TRAVELS (and more) WITH CECILIA BRAINARD: Philippine Cooking: Ube Halaya or Purple Yam Dessert

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Philippine Cooking: Ube Halaya or Purple Yam Dessert

In the Philippines, we used to eat Purple Yam or Ube, a root with dense purple flesh. Sometimes this was boiled; sometimes this was added in other dishes. It had a distinctive pleasant taste, which I can't really describe beyond saying I could taste the forest in it.

Ube can be found in halo-halo, ginata-an, ice cream, cakes. I like Ube a lot, in fact.

Our cook used to make a favorite dessert, Ube Halaya, by boiling the Ube root, mashing it, and adding milk and sugar. The texture of Ube Halaya is like thick custard, and you use a teaspoon to eat it. It's sweet with the lovely little Ube solids that surprise you.

One can find powdered Ube at Filipino markets --- and to my surprise --- Amazon.com. Search "powdered purple yam ube."

Here is a simple recipe for Ube Halaya that I've had for years:

Ube Halaya

Ingredients
1 cup powdered Ube
3 cups water or evaporated milk
1 can condensed milk
1/2 - 3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Add water or milk to Ube in small amounts, stirring (over low fire) after each addition. Add condensed milk and sugar. Transfer mixture into shallow pan and heat over low flame while stirring until it forms a thick paste. Transfer Ube Halaya into buttered platter. Spread butter on top. Cool and serve.

P.S. - I don't add butter on top. The dessert is rich enough as is, no need to add calories!

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's official website is ceciliabrainarddotcom. She is the award-winning author and editor of 22 books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, Selected Stories, Vigan and Other Stories, and more. She edited Growing Up Filipino 1, 2, & 3, Fiction by Filipinos in America, Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, and other books.. Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish; and many of her stories and articles have been widely anthologized. Cecilia has received many awards, including a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has lectured and performed at UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She has served in the Board of literary arts groups such as PEN, PAWWA (Pacific Asian American Writers West), among others.