Cooking with Asian roots

169 Pages·2006·10.555 MB·English

by  Sanmugam, Devagi, Tan, Christopher

Cooking With
A S I A N
Roots
DEVAGI SANMUGAM &
CHRISTOPHER TAN
Designer : Lock Hong Liang
Food stylist : Christopher Tan
Photography : Jambu Studio
© 2006 MARSHALL CAVENDISH INTERNATIONAL (ASIA) PRIVATE LIMITED
Published by Marshall Cavendish Cuisine
An imprint of Marshall Cavendish International
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to variations in ingredients, cooking temperatures and individual cooking abilities. The Publisher shall in
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National Library Board Singapore Cataloguing in Publication Data
Devagi Sanmugam.
Cooking with Asian roots / Devagi Sanmugam & Christopher Tan.
– Singapore : Marshall Cavendish Cuisine, c2006.
p. cm.
ISBN-13 : 978-981-261-319-6
ISBN-10 : 981-261-319-6
1. Cookery (Vegetables) 2. Cookery, Asian 3. Root crops.
I. Tan, Christopher, 1972- II. Title.
TX801
641.651 — dc22 SLS2006026063
Printed in Singapore by Times Graphics Pte Ltd
acknowledgements
Author Devagi Sanmugam would like to thank Pushpa Rajoo,
Indhumathy Ganesan, Komala Gunabalan and Bavani Gunasekaran
for giving so generously of their time and effort during the recipe-
testing and photography sessions for this book.
contents
Beetroot 10 Elephant Yam 44
Beetroot Paratha 12 Elephant Yam Pakoras 46
Beetroot Raita 14 Elephant Yam Podimas 48
Stir-fried Beetroot Elephant Yam Thoran 50
with Coconut 16
Konnyaku 52
Burdock 18 Shirataki and Seaweed Salad 54
Burdock Stir-fry 20 Raspberry Konnyaku Jellies 56
Stir-fried Egg Noodles Sichuan-style Braised Duck
with Burdock 22 with Konnyaku 58
Thai-style Chicken Curry
with Burdock 24 Lotus Root 60
Lotus Root and Potato
Carrot 26 Curry 62
Carrot Halwa 28 Lotus Root and White
Carrot Kheer 30 Fungus Sweet Soup 64
Chinese Sweet and Sour Lotus Root with Plum
Carrot Pickle 32 Dressing 66
Vietnamese Lotus Root Salad 68
Cassava 34
Kappa Vevchathu Potatoes 70
(Spicy Cassava) 36 Gujarati-style Spicy Potatoes 72
Kool (Cassava and Potato Halwa 74
Seafood Porridge) 38 Tuna Bergedel 76
Steamed Cassava Cake 40 Vegetarian Kare-kare 78
Cassava Chips 42
Radishes 80
Daikon Paratha 82
Introduction 6 (cid:129) Choosing Roots 7 (cid:129) A Note about Names 8
(cid:129) Spice Pastes 166 (cid:129) Weights & Measures 168
Mutton and Radish Soup 84 Wasabi 130
Poached Fish with Daikon 86 Chilled Pea Soup with
Stewed Radish with Scallops 88 Wasabi Cream 132
Tuna Tartare with
Sweet Potatoes 90 Wasabi-apple Slaw 134
Pang Susi (Eurasian Wasabi Ice Cream 136
Pork Buns) 92
Beni Imo Kuri Dango 96 Water Chestnut 138
Swirled Sweet Potato Bread 98 Thap Thim Krawp
Yellow Sweet Potato (Red Rubies) 140
Gnocchi with Rocket Water Chestnut and Bean
and Parmesan 102 Sprout Stir-fry 142
Thai-style Yellow Prawn
Taro 104 Curry 144
Baked Taro Cake 106 Water Chestnut Drink 146
Braised Chicken with Taro 108
Taro and Gingko Pudding 110 Yam Bean 148
Taro Croquettes 112 Pork Ribs and Yam
Bean Soup 150
Turnips 114 Punjabi Yam Bean Pickle 152
Braised Duck with Turnip 116 Steamed Vegetable
Roasted Spiced Turnips 118 Dumplings 154
Turnip Masala 120 Thai Yam Bean Salad 158
Ube 122 Yamaimo 160
Ube Cupcakes 124 Okonomiyaki with
Ube Halaya 126 Cabbage and Bacon 162
Ube Pancakes 128 Yamaimo, Chicken and
Vegetable Fritters 164
Please pardon the title of this book;
it refers only to roots solely for
the sake of brevity. To properly do
justice to the full range of Asian root
vegetables, the following pages will
also explore rhizomes, corms and
tubers, as well as roots. But rest
assured, these are botanical terms
that you don’t need to know in
order to appreciate all the different,
wonderful fl avours and textures that
these vegetables encompass.
introduction
This book is meant to be a guide,
a help and a launching point for
every cook who, while at a wet
market, has ever avoided stacks of
