ñame

Aliases

Yam, Chinese potato, or Chinese yam

Description

Names have a white flesh and bark-like skin with a starchy potato flavor that is slightly sweet. Name yams are believed to have originated in Africa and have become popular in Latin and Caribbean cuisines. Often confused with sweet potatoes, yams are actually tropical vine tubers that grow mostly in South and Central America, Asia, and Africa and in the United States, only in the Deep South. Real yams are hard to come by and are often replaced with sweet potatoes in recipes. Yams are very sweet and somewhat nutty and can range from the size of a fist to huge specimens as long as 6 feet and as heavy as 600 pounds.

Preparation and Serving

A traditional use in West Africa is to pound cooked name into a paste called Fufu. Fufu is then formed into balls and served with stews or mixed with fish and fried to accompany a hot chile-based sauce called Shatta. Name can be baked, boiled, steamed, scalloped, fried or creamed. The skin is not edible and should be removed. Yams can be used in the same manner as sweet potatoes.

Recipe Links

Name in Garlic Citrus Sauce

Yam Soup with Coriander

Santa Fe Chicken

Cumin Roast Lamb

Caribbean Chicken Soup

Sancocho (Chicken Soup)

Links

Frieda's

Melissa’s Mini Merchandiser

Epicurious Food Dictionary

NewCROP homepage -- Purdue University

'Access to Asia' - Thesaurus -- Institute for Horticultural Development, Knoxfield

The Mining Company -- Sweet Potatoes or Yams?

What's Cooking Panama!

Nutritional Information

Nutritional Value per 100g Edible Portion

Yam	Raw	Cooked
Calories	118	116
Water	70%	n/a
Carbohydrates	28 g	n/a
Protein	1.53 g	1.49 g
Fat	0.17 g	0.14 g
Fiber	n/a	n/a
Calcium	17 mg	14 mg
Iron	0.54 mg	0.52 mg
Magnesium	21 mg	18 mg
Phosphorous	55 mg	49 mg
Potassium	816 mg	670 mg
Sodium	9 mg	8 mg
Zinc	0.240 mg	0.200 mg
Copper	0.178 mg	0.152 mg
Beta Carotene (A)	0 IU	0 IU
Thiamine (B1)	0.112 mg	0.095 mg
Riboflavin (B2)	0.032 mg	0.028 mg
Niacin (B3)	0.758 mg	0.552 mg
Pantothenic Acid (B5)	0.314 mg	0.311 mg
Pyridoxine (B6)	0.293 mg	0.228 mg
Folic Acid (B9)	23.0 mcg	16.0 mcg
Ascorbic Acid (C)	17.1 mg	12.1 mg