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Koorka Thoran and Koorka Mezhuppuratti Recipes – 2 Recipes, 1 Post

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Ok, I don’t know how to explain koorka to you guys. The best translation for this vegetable I saw on the Internet was Chinese Potatoes. I have no idea if this is even available in China. As far as I know, in India, you get this only in Kerala. I never used to give it much thought while there but I cannot explain how I felt the moment I saw this packet at Mustafa in Singapore. It was labeled ‘poor yam’ and it was hard to figure out exactly what it was since it was packed and I couldn’t see inside clearly.

For more thoran recipes, check out chicken thoran, raw papaya thoran, and cabbage thoran recipe.

They call it poor yam but it’s not really cheap!

TH thought it was ‘cheppan kizhangu’ or arbi (not sure of the english name for this) and since he loves stir-fried arbi, he encouraged me to buy it. I instinctively knew it was koorka but I didn’t whoop with joy until I came home, scratched some skin off the vegetable and smelled it 😀

Hairy, aren’t they?

Koorka is a hairy tuber that looks similar to arbi but doesn’t have that slimy feel to it when chopped. It also doesn’t make your hands itch like elephant yam / chena does.

Preparing it to cook, however, was a pain. My mom had warned me about this when I excitedly told her I found koorka in the supermarket but I didn’t think it will be this bad. Maybe I didn’t choose the easiest method to do this.

This process was a pain in all the wrong places!

There are three ways you can prep koorka for cooking:

(a) pressure cook it for one whistle and peel it like you would potatoes.

(b) put it in a sack or jute bag and beat it on the floor till the skin peels off. I know this sounds weird but in Kerala, most households follow this method, apparently. I am guessing the koorka needs to be really fresh for you to be able to do this.

(c) Use a knife to scrape off the skin.

I followed option c. Pressure cooking it removes the flavour a tad bit and I didn’t want the final dishes to be anything less than delicious. I regretted this after scraping about 10 koorkas and had a gazillion more to go! I got TH to help me and he did after I swore it won’t irritate his palms like elephant yam does. Sheesh, touchy man, my husband.

Anyway, once I got all of them peeled, I felt much better. The worst was over. Since I couldn’t decide between a thoran and a mezhukkupuratti, I made both 🙂

Par-boiled koorka

Before you decide to make anything with koorka, its a good idea to boil it in some water until half cooked and let it drain.

Recipe For Koorka Thoran

Ingredients:

Par-boiled koorka – 1 cup
Grated coconut – 1/3 cup
Green chillies – 2
Shallots – 4
Cumin / jeera / jeerakam – 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder – a pinch
Urad dal / uzhunnu parippu – 1/4 tsp (optional)
Mustard seeds – 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves – a few
Oil – 2 tsp (use coconut oil for a more authentic taste)
Salt – to taste

How to Make Koorka Thoran

1. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. When they pop, add the urad dal and fry until golden brown.

2. Grind together the coconut, green chillies, jeera, turmeric and shallots. Add this to the fried urad dal. Stir around for about 10 seconds.

3. Next add the boiled koorka, curry leaves and salt. Mix well and let it cook for another 2-3 mins.

Recipe For Koorka Mezhukkupuratti

Ingredients:

Par-boiled koorka – 1 cup
Dried red chillies – 2
Garlic – 3 pods
Shallots – 2 (optional)
Turmeric powder – a pinch
Oil – 1 tbsp (use coconut oil and it will be yummier)
Mustard seeds – 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves – a few
Salt – to taste

How to Make Koorka Mezhukkupuratti

1. Heat oil and add mustard seeds. Once they pop, add the koorka and stir-fry for about 3-4 mins.

2. Crush the red chillies, garlic and shallots in a pestle and mortar if you have one. Otherwise just grind them together coarsely without water. Add this to the fried koorka with the curry leaves and the turmeric powder.

3. Fry for another 2 mins. Add salt.

Serve with rice and gravy of choice – totally worth all that skin-scraping!

The koorka thoran and koorka mezhukkupuratti were incredibly easy to make and tasted so good, just like how mom makes it, that one taste of these answered my question “why on earth did I waste so much time on this stupid vegetable when I could’ve made maggi for lunch?!”.

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  1. Hi Nags,
    I really can relate to what u said. Option C is such a pain. I luckily had a jute bag. With it, I could do the same in like 5 min.

    I really liked ur style of writing. I liked its authenticity. Please continue this style. 🙂

    Regards
    Vaishak

    Reply

  2. Hey – an easy way to get the skin off – tie up the koorkas in a cover – cloth bag or even polythene bag will do (tho , u may need a few of them :)) Just tie it up in the cover and beat it against a hard surface .Keep doing it .Most of the skin will come off. The rest u can peel off wit a knife or peeler.

    Reply

  4. HEY thanks ..that was a wonderful recipe….my mom loves koorka…i prepared koorka mezhkuparatty for her..waiting for her to come back from office and taste it

    Reply

  6. Next time try soaking koorkha for sometime in water. The peeling with knife becomes easier. I do this sometime or I scrub the soaked ones on the washing stone.

    My favorite is mezhukkuperatti.

