A simple and mild Yam / Senai Kizhangu / Elephant Foot Yam roast prepared with frozen yam. A quick weekday fix & great rice accompaniment.
Yam Roast or Elephant foot yam roast or as we say in Tami Senai / Chenai varuval is a mild roasted dry curry which is a great side for any sambar varieties (I love it especially with Vathal Kuzhambu) and also for rasam varieties. It’s hard to find this veggie here in the US, so I always keep a frozen packet of chopped yam in my freezer.
Chopping this vegetable takes time. But with the diced frozen pack, this curry can be prepared under 30 minutes. During weekdays, at times I opt for semi-homemade preparations and this is one among them. I prepare this at least once a week. We all love this simple and mild roast.
Yam-
Yam – is a generic term used for edible tuber crops/tubers. There are different varieties of yam – Chinese yam, purple yams, etc. etc. In Tamil Nadu cuisine, Yam or Elephant foot yam is synonymously used for both Senai Kizhangu and Karunai Kizhangu. It is interesting that there are no unique names for these two veggies when they have unique properties.
Yam & Elephant Foot Yam-
When you search for elephant foot yam, Wikipedia lists the regional names and in Tamil, it’s the senai, and Hindi it’s the suran. Also for elephant foot yam, I found a lot of senai recipes only. When I searched using the term, “Yam Vegetable”, Wikipedia mentions that as Karunai Kizhangu in Tamil. This is the same naming convention I found in Meenakshi Ammal’s Cook and See Glossary also. It has elephant foot yam as senai and plain yam as Karunai. But this Tamil dictionary link has the opposite. Glad, I am not the only one to do this naming research. I found a couple of others who were questioning the same.
In our household, Masiyal and Senai Varuval is one among the common recipes. Senai is comparatively bigger than Karunai and it’s not as itchy as karunai. That’s why senai is mostly used to prepare chips, fries, and roasts.
Karunai Kizhangu is comparatively itchy and it is always used along with tamarind so as to reduce the itchiness. Amma usually prepares Masiyal with karunai Kizhangu. The other major thing is karunai Kizhangu when cooked turns yellowish also. Karunai Kizhangu is also called as pidi karunai. It’s a Tamil name which means yam that can be held in hand/fist. While researching this I stumbled upon this blog and liked her naming convention. She calls karunai as slender yam.
After reading all this, obviously I was in a baffled state. Not sure what to name this curry. So went with the generic one. Y – for Yam curry. But please do let me know how to do you address these two tubers in English. I had one more recipe for Y, but this is more apt for TN cuisine and went with this. (Sorry about the lengthy write up)
Senai Varuval Recipe-
Ingredients:
- Frozen Diced Yam – 1 packet
- Coconut Oil – 1 tbsp
- Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp
- Urad dal – 1 tsp
- Channa Dal – 1 tsp
- Curry leaves – few
- Sambhar Podi – 1.5 tsp
- Rice flour – 1 tsp
- Salt – about 1.5 tsps
How to make yam roast-
- Remove the chopped yam from the pack and soak them in water for about 10-15 minutes. This will help to remove the ice particles.
- Now microwave them for about 8 minutes. We want them to be al-dente. Drain the water and set aside.
- Heat the pan or kadai and add coconut oil.
- Once the oil is hot, add mustard seeds, channa dal, and urad dal.
- As they start to splutter, add the hing and curry leaves.
- Let them fry for about 30 seconds and now add the yam.
- Add salt, turmeric powder, and sambhar powder and mix them well.
- Reduce the heat to medium and let it cook till all the water evaporates.
- Finally, drizzle the rice flour on top and mix well. At this stage, you can more oil and roast them to get crispier yam. I just added rice flour and reduced the heat to low and roasted them for about 10 minutes. Make sure you mix them well every two minutes or so.
- That’s it. Yummy Senai curry is ready.
Notes:
- The above thawing process can be done in the stovetop also.
- Instead of sambar powder, the red chili powder can be used too. Same with coconut oil, you can replace it with any regular oil of your choice.
- Adjust the salt and spices according to your preference.
