mayurisjikoni

No one makes it like Nunu My sister in law sent me some huge arvi paan (taro, colocasia, elephant ears, arbi leaves) a few days ago. I made normal arvi paan bhajia with some and left 2 huge leaves to make a long forgotten shaak (curry). My mother in law Nunu, would make it whenever we had guests over and obviously everyone would pick out the arvi paan and leave the turia (ridge gourd). When I got married and came to Mombasa, there were endless rounds of lunches and dinners we were invited to. One such dinner was hosted by my hubby's best man's family. Since his wife (P) was a working woman, my mother in law volunteered to make one dish to help her out. So P suggested that Nunu makes some paan turia. Nunu made it, we took it to the best man's house, heated it up and put it on the table. My hubby dear takes some, and was all praises telling P that she has made the most delicious shaak. It would have been good if he had stopped at that but no he had to continue and stated that...

Elephant ears?    Colocasia leaves, colocasia esculenta, arbi, arvi, taro and elephant ears are just a few names of this tropical edible plant. The leaves and tubers are used in various parts of the world. I have grown up eating the wonderful leaves steamed. Yes believe it or not but these leaves taste wonderful once cooked in the typical gujarati style. We know it as paan bhajia, but it goes by the name arbi or arvi in India. My all time favourite, these plants grow easily so we had loads of them growing in our garden. Had to have many leaves, considering the size of the family.           However, now I have to buy them as I cannot grow them in my small apartment. The tuber is made into a  dry vegetable or curry , stuffed paratha or even fried in some parts of India. The leaves are readily available in the market in Mombasa and Mumbai but have not seen them in Bangalore. The leaves are available in most Indian vegetable shops in the UK. The ...