Ube Bars, Zaru Soba, and Inarizushi

Today's ingredients all came from Buford Highway Farmer's Market, the local international supermarket.

I'll start with dessert first, because this is the dish I am most excited about.  It features ube, or purple yam, a Filipino root vegetable introduced to me by my boyfriend's mother.  It's probably one of my favorite foods.  It's sweet and starchy with a much milder flavor than your typical sweet potato.  My parents have never tried ube before, so i wanted to make something simple that would showcase the natural flavor of the ube without having it get bogged down with too many other flavors in the mix.  I wanted to make something like lemon bars, and came up with this recipe.

purple yam bars
crust:
3/4 c butter cookie or graham cracker crumbs
1/2 stick melted butter
 combine the cracker crumbs with the melted butter and & press the mixture into bottom of greased 8" x 8" pan. I used these:

because i had a lot of them in the cabinet, leftover from my last buford hwy trip, but you can use any sort of cookie or sweet cracker crumbs.


filling:
2 large purple yams. cut into pieces
1 egg beaten
1 tablespoon of flour
1/2 of a 13.5 oz can of coconut milk

Bring a large pot of water to a boil then add the yams.  Boil for about 20 minutes or until tender.  The water will get really dark and cool looking like this:

  Drain and run under cold water. Peel the skins off of the yams and discard.  Transfer yams to a large bowl. add coconut milk to yams and mash. stir in egg, then flour. pour over crust, spread evenly. bake at 350 until knife comes out clean, ~25 min.  Finished looks like this:

The ube bars are the most labor intensive of this bento, the other two dishes are very quick and easy.

Zaru soba is cold buckwheat noodles with a very simple sauce.  My lazy recipe goes like this:

INGREDIENTS

1 package or bundle of soba

soy sauce to taste

mirin to taste

dashi or other fish sauce to taste (optional)

sesame seeds

1. cook the soba noodles according to package instructions.
2. drain and rinse with cold water. set aside.
3.  in a small bowl, mix up a hefty splash of soy sauce with another hefty splash of mirin.  add a little dashi or fish sauce if you're into that.  also add a little bit of cold water so the flavor of the soy sauce isn't too strong.
4. either put the sauce in a separate container to accompany the noodles or just pour it into the same container as the noodles.
5. garnish with toasted sesame seeds.

My inarizushi recipe is even easier because I used premade ingredients.

INGREDIENTS:
inarizushi no moto
microwave rice bowl
seasoned rice vinegar

1. microwave rice according to package instructions.
2. mix in a little bit of seasoned rice vinegar into the rice.
3. stuff the inarizushi no moto with the rice.
4. that's all!