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Chena Kadi is a tangy stew where the yam is cooked with a tamarind and finally flavored with lemon. The Chenai (Suran) is pressured cooked with Chana Dal and further cooked in the Tamarind Juice along with Green Chili and Ginger. Finally it seasoned with coconut and lemon Juice. Chena (Elephant Yum) is a common vegetable in Tamil Nadu.

This is one of the cheap vegetable and can be stored for many days without refrigeration. If Yum is not cooked properly, then it may give the itching sensation in your inner mouth. It also gives the itching sensation when you cut this vegetable. Apply some oil in your hand to prevent this. But this is very tasty vegetable and many recipes can be made out of it.

One of my other favorite recipe with Chena is "Chena Masiyal". In chena masiyal, we cook chena with toor dal and mush it roughly and then add tempering and finally add the lemon juice. The only tangy ingredient in Chena Masiyal is Lemon. But here in Chena Kadi, we can only tamarind and the dal we use is Bengal gram (Chana Dal) instead of toor dal.

Table of Contents

Recipe Card

Method with Step by Step picture:

- Soak the tamarind in water for 5 minutes and extract the juice.

- Chop the chenai into small cubes. Take the chopped chenai and channa dal in a vessel. Add water to soak the chenai and add a pinch of turmeric and take this to the pressure cooker.

- Pressure cook the channa dhal along with chenai and keep it aside. Give minimum 3 whistles for Chenai to cook in the pressure cooker.

- Pour the oil in the pan and add the mustard seeds. Once the mustard seeds starts to sputter add green chillies and crushed ginger and fry for 10 seconds

- Add tamarind extract and salt and allow it to boil for 5 minutes to get rid off the raw smell of tamarind juice. Then add the cooked dhal and chenai in a pan and mix well and allow it to boil in medium flame for 5 minutes