How to cook elephant foot yam aka oal

Republished from ECS

As the month of Shrawan begins, you’ll see the cycle-wallah and other vegetable vendors selling a round object along with other regular vegetables. I’ve come across many people asking about this strange vegetable while buying the elephant foot yam, known as oal in the southern plains of Nepal. Oal is a very popular tuber in the terai, especially among vegetarians, because if cooked well, it tastes better than fish and meat delicacies. Also, its curry is a must-eat delicacy during the Jitiya festival celebrated widely in the terai.

What’s so special about this ugly-looking tuber? It can’t be eaten raw, and needs either lemon juice or curd paste, even when cooked, due to the oxalates present in it. However, it is a natural medicine for piles and many other illnesses like dysentery, vomiting, stomach ache, and asthma. It grows well in fallow land, as well, and doesn't need much water to grow.

So, how do you cook oal? It’s simple, but you’ll need to take care while cleaning and chopping it into pieces. You can either wear plastic gloves or apply a layer of oil to your palms to avoid the itching that can come while cleaning the tuber. Wash the tuber properly and scrape the outer layer with a knife. Then, either cut it into small cubes or slices as per your choice.

If you want to go for cubes, fry the chopped onions in ghee till they are brown, and then add the cubes and fry them together. Then, as you cook, add salt, turmeric powder, cumin, coriander, and chili powder and garlic paste. Add a bit of curd and water and cook on low heat. Once it is cooked, garnish it with coriander leaves.

However, if you want to go for slices, boil them and then drain the water from the slices. Then, fry the slices on both sides in ghee. As in the earlier case, fry chopped onions, and once they brown, add salt, turmeric powder, cumin, coriander, and chili powder and garlic paste to it. Now, add a bit of curd and water and make a thin gravy. As it starts boiling, dip the fried slices in it and let them soak the gravy. Once it gets cooked, garnish it with coriander leaves.

The oal curry can be served with rice or chapatis, but it tastes best when served with puffed rice. And if you want to avoid adding curd, add lemon juice to the oal curry at the end, before garnishing with coriander leaves.

So, next time you see a vegetable vendor selling this strange tuber, buy it and try cooking it for yourself. I’m sure you’ll love it!

A ray of hope for sickle cell patients

Pills (for representation purpose only). Image by Flickr user Me.  (CC BY 2.0)

The World Sickle Cell Awareness Awareness Day just passed by on 19 June. Since 2008, World Sickle Cell Awareness Day has been held annually, in order to help increase public knowledge and raise awareness of Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) and the struggles sufferers and their families go through.

In Nepal, Tharus, the fourth largest group in terms of population in Nepal, have a seven-fold lower prevalence of malaria than non-Tharus. Tharus have been living in the plains, which were infested with malaria for thousands of years.

Sickle cell has been found to be more prevalent in the malaria-affected areas, especially among Tharus, and the people with sickle-cell trait have been found to be more resistant to malaria.

Read: Sickle-Cell Disease Has Hit Nepal’s Tharu Indigenous Community Particularly Hard

Sickle-cell disease receives its name from the abnormally shaped red blood cells, like a sickle in appearance, that get stuck in the blood vessels. The disorder, which is inherited from parents, makes it difficult for the blood vessels to deliver oxygen to the body, causing intense pain and leading to complications like organ damage and stroke at times.

As the diagnosis and treatment of the disease is very expensive and not available at local health facilities in Nepal, many families have sold their land and properties to get treatment in neighboring India.

However, a new drug is supposed to provide a ray of hope to sickle cell patients. The new drug, called SelG1, has performed well in very early trials. Scientists claim that it has reduced episodes of sickle cell discomfort dilemmas by 45%. They additionally state that it seems safe and was well tolerated.

Read more.

Look for traditional knowledge if you’re not sure about something

There’s something special about traditional knowledge. Through countless trial and error our ancestors were able to find out the best way to maximise the good properties and minimise the bad properties of plants found in our surrounding.

Since it’s the season of growing grass peas in the terai, I’ll tell you about its wise use – how people cook it into a delicious dish and store it for future use.

Also the mango trees have started flowering in the terai. Within a month or two there will be plenty of green mangoes around and the parents will be asking their children not to consume too much green mangoes fearing the sore eyes. I’ll be talking about a home remedy to get rid of the sore eyes caused by eating green mangoes.

Khesari
Called khesari locally, grass peas are considered largely inedible due to a toxic component in it which may cause paralysis if consumed in excessive amount.

However, it has been a staple diet for the people of southern plains in eastern Nepal. They are easy to grow and can be eaten as green leafy vegetables or can be wrapped as biriya and stored for future use or used as lentils or besan (lentil flour) to cook pakoda (fritter or tempura).

The farmers broadcast-seed the grass peas together with linseed in standing rice crops one or two weeks before the rice harvest. The grass peas and linseed then grow on their own. They neither need irrigation nor further weeding due to their tolerance to drought and capability to withstand extreme temperatures.

Khesari has a special place in the Tharu cuisine either as leaf curry or dried biriya. They cook it together with brinjal and it tastes amazing. Here’s how to cook it.

Grass peas on sale at a local market in the southern plains of Nepal. Though the Lathyrus sativus is grown as a forage in Europe, it's considered a poor man's pigeon pea (rahar ko dal) in the terai and there's a belief that its prolonged use can cause paralysis. Called #khesari, the green vegetable is delicious! Here's the recipe: Cut khesari leaves into fine pieces, cut cuboid pieces of brinjal, get your spices to start with. Heat few spoonfuls of mustard oil, fry finely cut garlic, onion, ginger and chilly pieces. As the onion turns brown, add the brinjal pieces and fry them for a while. Then slowly add the green peas and cook for a while. As you cook the curry, add the spices (turmeric, chilly, coriander and cumin powder) and water and cook in slow heat. Eat the curry with rice but I prefer eating it with puffed rice. It tastes amazing! -------- #grasspeas #lathyrussativus #legumes #lentil #terai #Nepal #foodgasm #food #picoftheday #photooftheday #recipeoftheday #instalike

A post shared by Sanjib Chaudhary (@sankuchy) on Feb 15, 2017 at 5:22pm PST

Chhakarneri

While the whole world, Ayurveda in particular, consider Eclipta prostrata as a hair growth supporter, the Tharus in the Eastern Nepal use it for a totally different purpose.

(c) Shankar Chaudhary

Shankar Chaudhary from Sunsari writes, “When we were children and ate too many green mangoes during the months of Chaitra-Baishakh (March - April), it resulted into sore eyes just like conjunctivitis.”

“The old and learned men used to suggest us eating chhakarneri (Tharu name for Eclipta prostrata),” he adds. “In fact eating this herb cured the red eyes. A thick paste of this herb, applied to hair, thickens it, say the elders.”