There's nothing quite like the feeling of successfully preparing your own mouthwatering meal— especially when that meal features new ingredients. I felt like a "real" Cypriot this week when I cooked up a batch of kolokassi for myself. Kolokassi is a traditional root vegetable eaten in Cyprus and better known as "taro" in the United States. Never seen one? Check out the photograph at the right!
I took inspiration from the kolokassi dishes I had eaten at colleagues' homes over the holidays and decided to cook my own. However, as I soon discovered, preparing kolokassi is no easy feat. First, I needed to peel the kolokassi. This required inserting the tip of a knife into the rock-hard exterior and twisting it sideways until a walnut-sized chunk broke off. I repeated this step over and over until the whole kolokassi had been broken into pieces small enough to cook. Then I mixed up a thick tomato-based sauce of my own creation. Finally, it was time to roast the kolokassi in the oven for well over an hour until the rock-hard root had become tender to the touch (and the tongue!). Having absorbed the sauce's flavors, the kolokassi was rich and flavorful, almost like meat. The process took time and patience, but the results were worth the wait!
