Yam ‘Hashbrowns’

Because they aren’t quite matchsticks. If you’ve ever had and loved Potato matchsticks, this will be up your street.

My original plan was to have this topping a beef suya salad with iru a few weeks ago. Courage failed me on adding iru to the salad but the yam was delicious.

I started off with slices of yam which were peeled and washed.

Then grated. The result is a sticky mass of yam shreds. This gets seasoned while the oil heats up.

It is deep-fried for a few minutes, till golden on one side and then the shreds are flipped over for the other side to brown.

Once golden all around, remove with a slotted spoon into a strainer lined with kitchen tissues.

Allow cool, then serve on salads or with burgers.

I’ve made this with both par-boiled yam and fresh – I prefer par-boiled – yam cooked for 5/10 minutes, water strained off, cooled and then grated. The texture is crispier than the fresh to fried method.

I’ve also observed that cooking yam this way enhances the bitter compounds in yam. I am convinced it’s something to do with the sticky compound present in the yam. The children however didn’t notice the bitterness, almost fighting for the last shreds. I expect it’s because I’m a supertaster  🙂 that I get the bitter. Who knows?

Whatever, whichever, this is much loved.

Next steps? Oven-baked with a spray of oil. I wonder what that would do. Coming soon.[wpurp-searchable-recipe]Yam ‘Hashbrowns’ – – – [/wpurp-searchable-recipe]