Pair this delicious yam roast with-
Yam Roast | Senai Varuval | Elephant Foot Yam Curry
Ingredients
- 240 grams Yam diced, I used one 12oz frozen pack
- 1 tbsp Coconut oil
- 1 tsp Mustard seeds
- 1 tsp Urad dal
- 1 tsp Chana dal
- 10 Curry leaves
- 1.5 tsp Sambar powder
- 1 tsp Rice flour
- 1.5 tsp Salt or to taste
Instructions
- Remove the chopped yam from the pack and soak them in water for about 10-15 minutes. This will help to remove the ice particles.
- Now microwave them for about 8 minutes. We want them to be al-dente. Drain the water and set aside.
- Heat the pan or kadai and add coconut oil.
- Once the oil is hot, add mustard seeds, chana dal and urad dal.
- As they start to splutter, add the hing and curry leaves.
- Let them fry for about 30 second and now add the yam.
- Add salt, turmeric powder and, sambar powder and mix them well.
- Reduce the heat to medium and let it cook till all the water evaporates.
- Finally, drizzle the rice flour on top and mix well. At this stage, you can add more oil and roast them to get crispier yam. I just added rice flour and reduced the heat to low and roasted them for about 10 minutes. Make sure you mix them well every two minutes or so.
- That’s it. Yummy Senai curry is ready.
Notes
- The thawing process can be done in the stovetop also.
- Instead of sambar powder, the red chili powder can be used too. Same with coconut oil, you can replace it with any regular oil of your choice.
- Adjust the salt and spices according to your preference.
Nutrition
I am not a nutritionist. The nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It varies depending upon the product types or brands.
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Attempted the Yam (Chenai) fry recipe as above. Used fresh yam and tweaked the recipe to avoid Mustard seeds in tempering. Did not add whole channa dal . Also instead of whole Udad dal in the tempering, used powdered roasted udad dal generously as a sprinkle on top and tossed well, before adding the rice powder for the final crisping. Came out very well !! Thanks for the detailed recipe.
Thank you. Love those tweaks.
Is there a need to boil the Yam with tamarind water because sometime some yams are itchy after they are cooked..
If its pidi karunai or the small yam, yes I would definitely boil in tamarind water. As I mentioned in the post, my mom makes masiyal with karunai and she always cooks it with tamarind water. Senai or elephant foot yam is not as itchy as the small ones. But there is no harm in cooking them in tamarind water. I found the frozen pack to be non-itchy so I did not use any tamarind. I hope this helps.
Yam seems to rule the day! Such an interesting way to make yams :) Great recipe Srividhya!
Yeah true.
I think yam is the star for today. lovely fry.
Yup. Thanks
Same pinch — I made yam fry too and I buy the same frozen yam :-) Using frozen yam sure makes the life easy — love this crispy and delicious curry.
Oh yeah totally. They come in handy. Thanks Pavani.
Yam roast looks delicious:)
Thanks a lot Amara.
Yam roast looks delicious.I should start cooking it often in my kitchen.
Thanks Sapana. Yes please do try them :-)
It was indeed a day of yam!! Yam roast looks very nice. Those frozen packets do save a lot of time when preparing yam dishes.
Oh yeah.. yam ruled the day. :-)
Nice to know about the frozen ones..its so convenient right..
Oh yeah absolutely. :-)
I love yam. Will definitely try your recipe :)
Thanks a lot and welcome to my space.
Sounds yummy with that sambar powder addition. Never tried this roast this way.
:-) Thanks Suma.
Interesting! And it looks delicious!!
Thanks Susan..
Just love this varuval simply with some sambar sadham, such a simple and delicious curry.
Thanks Priya. :-)
I use yam ordinary for karunai, which I came up during a name research at my early days of blogging. And this senai is called as elephant foot yam. This varuval is my all time favourite..
Yeah Gayathri.. That’s what I saw in Meenakshi Ammal’s cook book too. I didn’t prepare anything with Y.. It was too late, so went with this one. :-) Its our favorite too. Thanks a lot. :-)