Pe (prounced pay) is a favoite in my house it tends to be a little on the sour side and it makes a wonderful sambar. Do you remember my vegetable sambar post? I put the lotus root in there. It is also crunchy even when it is done. Also it is eaten in many Asian countries. Mr. Riaz was talking about it one day a vegetable that is long and sour. I asked him after I put it in the sambar and then with this curry if this was it and he said that is the one.
I put in my blender 1 tomato I had cut in to pieces with 1/4 cup of water so it would work very nicely with 2 cloves of garlic and 1 slice of ginger that has been peeled and washed and blended everything in to a nice purè.
I added I pinch of cumin and coriander seeds to my mortar and pestle and ground them in to a coarse powder.
I took out a clean pot and I added 1 cooking spoon of olive oil, 1 pinch of turmeric, hing, garam masala, pink salt and red chili powder then added the ground masala from my mortar and pestle. I added the tomato purè mixture and made it nearly like fried stew consistancy.
The only way to get lotus root here in Chicago, Illinois, USA is to either get it in a can or frozen. You are very lucky if you can get it fresh. However I have seen fresh banana flower but we will talk about that in a later post. The frozen lotus root is what I perfer because it is not swimming around in all of that salty brine like the canned version. Even if you have the canned version is take it drain it and rince it but it really doesn’t taste the same.
I have been pretty spoiled on my grandfather’s cooking because he used frozen vegetables if fresh was not available and he always cooked German food nothing more. I just do not eat out of cans so much.
I added the lotus root to the pureed tomato curry base and added 1/2 cup of water and let it cook for 30 minutes on low. For this you want a thick curry and if it is a little thin just add 1 tsp of tomato paste and that would thicken it up. Garnish with cilantro. P.S. This also can be cooked in an intant pot and the like by adding the olive oil while on sautè function on high then add hing, masala, pink salt, the mixed tomato purè and cook for a minute, add the lotus root, press cancel, select pressure cook on high, add 1 cup of water and close and set time for 15 minutes then press quick release button.
This is served over hot rice, chapati or naan.
