What is a knoiki potato?
I think you are referring to the konnyaku (from the konjac plant). Even though is commonly referred to as “a konnyaku potato” because of its appearance, is a tuber but not a potato.
It is also known as konjaku and konjak. But believe it or not, it has additional names like elephant yam. And, did i forget to mention that it is also known as snake palm? After all, it’s good to learn something new every day! So now, it’s time to know a very interesting information about this “konnyaku potato“.
The first thing to know is that they are not even from the same family in their scientific classification. For example, potatoes are from the family Solanaceae and this plant is from the family Araceae. In fact, tomatoes are more related to potatoes than the konnyaku.
This plant blooms during summer, or late spring. It has a very interesting color, it’s sort of a mix between purple and brown. This plant can reach from four (4) or up to six (6) feet tall. It would be really interesting to grow a konnyaku plant. It’s exotic, and it would also be a great topic of conversation.
But the plants aren’t easy to find, at least in North America. But the fact that the plant isn’t easy to find, that doesn’t mean that there are no other alternatives at all. Maybe you can’t find the plant, but you can get konnyaku flour instead.
In Japan and Asian cuisine in general, the konnyaku is normally used to make flours, noodles, jellies, and other products.
By the way, konnyaku flour is sold in Asian grocery stores. I have seen that konnyaku noodles are also sold online. The price is very affordable. You can get a four (4) serving pack for about two dollars (USD 2.00).