Crispy lotus stem

Crispy lotus stem

As unbelievable as it may sound, I rarely have food cravings. Although I am one of the most passionate people I know, when it comes to food, I have the surprising ability to not get bored of eating the same simple food over and over again. For example, I ate amaranth flakes and milk for breakfast for almost 2 years, savory oats for another couple years, I had the same juice for lunch for months, without a break, and I would rather not recount the number of times I have had the same tomato rice for dinner when I was busy writing my thesis – Please don’t judge..

Every once in a while, I get hooked on a new dish and I crave for it. And a phase starts!! One such dish is asian style crispy lotus stem. A couple restaurants in Pune have this on the menu, and I knew I had to ace this dish when all our dinner plans revolved around these two restaurants, just because I had to have crispy lotus stem. Because, eating out seemed like a waste of cheat meals, if I couldn’t have my favorite!

One summer evening, when my husband was traveling for work, I tried making it and it was bang on! I felt guilty to enjoy it alone, without him – it was that good!

So here it is – the perfected crispy lotus stem recipe – I have made it at least a 50 times in the last few months and it has never failed to wow me and family and friends and whoever tasted it!

This recipe normally serves 4 people as a side dish. The first few times you make it, it will only serve 1 or 2 people max, haha!

For the crispy lotus stem chips:

2 lotus stems (about 1 foot each) – the good news? – you can use the packaged frozen lotus stem that you get in Indian grocery stores in US and it works equally well!!

Corn flour – requires about ¼ cup

Oil for frying

For the sauce:

1 tbsp oil

1/2 tsp heaped, freshly crushed garlic

1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste

1 green chilli – chopped (keep it whole with a slit, if you don’t want to make it too spicy)

1 tbsp dark soya sauce

1 tbsp sriracha sauce

2 tbsp tomato ketcup

1 tsp water – if needed

1 tsp sesame seeds

Chopped cilantro

2-3 stalks of green onion thinly sliced

Procedure:

• The prep is a little time consuming, but follow it diligently, and you will not be disappointed with the result.
• Wash, Peel the lotus stems, cut the ends and wash under running water thoroughly to clean them
• Thinly slice the stems on a mandolin and soak the slices in water for an hour or so to remove the dirt stuck in the holes. Soaking in water also prevents browning of the slices
• Drain the water and lay the slices on layers of paper towel (I keep a cloth napkin or newspaper layered with paper towels for better results) to drain the excess water. I normally keep it under the fan for about 10-15 minutes to let it dry well.
• If using packaged frozen lotus stem, cut it thin slices and lay over a kitchen towel to dry.

• Once the slices are dry, heat oil in a pan for frying
• Lay the dried slices in a dish and dust with corn flour till its coated lightly from all sides with the dry flour.
• You can see in the picture, a slice of lotus stem well dusted with the corn flour

• Once the oil is hot, put a bunch of slices coated with corn flour at a time. Don’t worry if they seem to be sticking together, if you followed the above procedure to the T, they will not stick permanently. They come apart effortlessly after they cool off
• Fry till golden brown and remove on a dish lined with paper towels – if its not fully fried till its golden brown, they will remain chewy. When golden brown they are crunchy.
• See below a picture of a perfectly fried golden chip

• Lotus stem chips are ready! At this point you can enjoy them as is or with some dry seasonings (chilli powder, salt, chat masala, etc) – I end up eating a bunch here :/
• They are irresistibly delicious even at this stage, but tossing them in an Asian sauce takes them to a whole other level!

For the sauce:

• Heat oil in a pan
• Add the ginger garlic paste, crushed garlic, chopped green chilli, when the oil it not too hot.

• Immediately add the sauces (soya, ketchup and sriracha) and let it all sizzle for a few seconds, add a touch of water if teh mixture seems too dry, this can happen if your sauces have been sitting in the fridge for a while.
• Add the crispy fried lotus stem chips and toss
• Turn off the heat and add the chopped green onions, cilantro and sesame seeds – serve warm

You can try different sauces for tossing the lotus stem chips. Here are some ideas:

1. Chinese style – fry green chilli, crushed ginger and carlic and some chopped onions, add chilli sauce+soya sauce+ketchup and crushed black pepper
2. Thai style – sriracha+ketchup+very little soy+fish sauce (if you like), add some crispy thai basil at the end
3. South Indian style – tempering (oil+mustard seeds+asafetida+turmeric+curry leaves) with sambar masala, finished with some shredded coconut and cilantro
4. Sweet-spicy habanero – Habanero sauce+tomato ketchup+honey, finish with sesame seeds and green onions.
5. sweet sriracha, Honey barbecue, spicy buffalo…?

The possibilities are endless and you will realize why making this crispy lotus stem is so addictive. I hope you enjoy making and devouring this!!