browned then put in the tomatoes and continue to stir-fry till blended well. Sprinkle the powdered spices along with the salt and the zimikand mix well gently and finally add the capsicum. Continue cooking till the capsicum acquires a light glaze but doesn’t lose its crunchy bite.
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The
yam that goes by the name of suran is aka zimikand and
is a vegetable that lends itself to a great variety of uses. It can be
paired with fresh or frozen green peas to provide a refreshingly
different gravy dish or shaped into a shakahari shami kebab that
mimics its meaty cousin almost perfectly. Good friend Jiggs Kalra once
accorded it the pride of place in the menu of Dilli ka Aangan, the
Indian restaurant at the Hyatt in the Capital, and name named it very
aptly tohfa-e zamin — gift of the earth. There is a
misconception that it is difficult to handle and time consuming to
cook. On the contrary, the kand ‘absorbs’ the flavours of
spices wonderfully, can be substituted for or used to ‘stretch’
paneer and can be conveniently used in a myriad recipes if preboiled.
We have enjoyed it even as pasanda curry! Needless to add, we were
thrilled to encounter it in a semi-karhahi avatar when a
bachelor friend who loves to tinker in kitchen rustled it up in a
jiffy as Suran Simlewali.