Taro - the purple potato
You can find it in Asian markets. They look like small potatoes, dark brown, with horizontal crossing lighter lines. The flesh is purple and starchy with a distinctive sweet taste. The leaves are often used to wrap sticky rice and such (no, they’re not "lotus" leaf. It’s actually taro leaf) with pork and duck egg.
What nobody EVER tells you is that the taro is dangerous. When eaten raw it has the effect of a bee sting on a person who’s alleric to beestings - your tongue swell, your face itch, and in some people the effect is exaggerated as to cause suffocations. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. When you’re cooking taro, PLEASE make sure it is cooked all the way through.
Taro Rice Pudding
3/4 Cup tapioca pearls - the small kind sold in little bags in China town
6 Cups water
1 Can coconut MILK (shake the can. The kind that sounds watery will not do. You want the kind that’s already mixed, not the ones with juice on the bottom and oil on top.)
2 Taro
1 Cup of sugar or more to taste
1 pinch of salt
Instructions
Steam taro until a fork goes right to the middle with little resistance. Peel and dice. Soak in a mixture of 1 cup water, 1/2 cup sugar, and coconut milk.
Cook tapioca pearls in water on boil with a pinch of salt, stirring constantly. If you don’t stir it, it will not only stick to the pot’s bottom, it’ll stick to one another and form a lumpy mess. When the white dots in the middles of the pearls start turning transparent, add sugar and keep stirring. If it’s getting too thick, add another cup of water. When a wooden spoon is inserted, it should come out with a transparent sticky liquid on the spoon along with a few pearls.
Stir in taro mixture, and serve either immediately hot or chilled overnight in the fridge.
February 23rd, 2006 at 7:03 pm
I didn’t know Taro could be poisonous if uncooked! And I had been drinking Taro Milk Teas a lot of times…. the sheer horror at the thought.
February 24th, 2006 at 12:37 pm
You know, I highly doubt Taro milk tea (I love the stuff) contain ANY real taro. And if it does, it’s probably so cooked /overprocessed / sterilized that it can’t possibly harm you.
That story’s from my grandmother though - apparently during the war she made the mistake of chewing on raw taro freshly dug up from the ground, then was told by her elders that raw taro is poisonous. I have yet to try it myself (or heard of ANYONE doing so.)
March 6th, 2006 at 8:02 am
i didnt know taro can be poisonous also.we been cooking and making flan,candies,and smoothies out of it.we also have an ice cream in that flavor.
March 14th, 2006 at 10:33 am
One you cook it, it’s harmless. The effect I guess is like eating a raw sprouted potato. Toxins are just naturally present in root vegetables, and it just happens to be more prominent in Taro.