Magnolias

Ingredients

The Arums are a large enough family and common as ornamentals, but only a few members are significant as food. Taro has been spread by Polynesian settlers throughout the Pacific Islands and as far as Hawaii. It has long been an important food for these peoples because it is one of the few starchy vegetables that thrive in a hot and very wet environment.

Caution: Arums foliage and some roots typically contain large amounts of sharp pointed Calcium Oxalate crystals that cause severe irritation and swelling of the mouth and throat which can be fatal through strangulation. Should you manage to swallow them, they break down into Calcium and corrosive Oxalic Acid in the digestive tract causing severe gastric distress. It is important that all Arums be properly prepared and cooked before ingestion.

Elephant Foot Yam - [Suran (India), Amorphophallus paeoniifolius]
Native to Southeast Asia, this arum produces another warm, super-stinky flower pretending to be a rotting dead animal. Mercifully the flower is much smaller than that of the Titan Arum. The corms of this plant, which look remarkably like old anti-tank mines, are cooked and eaten in Southeast Asia and in India where efforts are being made to develop it into a major crop. It has been seen as canned "suran" in U.S. Indian groceries.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit - [Indian turnip, A. triphyllum]
Rhizomes of this common wetland plant found in the northeast U.S. were eaten by Native Americans in times past but it is no longer a significant food plant.

Malanga - [Yautia (Puerto Rico), Malanga (Cuba), Mangarito (Brazil), New Cocoyam (Africa), Tannia / Tannier (Caribbean), Macabo, Taioba (Brazil, leaves only), 'Ape (Polynesia), Xanthosoma saggitifolium (malanga blanca) , X. atrovirens (malanga amarilla), X. violaceum (malanga lila), X. maffaffa (mangarito)]
Native to northern South America, this arum is now also grown all through the Caribbean region and Central America, and is particularly popular in Cuba and Puerto Rico. The plant is also now grown in West Africa as an alternative to yams and taro (cocoyam) and in Hawaii as 'ape (say "Ah-pay").

The corm is somewhat mucilaginous and cooks to a smoother texture than potato, with chunks holding their shape well. The longer of the photo specimens, obtained from a market serving a mixed Russian / Mexican community, was 8-1/2 inches long, 2-5/8 inches in diameter at the thickest part, and weighed 14 ounces.

Skunk Cabbage - [Symplocarpus foetidus]
Rhizomes of this common wetlands plant, found in North America from southern Canada to Georgia, were eaten by Native Americans in times past but it is no longer a significant food plant here. It inhabits damp stream beds and gets its name from the skunk-like odor the leaves exude when damaged. This plant was very common in the back woods of New Jersey where I lived for a while as a child.

Sweet Flag - [Acorus americanus, Acorus calamus (Eurasian species)]
The grass-like leaves of this bog plant are common in the northeast U.S. and Asia. The rhizomes (underground stems) were eaten by Native Americans in times past but it is no longer a significant food plant. European settlers planted the Eurasian species although the American species (identical to a Siberian species) was already common in North America.

Sweet Flag was long used as a food flavoring and in perfumes, but the FDA banned all varieties from food when one variety in India was found to contain a carcinogen, even though the varieties found here don't contain that substance. In areas where Sweet Flag grows leaves are sometimes placed in jars of sugar as a flavoring substitute for vanilla bean. Leaves are used for their fragrance and to repel weevils from stored grains. The root is used medicinally.

Geneticists now consider Sweet Flag separate from the Arums but a precursor of the type, thus I'm listing it here without apology. Fossils have been found from the Eocene, about 50 million years ago. Illustration Prof. Dr. Otto Wilhelm Thomé, 1885.

Taro - [Taro (Polynesian); Kalo (Hawaiian); Colocasia (Rome); Kolocasi (Cyprus); Ocumo, Cocoyam, Madumbi, Nduma (Africa); Macabo (Cameroon); Khoai mo, khoai so (Vietnam); Laing (Philippine); Dasheen, Eddoes (Caribbean); Malanga cabeza, Malanga islena (Cuba); Arvi, Colocasia (India); Talas (S.E. Asia); Dalo (Fiji); Cara (Brazil); Calaloo (Caribbean, leaves only); Yautia (Puerto Rico); Colocasia esculenta]
Probably native to the wetlands of Maylasia, taro was carried througout the Pacific as far as Hawaii by seagong canoe and by traders as far as ancient Egypt and Rome. In more modern times it has been carried to all tropical and near tropical areas including Africa and Central America. Cold tolerant varieties are grown in China and Japan.

Taro corms (called taro root) are short underground stems rich in starch. Unlike most starchy vegetables they are high in amylose, a starch soluble in hot water and contain 3% sugar which makes them somewhat sweet. Taro is indigestible raw and can cause severe gastrointestinal distress if not properly prepared and cooked.

In India taro corms and stems are called for in some curries as colocasia root and colocasia stems. In some areas the leaves are also cooked and rarely the flowers. In Hawaii corms are used to make poi.

The photo specimens include regular taro corms available everywhere and a giant taro corm often available from markets serving a Southeast Asian community. The regular run around 3-3/4 inch long, 2-1/4 inch diameter and about 5 ounces. The giant in the photo is 8 inches long, 4 inches in diameter and weighed a little over 2-1/2 pounds, but they get quite a bit bigger. Details and Cooking.