Chinese Potato Dry Side Dish (Kukka Sukke/ Kooka Sukke/ Koorka Sukke)

Chinese Potato or Kooka is a seasonal variety of vegetable abundantly used in southern regions of India. I had earlier posted about this in context of Kooka Upkari here. This variety of Potato is very tasty and used for many a Konkani dishes like Kooka Upkari, Kooka Sukke and Kooka Humman (with Cashew). Some address Chinese Potato as Kukka, Kooka or Koorka.

A typical 'Sukke' is a dry version of one kind of Konkani side dish, with grated coconut, red chillies and tamarind serving as the base. Sukke version of side dish can be made with many different vegetables like - Horse gram, Chinese Potato, Onion-Potato, Raw Green Jackfruit etc. The Vegetable is peeled by rubbing the black skin against jute gunny bag and peeling off the skin part by part. Peeling of the skin is a tedious process and demands lot of patience. Once peeled, you can soak them in fresh water for few minutes and wash multiple times till they are clean and ready to use. If using frozen variety of Kooka, then thaw and wash them before use.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Yield: 2-3 servings

Ingredients:

Chinese Potato or Kooka (boiled and diced - fresh or frozen) - 2 cups

Salt

Water

For the masala -

Grated coconut (fresh or frozen) - 3/4th cup

Red Chillies (Byadgi variety preferred) - 4-5

Tamarind pulp - 1/2 teaspoon

Urad Dal - 1 tablespoon

Coriander seeds - 2 tablespoon

For the seasoning:

Curry leaves - 4-5

Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

Oil/Ghee

Method:

Wash and peel the skin off the vegetable. Wash and boil them in pressure cooker with little salt for 2 whistles. Allow to cool and keep aside. If using frozen vegetables, thaw at room temperature and wash them thoroughly. Boil till they are soft in salt water and keep aside.

In a separate pan, heat few spoons of oil and saute red chillies, coconut along with Urad Dal and Coriander seeds. Allow to cool. Grind this along with grated coconut to a dry coarse paste. Add less or no water. Add salt as well.

Cook the cooked Chinese Potato pieces along with the ground masala for 5-10 minutes with little water, simmer on low flame for cooking. Turn off flame once done. Heat oil in a separate pan, add mustard seeds and upon popping, add curry leaves. Turn off flame and pour this seasoning on the cooked Chinese potato and masala mix, cover with a lid. Mix well while serving, serve hot with Daali Thoi.