Koorka

“the purest form of love is when someone cooks Koorka for you”.

Image credit: https://adukkalaonline.in/products/koorka

We were having lunch at the office. I don’t remember what was in my dabba, but it must have been something like banana stem, colocasia or some such vegetable which one never finds in the vegetable charts made for kindergarteners. So there we were discussing vegetables and I brought up “Koorka” and my friend P (a fellow Malayalee) and I in unison said “it is so tasty no” and we laughed so much as if saying this together was the funniest thing ever.

Jokes apart, it is the tastiest vegetable ever. Truth be told, it is not a vegetable, it is a root. And I have only ever seen Malayalees eat or talk about it. I personally know of no other community that eats this root. I would like to add here that I am disappointed in the Bengalis, our cousins from the eastern part of the country. Like the Malayalees, they eat leaves, flowers, fruits, roots, branches, stems etc. of anything with chlorophyll in it. They even have their own version of Avial called Shukto. But the Koorka, a big NO, I have checked with all the Bengalis I know and none have heard or eaten it ever. I have also checked with the Kannadigas, Tamilians, Telugus, Marathis etc. but I am yet to find a community outside of Kerala who eats this root. To satiate my curiosity I even checked with the vegetable vendor, he said that other than the Malayalees, he is yet to see anyone else buying Koorka.

Recently, I saw a meme with a picture of a pomegranate which said “the purest form of love is when someone peels a pomegranate for you”. Same for Koorka. It is indeed love in its purest form that drives someone to cook this root for you.

Firstly this root is really small, smaller than the baby potatoes used for dum aaloo. It has some root hairs sticking out of it, its skin is very dark and almost black in colour. The skin can’t be peeled as the surface is uneven and the Koorka too small. Scraping the skin is the only way to clean the root of its peel. I have heard elders saying that the easier method is to put it in a jute sack and rub it with your feet so that the skin peels off. I do not know anyone who has tried this method. Maybe this is from a time when people had enough Koorka to put in a sack and enough time to stand and rub it with one's feet.

But I digress, let me get back to the purest form of love, mentioned above. Scraping the peel of the Koorka stains your hands with the darkest of browns. This tender task is usually reserved for the most gnarled female hands in the family. They sit with the Koorka, scraping the skin and driving the tip of the knife to remove peel as well as soil from the wedges, finally throwing the cleaned Koorka into a bowl of water.

My hands after cleaning Koorka

The stain leaves your hands in a day or two, but everyone will ask what you did with your hands, and when you say Koorka, they will say “hain”. Then you say “Chinese potato”, again they say “what is that”. Most of the other things that came from China to Kerala are called “Cheena Vala” (Chinese fishing nets), Cheena Chatti (Chinese Wok) and so on and so forth (I do know any other words starting with Cheena, but I am assuming they must have given us other stuff too).

But, this Chinese potato is only Chinese in name, its origins lie in Africa. Also, it is a potato only in name too, as it belongs to the mint family. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coleus_rotundifolius) It is a seasonal produce available only in winters. But, why do I go on and on about the Koorka of whom most people do not even know of.

Remember the “it is so tasty no” from the first few lines of this essay. Koorka tastes like nothing one has tasted before, there are no similarities in taste to any vegetable or root. The closest I can get to is a smell. Koorka tastes like petrichor. Once you start eating it, you can’t stop, but considering the quantity, its seasonal nature and the amount of effort someone took to cook it, you somehow find the resolve within you to leave some for others as well.

I have enjoyed eating Koorka for more than four decades of my life without ever having to clean it. It was always cleaned by my grandmother, my mother and my aunty. None of these people are around anymore to do this task with their gentle loving hands and whole hearts. The responsibility of this now wholly falls upon me when my kid sister (R4) from Dubai calls and says:

“Chechi when I come please make Koorka for me?”

“R4, can I peel some pomegranate for you instead?”

No, that’s just a joke that fell flat. I say yes, I will see if it's available in the market, and if I find it, I cook it for her. With this, I think I fill some hole in her that all the money and all the fancy food in the world can’t.

Simple Koorka Mezhukkupuratti (stir fry) recipe from our family:

Ingredients: 500 gms Koorka, a few green chillies, coconut oil and salt

Method: Clean the Koorka, wash it well. Cut it into long thin slits of an inch or two in length. Heat two tablespoons of coconut oil in a Cheena Chatti (Kadhai), add a few green chillies slit into two. Once the green chillies are slightly fried, add the Koorka (do not add water). Keep stirring in between and cook on low flame. Once the Koorka is cooked add salt to taste. You can enjoy this as a side dish or eat it as is.

PS: When cooked it’s texture is similar to cooked potato.