Surna Koot (Konkani style Yam pickle)

When I was visiting my mom in Bangalore, my aunt was visiting too.
She is a 'reuse' specialist and I dont mean that in a bad way at all...She makes quilts from left over bits of cloth, laddoos from whats remaining after she makes ghee at home, knits mobile holders from little strands of whats was used for some other dress...She is truly amazing in her art of reuse. Nothing, as in absolutely nothing goes waste in her hands...
This post is dedicated to my dear aunt...



From my list of requests, my aunt made this super duper surna koot. It spicy, tangy and goes with anything...this is the real finger licking good stuff !!
She also made an absolutely heavenly baked fish dish called 'hugga'. It was too good to resist and there was no time to photograph or write the recipe down.
It was just licked clean off the plates...She is visiting soon, so hopefully, I will get the recipe then.
She also made some canttola fritters, which will appear soon on this blog...

From her Konkani instructions, I had to write down this recipe and at times, it got so difficult to translate it, because we use some really cool words like 'khalkhali', 'charchari' which actually describes the sound of the yam when it is crisp enough - now, how was i supposed to get that across in English ?
This is what the fried yam looks like..You have to make do with the lack of 'sounds' here...



What you need -

For the masala-
16 red chillies
2 tsps mustard seeds
1/4 tsp asafoetida
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
tamarind the size of a lemon
1 tsp oil
salt to taste

1/2 kg yam

What you do with it -

For the masala-
Heat oil in a kadai and add asafoetida till it simmers
Add red chillies, mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds and fry till the mustard seeds splutter
Grind the tamarind and red chillies first and then add the rest to it and grind to a fine paste. Add salt
This is the base masala and can be stored in the 'fridge.

Peel the yam and cut into really small pieces
Put these pieces in a colander and run it under water. Do not touch the yam with water - it can cause a real itch on your hands
Fry the yam pieces in oil - you can deep fry the pieces or fry with lesser oil on a small flame, till it gets really crisp

Mix the required amount of masala with the fried yam. This masala would be a little too much for 1/2 kg yam, so store the masala and use with fried potato, as a variation