Dec 13 2007
Ube
Uhhher .. it’s snowing ice right now .. The other day I found this from my local Chinese grocery store .. on the southern side of LIE service road in Little Neck, next to Duran Reade. I asked around in the story as how to cook it? Is it raw or ready cooked … no one seemed to know (or cared).
What I had in mind was to mix it with the super-sweet red bean paste. I never found a good ingredient to counter off the canned red bean paste. The sweetness is way beyond my taste. This bag of purple yam or ube might just be the right candidate. I steam it for 15 minutes (below left), and mixed it with the red bean (below right) … hmmmm … not too bad. Anyone knows of a good recipe for this? Guess I’ll have to wait next spring or summer when I see Boyce or the staple of Filipino players on the court!! Boyce invited me couple of times to stay on, joining their cook out, but every time I had something to do afterward .. .. sharks!
This is most likely ube from the Philippines, or purple yam. I suspect it is in powder rather than paste form. And most likely UNCOOKED. Filipinos use this in cakes and other steamed rice/ube concoctions. Ideally, if fresh, it is fragrant and delicious. But powdered forms are a shade of the fresh version…
MM .. Yes, it’s from the Philippines. It’s in the form of a cake (brick).. it became soft after the steam, then turned solid once it gets cold.