Elephant foot yam

Amorphophallus paeoniifolius · Tuber

40 pairings

The elephant foot yam (Amorphophallus paeoniifolius) is the huge, rounded, flattened underground corm of a tropical aroid grown across South and Southeast Asia as a staple and cash vegetable — known as suran, ol or jimikand in India and by many local names elsewhere. Beneath a rough, knobbly dark-brown skin lies dense, starchy, pinkish-cream to white flesh that cooks soft and earthy-nutty; raw or under-cooked it is acrid and throat-prickling and so is always eaten cooked.

Picking a good onedrag

Just lifted, uncuredSprouted, rotting

Cured and dormantThe all-rounder, and the state it keeps in — a month on a dry rack, longer in a cool store: boil, steam, fry, or simmer it into a soured curry.Buy it

CrownScar healed dry and corky, no bud showing

HeftHeavy and hard right through, skin taut

Skin and cut faceSkin dry and tight, grazes corked over, flesh pale

Smell at the cutFaint, dry, clean starch

What to look for, from just lifted, uncured to sprouted, rotting.

Keeping ittap a band

Ten degrees is the coldest hold documented for a whole corm; colder is untested, and like taro it is a tropical corm, so the fridge is for cut pieces only, used in days.

Humidity

60–75%

Dry and airy beats damp here: rot, not shrivel, is the bigger loss. A corm can still lose as much as a quarter of its weight in the first month.

Airflow

Free, on open racks

Cure it first — a week spread out in the shade at about 28°C, until the clinging soil dries and drops off — then rack it in a ventilated, rain-free room.

Preparing