Yams with Mandarins

May 28, 2002

The removal men arrive next week to pack our belongings and ship them back to our Wellington home. Fortunately we don't seem to have accumulated much surplus in the two years we have been living in Christchurch. Maybe another three or four dozen books, some art work. There's not a major amount of stuff to be picked over and sorted through.

I did, however, do a blitz on the pantry. There were a few items in there that missed the big purge when I left Wellington.

When the boys were small, I used to shop at a supermarket where you collected a felt tip pen on the way in and wrote the prices on items as you took them from the shelf. This was obviously in the pre-scanning days. Anyway, I found a can of fish in the pantry with the price written in my own fair hand.

That supermarket has been closed for at least a decade so I decided it was time to pension off the fish!

I also found the odd packs of soups, sauce ingredients and oriental seasonings that had passed their use by dates.

I also took the opportunity to check over all the herbs and spices. These can lose their flavour and oomph if they are stored too long, even if they are kept in dark glass jars. Flavoured salts like onion salt, celery salt, fries seasoning and similar are hygroscopic or "water seeking" because of the salt content. If they are left around for too long, they become damp and form a sticky lump. You've probably seen this happen with stock powder.

Sometimes when I am doing the shopping, I can't remember if I still have supplies of certain ingredients for a recipe I am planning to make. And, as a food writer, I often receive product samples. There seemed to be quite a bit of duplication - two large bottles of fish sauce, four or five chilli sauce varieties, assorted Asian ingredients.

The carton I put aside for son Ben's flat soon started filling up with cans, packets and jars. He was delighted with his windfall as he enjoys dabbling in the kitchen.

When he moved out some weeks back I gave him a wine rack and some of the red wine we had accumulated over several years. We rarely drink red wine so he was very gracious about relieving us of the surplus. It seems some of it has aged very nicely judging from his reports on this or that dinner party and the very nice bottle of 1989 something he's taken along.

As he packed the carton of pantry excess in the boot of the car, he generously volunteered to store some more red wine at his place. I didn't hear him offer to sweep up the leaves, however! Maybe that will happen after I empty the contents of the freezer.

The temperatures plummeted last week and out came the casserole dishes. Winter's comfort foods are also appearing in the supermarket including the winter vegetables.

When we talk yams in New Zealand, we are not referring to the large sweet potato from the convolvulus family (Ipomoea batatas) which we call kumara. The Cook's Thesaurus at http://www.foodsubs.com/Sweetpotatoes.ht... has a good page of yams of this type.

Rather our "yams" are Oxalis tuberosa, known in the Andes, where they come from as oca. They are also called cuiba in Venezuela and iribia in Columbia.

These yams are about the size of your thumb. They have a pinkish skin and the flesh is yellow. In recent times golden yams have appeared in our shops. Today's yams are also a lot less knobbly than the ones my great aunts used to grow. No doubt they've been bred this way.

It is thought they were introduced into New Zealand from Chile in the late 1800s by immigrants. They seem to do very well in the local climate.

The yams don't need peeling. A little scrub is all that is required.

They have a slightly acidic taste. They can be used in stir-fries and are also good lightly cooked so they are still crispish, then dressed with a sharp salad dressing and a sprinkling of fresh herbs or chunks of feta cheese.

They've long been a favourite roasted, to accompany the famed Kiwi leg of lamb. They don't take as long to cook as other roasted vegetables such as potatoes or pumpkin chunks. About 20 minutes is sufficient or they collapse. Not an attractive look.

Here is a recipe that goes well with New Zealand yams. It can also be used for sweet potato-type yams

Yams with Mandarins

500g red or yellow yams
2 tablespoons butter
3 mandarins
100ml dry marsala
4 tablespoons almond flakes, toasted
Light sour cream
Finely chopped spring onions

Melt the butter in a shallow ovenproof dish. Toss in the scrubbed yams, turning to coat them in butter.

Take the zest and juice from the mandarins and place in a jog. Add the marsala (or use dry white wine) and pour over the yams.

Place in a 180C oven for 20-25 minutes or until the yams are just tender.

Serve topped with a spoon of light sour cream and a sprinkling of spring onions. Garnish with the toasted almond flakes.

To toast the almond flakes, toss in a pan with a little melted butter until golden brown. They will colour fairly quickly so watch them attentively and don't let the pan get too hot.