Elephant Yam Tikkis/Vegan Mutton Patties/ Karunai Kizhangu Cutlet

Elephant yam, is one among the favourite tuber we love at home after the famous potato and sweet potato, obviously whenever we go to Indian store, i'll never forget to grab this yam. Thank god we get super fresh elephant yam nowadays and not  the frozen one. Obviously we have various choice to make delicious dishes out of this tuber. I'll always make chips,mashed spiced yam, else pan fried yam roast, but this time for a change i tried making tikkis with elephant yam which i crossed in a one of my tamil magazine supplement few days back. This tikkis are very easy to make, you doesnt need bread crumbs. A simple spiced and mashed mixture of elephant yam with fried gram powder makes this excellent vegan friendly tikkis.

You may wonder Y i named this tikkis as Vegan Mutton Patties, when i served this cutlets/tikkis to my younger one for his evening snacks, he immediately told that mutton cutlets tastes fabulous. I was surprised to hear the word Mutton though these tikkis are simply prepared with elephant yam, i told him its not mutton, he told that colour of the tikkis and the spices i used in this tikkis made him to say as though. How wonderful na, he proved that he is the son of a foodie,hence i named this tikkis as vegan mutton patties. Coming to this cutlets, i picked this pan fried beauties from a tamil magazine supplements which i never fail to check whenever i feel like cooking differently from the routine one.This post goes to CC Challenge of the month.

1/4kg Elephant yam/Karunai kizhangu (peeled & cubed)
1no Onion (big & chopped finely)
3nos Garlic cloves (crushed)
Few Curry leaves (chopped finely)
2tbsp Coriander leaves
1tsp Chilli powder
1tsp Garam masala powder
10nos Cashewnuts
1/4cup Roasted channadal powder/fried gram powder/pottukadalai powder ( dhalia powder)
1tsp Fennel seeds
1tsp Poppy seeds
Salt
Oil for pan frying

Cook the cubed elephant yam with turmeric powder until they turns soft.

Drain the excess of water from the cooked yam.

Grind together garam masala powder, poppyseeds, fennel seeds, cashews into fine powder and keep aside.

Heat a teaspoon of oil, saute the chopped onions, crushed garlic cloves, chopped curry leaves in a pan until the onions turns transculent.

In a large bowl, take the cooked elephant yam, grounded spice powder,cooked onions,chopped coriander leaves, chilli powder and salt.

Add the roasted channadal powder slowly and mix everything with your fingers until everything gets well mixed.

Make a medium sized balls out of this spiced mashed elephant yam mixture, flatten them as patties.

Heat the oil for pan frying, once the oil is hot, drop the patties to the pan, fry on both sides until the tikkis turns brown.

Drain the excess of oil with paper towel.

Serve them hot with ketchup.