Crispy Arbi
Life’s been a bit hectic lately with a lot of travelling for both of us. I haven’t cooked anything special since some time but it just occurred to me that even everyday cooking is special. A few weeks ago when I made a thali for weekend lunch, I mentioned a thali is like a celebration of everyday cooking. Keep a number of everyday dishes together and you have a special occasion dish! So this weekend I thought I will share recipes of some simple dishes I cooked over the week. Hope you enjoy them…
The first time I had arbi, my mom had to masquerade it as potato vegetable because I was such a fussy child that I never went beyond potato and okra! To her surprise, I really liked this “new kind of potato” 🙂 and it was only then that its real name was revealed!
Crispy Arbi
Preparation Time: 5 mins | Cooking time: 20 mins| Serves 2
Ingredients
250 gms arbi
1 inch ginger, finely chopped
2-3 green chillies, finely chopped
1 tsp ajwain
¼ tsp red chilli powder
¼ tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp amchoor (dry mango) powder
A pinch of asafoetida (hing)
Salt to taste
Method
- Pressure cook arbi with 1 cup water for 2 whistles
- Peal and press between your palms, keep aside
- Heat oil in a pan
- Turn to low flame and add hing, ajwain, salt, turmeric, red chilli and coriander powder
- When the ajwain starts to crackle, add arbi, green chillies and ginger
- Coat well with the spices
- Keep turning the arbi in between and cook open until brown and crisp
- Sprinkle a little amchoor powder, mix well and serve as a side.
Health Benefits: Arbi like potato is a root vegetable, high in starch but with better nutritional qualities. It has 3 times more dietary fibre. It’s an excellent source of potassium and also contains calcium, Vitamins A, E &B, magnesium, manganese and copper.
However, taro root contains calcium oxalates, associated with gout and kidney stones. It is thus inedible raw and must be cooked properly by boiling for sufficient amount of time to reduce the oxalates.
My weekend kitchen 
Hey,
This is the only time I have seen someone else make arbi/arvi like this! My mom makes this type and it tastes so yummy :-)…and that’s how I learnt to make it too! (pressing between palms isn’t sthg that I have seen others do).
It reminds me she also uses another preparation – thin stalks of arbi (if you cut horizontally and vertically in thin strips u get those)..the rest is similar, except it’s not boiled I think.
And this is the only why I’ve always had arbi.. it was only recently that I came across gravy preparations of arbi..
btw can you check with your mom if she doesn’t boil the arbi in her other preparation?