Ube macapuno

Purple yam cooked down to a stiff jam with macapuno strings folded in at the end.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (butter), dairy (condensed milk).

Ingredients

• 1 kg purple yam, boiled and mashed
• 400 g condensed milk
• 400 ml coconut milk
• 100 g butter
• 200 g macapuno strings, drained
• 0.25 teaspoon salt

Method

1. MACAPUNO IN AT THE VERY END, off the heat. The strings are already cooked and already sweet; stirred in at the start they dissolve into the jam and all you are left with is a slightly stringier halaya. Folded in last, you can see and feel them.
2. Boil the yam whole in its skin until a skewer goes through, about 40 minutes, then peel it hot and mash it while warm. Peeled and cubed before boiling it takes up water and the jam never thickens.
3. Press the mash through a sieve or work it with a masher until there is no lump left. A lump in halaya stays a lump to the end.
4. Drain the macapuno properly and press it in a sieve. Its syrup is thin and would slacken the finished jam.
5. Melt the butter in a wide heavy pan, then the mashed yam, condensed milk, coconut milk and salt.
6. Over a low heat, stir constantly, 35 to 45 minutes. This is the whole job and there is no way to hurry it. Stop stirring and it catches on the bottom and tastes of burnt milk all the way through.
7. IT IS READY when the spoon stands up unsupported in the middle of the pan for a second or two. Short of that it slumps in the dish and weeps.
8. Off the heat, fold the macapuno through.
9. Into buttered dishes, smoothed flat, and chilled at least 4 hours before cutting.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Philippines · All recipes