    Reply

  8. This is called 'kook' in Konkani. I have seen it in the 'Mangalore stores' in Bangalore, where all the fresh Mangalore-specific vegetables used to come in truck loads every Thursdays. The process of beating it up in a gunny sack is pretty popular in Mangalore too !

    Reply

  12. I love this koorka nags, we too do different variety in this , there is sidedish made out of this for rotis, it tastes yumm. seeing this it is mouthwatering, unfortunately it is not available here. Nice clicks

    Reply

  14. My favorite mezhukkupuratti. We add coconut slices to the mezhukkupuratti, and the cruch it adds is yum! I can’t believe you went through all that trouble! Here we get frozen koorkka already skinned and sliced… 🙂

    Reply

  18. hi Nags, I thought both were the same! Yes, Arbi is chembu in malayalam, and taro/colocasia in English. I will definitely find out more about koorka. I do not think we bought/made it at home much. Though somehow, the name koorka reminds me of arrowroot. Thanks for helping me know:-)

    Reply

  19. Hey Nags,
    Couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this vegetable. We get this in TN too. At home we call it Sirukizhangu (small kizhaghu). It is quite elusive in Chennai, we get it only during Jan and Feb (around Pongal).. just love the smell and the flavour. worth all the effort.. of course never had to peel the veggie myself back in India 🙂

    – Meena

    Reply

  20. Wow! Simply wowie veggie this one is. I love it as the mezhukkuparatti. I just want to dig right into the pics…beautiful 🙂

    We clean the koorkai in both the cook and peel way (on weekdays) and scraping way (on weekends). My husband and I fight over this and divide our portions at the beginning itself LOL.

    Btw, i think arbi is also called taro root.

    Reply

  21. Shreya – this is not arbi/colocasia, its koorka 🙂 I am surprised you don’t know koorka!

    Arbi is what we call chembu in malayalam, right? this is different.

    Reply

  22. hi Nags, it is called taro corns (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taro) or colocasia. I love arbi, your recipes are interesting, I have to try. Love the fact that the arbi looks intact and not mashed:-) My MIL makes a deep fry out of it which is tasty but not very healthy! At home we make moru kozhambu with this too, and I have a variation of that recipe in my blog..

    Reply

  25. Sravani – This is not arbi and though it looks a lot like it, the taste and feel is incomparable 🙂

    Me – The veg is too small to use the peeler on, like you guessed, there won’t be much of it left at the end of it 🙂

    Mahimaa – TH liked it but wasn’t too excited to discover this new veg. My bro-in-law loves it though and each time he visits home, mom cooks it for him. I don’t think much ppl in TN have heard of this.

    Reply

  27. Couldn’t you have used a potato peeler? Or does that take away too much of the flesh.
    I have to try this recipe out. I don’t think the Bong knows about this.

    Reply

  28. I've never seen or heard abt this Nags.But must appreciate ur patience to do this."Anth Bala Sab Bala"(meaning if the end is good,everything is gud) this is used in reference to life.I wudn;t mind the pain to do this, when it wud taste so good in the end.lemme look around if i can find this here & try.Wonderful one!

    Reply

  33. Hairy indeed and haven’t heard of Kooka before! But they do look fab after peeling the skin, guess makes a great Aloo Dum too. Dishes are yummy! 🙂

    Reply

  34. hey this is what we call ‘Arbi’ in hindi, ‘Colocasia’ in Eng :). its available in veggie stores in hyderabad

    -Sravani

    Reply

  35. Haven’t ever tasted it but like the way you wrote about it. I wonder if they were trying to say Poor Man’s Yam but I don’t think the plain Yam is particularly upper class. Or maybe it is in Singapore?

    Reply

  36. I love koorka mezhukkupuratti. Chennai also stocks koorka, only it is called koorkankizhangu here….it is bigger….as big as a big baby potato….and doesn’t taste as good as the ones in Kerala, but not bad either. As far as I know, it is only mallus who buy it here as well.

    Reply

  37. This is called ‘kook’ in Konkani. I have seen it in the ‘Mangalore stores’ in Bangalore, where all the fresh Mangalore-specific vegetables used to come in truck loads every Thursdays. The process of beating it up in a gunny sack is pretty popular in Mangalore too !

    Reply

  39. I am hearing for the first time,have not seen in mustafa till now! Looks similar to colacasia(sepankizhangu)…sounds like need to work hard to enjoy,glad that u enjoyed 🙂

    Reply

  41. Nags..one tip ..use a new dedicated good quality steel wool..keep the tap in dripping mode, hold the washed koorka below it, scrape it off with the steel wool..hope that wd b a time saver..keep rinsing the steel wool when peels r stuck.:D

    Reply

  43. Nags..u did it the hard way! I started finding the freshest ones last year, in Indian stores, guess what..it took me two hours peeling a pound of it! 🙁 after which I resorted to cook n peel method! Love the taste n specially coconut oil works wonders …u must b pakka of taste..all this hardwork..ooh..both dishes bookmarked!

    Reply

  45. Next time try soaking koorkha for sometime in water. The peeling with knife becomes easier. I do this sometime or I scrub the soaked ones on the washing stone.

    My favorite is mezhukkuperatti.

    Reply
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