knobbly, lumpen, soil-dusted shapes
because they looked unfamiliar or
unattractive. We encourage you not
to be intimidated, but to quiz your
vegetable sellers, buy a few samples,
go home and experiment. Widen
your culinary horizons by heading
underground!
roots
choosing
Allways but always choose fi rm
root vegetables; different kinds
may vary in how hard they are
when raw, but all of them should
give at least a little resistance
when pressed. Reject those that
have any of these scars: spots
or blotches that are discernibly
softer or mushier than the
surrounding areas; mouldy spots;
large cracks, cuts or wounds;
bruises and discolourations.
Some thick-skinned roots, such
as cassava, may have peeling
skin but as long as the underlayer
or flesh underneath has not
been compromised, that’s fi ne.
Other roots that are sold cut or
trimmed—such as burdock and
often sweet potatoes—may look
slightly dry at the cut ends: this
is fi ne.
7
The history of colloquial root In sorting out the names to list however, ‘tapioca’ refers to the
crop naming is fraught with these root vegetables under, granules processed from the
confusion and misdirection, we have chosen those which root, and the root itself is known
thanks to the enthusiasm the are either the least ambiguous as cassava.
roots were met with, and the or the most widely used, with
rapidity with which they became the intention of causing the We hope that our name choices,
popular as they spread from the least amount of confusion for a explanations and photographs
Old World to the New, and vice worldwide audience. Cassava, will be suffi cient to clear up any
versa. Thus, the words ‘yam’ and for instance, is often colloquially confusion. However, here are a
‘taro’, in particular, can refer to called ‘tapioca’ in Asia. In most few further details for the sake
completely different vegetables, of the English-speaking world, of clarity and full disclosure.
depending which country you’re
in—and sometimes depending
a note about
which market of which region
of which country you’re in. We names
have even found a decades-old
cookbook that classifi es potatoes
as yams!
8
(cid:129) True yams belong the Americas. Among the names being replaced by ‘sweetpotato’
to the Dioscorea given to Xanthosoma species are or ‘sweet potato’.
genus, in which yautia, cocoyam, dasheen, eddo
there are many and malanga. (cid:129) Yam bean, or bangkwang,
edible species. is almost invariably labelled
Among the (cid:129) Because they do resemble ‘turnip’, or sometimes ‘Chinese
most common each other superfi cially, Dioscorea turnip’, in Singapore and
are the white and Xanthosoma species are elsewhere in Southeast Asia,
yam or water yam (Dioscorea often confused and mislabelled probably because of similarities
alata), which also has purple as each other, or as just ‘yam’ or between the texture and fl avour
cultivars; American or cushcush ‘taro’, in the Americas and the of cooked yam bean and cooked
yam (Dioscorea trifi da); Chinese Caribbean. turnip. Botanically speaking,
yam (Dioscorea batatas); the two vegetables belong to
African white yam (Dioscorea (cid:129) True taro, Colocasia esculenta, completely different families,
rotundata) and African yellow is often misidentifi ed as ‘yam’ and look quite
yam (Dioscorea cayanensis). across Asia. Purple-fl eshed different when
They are thought to be native varieties of Colocasia raw and
to Asia and Africa, where they and Xanthosoma corms, unpeeled.
were first cultivated several respectively Colocasia
millennia ago. violacea and Xanthosoma
violacea, are typically called
(cid:129) True Dioscorea yams are ‘purple taro’ or ‘violet taro’.
sometimes called ‘old cocoyams’
to distinguish them from ‘new (cid:129) In the U.S., sweet potatoes
cocoyams’, which are from the are often called ‘yams’.
Xanthosoma genus and native to However, this usage is slowly
9