Murasaki Potatoes

Trader Joes carries these Japanese sweet potatoes under the name Murasaki Potatoes. These are indeed sweet potatoes and cousins of the orange-fleshed ones we are more familiar with in North America.

Murasaki potaotes have purple skin and yellow flesh. When cooked, their texture is creamy and moist, like a russet. Their flavour is like a sweet potato, being both sweet and fragrant.

In Japan

In Japan, these are commonly roasted and sold as yaki-imo. It’s supposed to be common to see street vendors in the fall (harvest season) come around and sell these out of the back of trucks.

They are roasted on coals, kind of like how baked potatoes are done during camping.

Cooking

The key to cooking this is time. It takes time for caramelization and Maillard reaction to take place.

These take about 1.5-2.5 hours to bake, in a low temperature oven (320 F/160 C).

Wrapping these in tin foil will keep the potato from drying out.

More details instructions and analysis can be found on the [Matcha and Tofu blog].1