With a vegetable peeler or with a paring knife, whichever feels more comfortable in your hand.Ĭut the peeled ube into three-inch cubes, place in a microwavable bowl in a single layer, pour in about an inch of water, cover with cling film and cook in the microwave on HIGH for ten minutes, flipping the pieces over midway through those ten minutes. Just to be clear, this isn’t anything like peeling potatoes. Wipe the rinsed ube with a kitchen towel and peel. Rinse under the tap and use a soft clean brush to pry loose any soil that stubbornly clings on. Ube is a root crop and, if it had just been harvested, there will likely be some soil stuck on its skin. When you have your fresh ube, you need to rinse it very well before you do anything else with it. How in the world can an ube newbie tell if he’s holding real ube or purple-colored sweet potato in his hand? Go to a reputable seller and ask. I know it’s something easier said than done. If you’re a cook and you want to make ube halaya, start with real ube. I find the practice objectionable on so many levels. I mention this because we have come across videos on Youtube and Facebook, targeted at wanna-be food sellers, where the cooks use either mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes, add food color, pass off the mixture as ube halaya, and urge viewers to do the same to cut costs. That way, we know that we’re making halaya with the real thing. But finding fresh ube was often a hit-and-miss experience as it is not as widely nor easily available as potatoes, sweet potatoes and taro.
We grow ube in the garden (I should remember to take photos when we harvest). If, however, you’re lucky enough to have access to fresh ube, let me share how my daughter, Alex, makes ube halaya. But if you’re in a part of the world where fresh ube is unavailable, powdered ube is a convenient substitute. Of course, it’s nowhere as good as fresh ube. Ube in powdered form is available in groceries. These days, making ube halaya need not be so work-intensive. The still hot ube halaya were scooped into large glass bowls, slathered on top with butter that melted within seconds, and left on the counter to cool. Older cousins took turns in stirring the goopy mixture under the watchful eye of my grandmother. I don’t recall anyone spreading ube halaya on bread when I was a young girl - it was always eaten as a dessert scooped with teaspoons from small plates.Ĭooking ube halaya was done in a huge carajay set over glowing charcoal in the backyard. Whenever my grandparents hosted family reunions, there was always ube halaya - grated and boiled ube cooked with sugar and milk which, decades later, would be marketed as ube jam. They weren’t exactly my favorites as a child but my grandparents and everyone in their generation adored it. Ube ice cream and ube cake have been around since I was very young. In the Philippines, ube has been eaten longer than any existing documentation. The fact remains that ube is very much in. Whether it’s due to the rise in popularity of Filipino restaurants in America or the ube’s visual appeal on Instagram posts, well, it’s anyone’s guess. Ube, long consumed by Austronesians and indigenous to the Philippines, is having its day in the United States.
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