About this recipe
Purple yam cooked down slowly with coconut milk, condensed milk and butter into a thick, glossy, deeply purple paste, eaten by the spoonful, spread on bread or used as a component in other desserts. Ube is the purple yam Dioscorea alata, and it is not taro — gabi — which is starchy, grey-flecked and mild, and not purple sweet potato, which is a different plant with a different texture and sweetness. Ube's colour is naturally deep violet, though many commercial products lift it further with colouring. The cooking is unhurried and mostly consists of stirring.
Recipe facts
- Yield
- About 3 cups (750 g), serving 8-10
- Prep
- 20 minutes
- Cook
- 50 minutes
- Total
- 70 minutes
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Spice
- None
Allergens Contains dairy (condensed milk, butter) and coconut. Gluten-free.
Development draft. This is an untested development recipe from the cookbook project. It has not been kitchen-tested, and the quantities and timings are the author’s working draft rather than a verified result.
Ingredients
The halaya
- 2 lb (900 g) fresh purple yam (ube), peeled and grated fine, or 1 lb (450 g) frozen grated ube, thawed, or 1 cup (110 g) ube powder rehydrated in 2 cups (475 ml) hot water
- 1 3/4 cups (415 ml) coconut milk
- 1 can (14 oz / 397 g) sweetened condensed milk
- 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar, or to taste
- 4 tbsp (56 g) butter, plus extra for greasing
- 1/2 tsp (3 g) salt
- 1 tsp (5 ml) ube extract (optional, for colour and aroma)
To serve
- Grated fresh coconut, or toasted coconut flakes (optional)
- Latik — coconut curds, from reducing 1 cup (240 ml) coconut cream (optional)
Equipment
- Heavy non-stick or enamelled pan, wide rather than deep
- Sturdy wooden spoon or silicone spatula
- Fine grater, if using fresh ube
- Shallow dish or jars for setting
Method
- If using fresh ube, boil the peeled whole tubers in water 30-40 minutes until a skewer slides through easily, then drain, cool slightly and grate or mash smooth. Frozen grated ube and rehydrated powder can go straight into the pan.
- Put the ube, coconut milk, condensed milk, sugar and salt in the wide heavy pan. Stir to combine over low heat.
- Cook over low heat, stirring almost constantly with the wooden spoon and scraping the base and corners, 35-45 minutes. It will thicken gradually and then quite suddenly.
- Add the butter a tablespoon at a time as the mixture stiffens, letting each piece melt in before adding the next. This is what gives the finished halaya its gloss.
- Stir in the ube extract now if you are using it.
- The halaya is ready when the spoon leaves a clean trail across the base of the pan that closes only slowly, and when the mixture pulls away from the sides in one mass. It should be too stiff to pour.
- Grease the shallow dish or the jars with butter. Spread the halaya in, smoothing the top, and cool to room temperature.
- For latik, if using: simmer the 1 cup coconut cream in a small pan over medium-low heat, stirring, 15-20 minutes, until the oil separates and the solids turn golden and crumbly. Drain and scatter over the cooled halaya.
- Chill at least 2 hours before serving. Serve cold or at room temperature, with grated coconut or latik if you like.
The Complete Edition
Ube Halaya sits in the Philippines chapter
The book carries this recipe in full alongside the rest of the Philippines chapter, the pastes and dips it is built on, and the twenty-seven pantry studies that open the collection.
In review with Amazon KDP
Both editions have been submitted to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and are currently in review. Submitted prices are $9.99 for the kindle edition and $49.99 for the paperback. Neither is on sale yet, and prices are as submitted rather than final.