What is Kamal Kakdi?
Kamal Kakdi is the stem of the lotus. The texture is hard like wood and on cooking, it gets a lovely crunchy bite. It can be prepared in several different ways and it’s very nutritional. Read all about it here! It’s not something I grew up eating and didn’t even know of it until I met Arvind. And it took me few failures to finally get the hang of cooking this dish. My mother in law always prepares Lotus Stem Sabji with soya granules and that’s how Arvind likes it. So, I have been just following the same recipe.
Adding Soya Granules to Kamal Kakdi Sabji
Soya granules are dehydrated granules of soya chunks. And once it is hydrated by soaking in water for a while, it puffs up slightly and texture feels very soft. The crunchy texture of lotus stems works brilliantly in the curry with the soft and spongy soya granules.
Fresh or Frozen Lotus Stems ?
In US, the fresh lotus stems that I have found in Asian stores are quite large and the texture extremely woody. I believe those works best for crispy fry dishes. Typically, the Indian curry with Lotus stems calls for the tender variety. So, I just get the frozen ones which you can find in Indian stores. Needs no peeling or extra boiling to prepare the dish.
Boiling the Lotus Stems
The fresh ones are always boiled until it’s soften and then added to the curry. The frozen variety that I get here are tender and feel quite soft. So I don’t boil it sepearately for this curry. I just simmered it for a while while preparing the curry and it got the perfect texture. Soft but crunchy! Now that I got the hang of how to prepare Kamal Kakdi, I am definitely going to try some different versions to prepare it. But this particular recipe with soya granule will be more regular.
