Yesterday I did my huge monthly shopping trip, and came home with oodles of good stuff. I really enjoy shopping for food and coming home with my bundles and boxes to take care of my family with – my husband says he’s glad he married someone who gets so much pleasure out of food shopping for the family. I’m easy to entertain. 🙂
At one of my favorite stores (a grocery outlet), there was a box that said, “Everything in this box is 25 cents a pound.” I looked in the box, but didn’t recognize the vegetable inside, so I went over to the woman in charge of the vegetable section of the store and asked what it was. She told me she didn’t know, but someone told her it was something like a sweet potato. I asked them how much it would be if I bought a case (I think she’s getting used to me asking this, lol), and they said $7.50. I figured for that price I should try it, and then when the young lady was helping me with the case, she heaped it full of lots more of them, so I ended up with at least 60 pounds (if my math was right, that’s less than .13 a lb!).
It looked vaguely familiar to me from an Asian vegetable store that I periodically stop in at, where I know it sells for $1 lb. I didn’t know what it was called, but noticed a produce sticker on it that said ‘boniato’. It didn’t ring a bell, so I googled it (I LOVE Google – I use it all the time), and came up with some information on how to store it, cook it, and some recipes. It seems it’s more perishable than sweet potatoes, and they turn brown quickly when you peel them, so I peeled fast and kept a large bowl of water next to me to pop them into right away. I prepared boniato pudding and served it for dinner – it was a mixture of shredded boniato (less sweet than a sweet potato and more starchy), milk, sweetener, coconut, eggs, and spices. Except for the sugar it was filled with good stuff, and I used raw sugar and halved the amount it called for. The kids gobbled it up. I made two very full 9 x 13 pans, and they only ate one pan full, so I’ll give them the second one for breakfast tomorrow.
It’s fun to find new things to cook with and especially to do it on a lean budget!
Avivah
