Venti Talasani

               Stem of colocasia leaves is called as venti in Konkani. Venti talasani is a side dish prepared by cooking the stem and giving it a generous tempering with garlic and red chillies in ghee/oil. Apart from Konkani’s other communities also use the stem to prepare tasty curries according to their taste. You would have come across ventiye gashi or Alvathi which is prepared with the stem.
This is a very simple dish which can be prepared in just few steps. The flavor of the stem and the garlic merge well and gives a wonderful taste to this curry. Today I have used the black variety colocasia stem which is available during rainy season. But nowadays people grow this in their backyard too. This black variety is very good for post delivery woman. Normally this is given to them on the third day after their delivery. This can be prepared with the green variety stem too. So need not worry that you didn’t find this red variety.
Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

• Colocasia stem – 2 bowls (skin removed and chopped into 1/2″ cm )
• Bimbul, Ambado(hog plum)  – add 2-3,  OR tamarind juice of  marble size ball
• Dry red chillies – 6. incase serving to a delivered woman then reduce to 2
• Garlic Pods –  slightly crushed 8-10 nos
• Salt – to taste
• Oil/ghee – 2 tsp. For  ladies post delivery – this needs to be prepared with ghee
• Water – 1/2 cup

Method

1. Remove the skin of the stem and chop them into 1/2″cm. Refer picture below
2. In a pressure pan/cooker put this stem add bimbul/ambado (hog plum) or tamarind juice and cook for 2 whistle.
3. When the pan is completely cool remove lid. Add salt to taste.
4. In a seasoning pan add ghee/oil when hot add crushed garlic.when they change colour add the red chillies broken and saute for a while and pour this on the cooked stem.