New Year's Dessert

While shopping to buy ingredients for our New Year's feast, we came across a lovely basketful of Okinawan purple yams. I believe they're called 'ube' in the Philippines...It's been years since we've had a dessert using these special tubers, so we bought one. We would've gotten more, but we weren't sure about their quality. The ones we've gotten in the past didn't taste like anything, unfortunately.

At home, I steamed the potatoes until very tender. Took maybe 40 minutes...

Broken open. Check out the deep, violet hue!

The potato is sieved instead of pureed in a food processor. I don't know, but somehow, sieving them results in uber smooth texture that a food processor doesn't quite match. This purple yam was very stiff and dry, indicating its high starch content.

Once sieved, it turned into a very thick, stiff paste. Which meant that it's a great vehicle for cream and sugar :)

I whipped some heavy cream and sugar into the paste to make the purple yam cream. From this, I made two kinds of desserts...

New Year's Dessert I: Purple Yam Choux Cream. Golden choux pastry shell filled with purple yam, garnished with whipped cream and chestnut compote. The chestnuts btw, were given to us by sister when she came to visit. I turned them into compote and they turned out quite tasty.

New Year's Dessert II: Mont Violet. A variation of Mont Blanc. For the base, vanilla chiffon nestled in the tuile cup; whipped cream center; finished with ropes of the purple yam cream, more whipped cream and chestnut compote. Turned out quite delicious!

I'm starting to get bored...I can't wait til school starts next week!