Or-Nee (Yam or Taro Paste) Dessert Recipe

This is not a common dish found in Australia. There's only one place in Melbourne that sells it, that is Crystal Jade in the city at the corner of Russell and Little Bourke. I remember eating this as a child in Singapore at Teochew restaurants. They normally serve it with gingko nuts and swimming in a layer of oil. Sometimes there would be a bit of pureed pumpkin in it as well.

It might surprise some, but or-nee is a relatively easy dish to cook. We can do it the traditional method with all the complications of mashing, turning it over and over in the pan, etc... But I chose to do it the easy way with the same result. Excuse the pics in this post, I thought of posting halfway through chowing down on it. So it might look unappetising, but I promise you it tasted absolutely delicious.

 

Ingredients

4 Yams/Taro (approx 1.2kg)
200gm caster sugar
2 tbs veg oil

Method

Steam peeled yams till really soft. While the yams are steaming, cook up your sugar syrup. Add a cup of water to the caster sugar in a pot and stir to medium heat. When sugar is dissolved, remove the pot from the stove. When yams are done, place them in a mixer bowl (I used Kitchenaid) and use the paddle attachment to put it on low-medium setting (alternate between 2 and 4). While the mixer is going, add the oil slowly. After about 3 min, start adding the sugar syrup very slowly to the yam paste while the mixer churns through the paste. If it's still looking a bit dry, add water till the consistency is smooth. You can either eat it immediately as is, or for an even smoother consistency, mash the paste through a sieve.

Voila! All done and you ready to get stuck into the gooey goodness of Or-Nee!