I love the taste of ube-macapuno, the Filipino sweet potato with young sweet green coconut. Problem is, it’s hard to find ube here. I became obsessed with ube and it purple colour right after trying a Goldilock’s ube cooler; a drink which is sort of a sweet smoothie but not as thick. Ube is purple yam (sweet potato for us Southerners), similar in texture to an orange sweet potato, more fibrous, but mellower; It goes well with well with coconut – or at least coconut is not far behind when ube shows up. There’s a few places to get ube here in Houston, but I already had some purple sweet potatoes that I had picked up earlier in the day. The purple sweet potatoes that we use here are known as Okinawan sweet potatoes; they are actually from Hawaii (originally from Okinawa Japan). You can use the purple variety much in the same way that you use orange. The purple’s taste is less like carrot and slightly tarter.
Okinawa Purple Sweet Yam
3-5 Okinawa purple yams (enough to make 1 lb. of filling after the skin is removed).
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup condensed milk
1/2 cup non-sweet toasted shredded coconut.
- Pre-heat the oven to 400F. Bake the yams for 45 minutes or until tender.
- Remove the yams from the oven, then allow to cool for about 15 minutes. While the yams are cooling off, bring the oven down to 350F.
- Remove the skins from the yam then add the filling to a bowl (I prefer to use a Kitchen-aid mixer).
- Add the coconut milk, sugar, and condensed milk. Combine ingredients on low speed for 1 minute.
- Add the mixture to the pie or tart shells. Bake for 15 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, let cool, then top with toasted non-sweet shredded coconut.
