sweet potato powder

[nyfirepatrolchef]

while at Kam Man Foods recently I discovered bags of sweet potato powder. Of course no englsh directions....but the illustrations include with the instructions...someone mixing in a bowl....the front of the pack shows all sorts of things youd batter dip or bread.

Talked to a non cooking chinese friend....who directed me to his hard to catch wife...least he told me its used as a batter and as a dough.

Anyone use the stuff? Any ideas for proportions for mixing into a batter...and what liquid and/or other ingredients to use?

Saw in a book the chinese sweets are white meated....do they still taste remotely sweet even?

[Carolyn Tillie]

The soba noodles I buy are made with Yam flour so I don't think you have to limit yourself to sweet if you don't want to.

When I first read your post, my inclination was that it would make amazing ravioli dough.

[tsquare]

One more time - yams and sweet potatoes are different animals, so to speak. I assume asian yam noodles are really made from yams, not sweet potatoes.

And, correct me if I am wrong, but aren't soba noodles made from buckwheat and wheat flour? If they are made from something else, aren't they traditionally called something else? Shirataki? Okay, that part, I'm just being picky.

But I am really curious about what one might do with sweet potato powder.

Found this:

"Three Eagle’s Brand sweet potato starch is suitable for cooking oyster omelets, making thick gravies and blending."

[fifi]

Many years ago when I worked for FDA, we got in these big institutional packages of dehydrated sweet potatoes but I don't think it was a powder. Sorry. We never did figure out what to do with it. The only thing we ever made with it that was remotely ok was sweet potato pie. The batter idea sounds intriguing.

[Pan]

Another question: What do Chinese people do with the dried sweet potato strips you see in most Chinese grocery stores? I bought a bag once and found it to be just very tough dried sweet potato. Why so omnipresent in Chinese groceries? I was told that they're used by young kids to exercise their chewing muscles, but that sounds dubious. But maybe I should ask this in the China and Chinese Cooking forum...

[Pan]

Many years ago when I worked for FDA, we got in these big institutional packages of dehydrated sweet potatoes

How come?

[fifi]

They were processed somewhere in our jurisdiction so we had to monitor whether or not they contained any pathogens. We had an episode one time with Salmonella in yeast, so any kind of freeze dried product was suspect for a while. (Turned out to be birds in the big processing buildings. ) I think most of this stuff was destined for industrial food processors and prisons.

[Mabelline]

Yo, ho,ho, and a bag of dried up yams, me hearties!

[Carolyn Tillie]

One more time - yams and sweet potatoes are different animals, so to speak. I assume asian yam noodles are really made from yams, not sweet potatoes.

And, correct me if I am wrong, but aren't soba noodles made from buckwheat and wheat flour? If they are made from something else, aren't they traditionally called something else? Shirataki? Okay, that part, I'm just being picky.

But I am really curious about what one might do with sweet potato powder.

Found this:

"Three Eagle’s Brand sweet potato starch is suitable for cooking oyster omelets, making thick gravies and blending."

Yes, I know. I was trying to illustrate that as SIMILAR products, there are a number of uses.

And all I can tell you about the Soba noodles that I buy are what is listed on the package:

Japanese Style

Buckwheat Noodle

Ajisenryu Zaru Soba

With Yam

Ingredients:

Enriched Wheat Flour (Wheat, Niacin, Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin & Folic Acid), Buckwheat Flour, Yam Flour, Salt and Water.

[Mabelline]

I think that any foodstuff that thickened a dish was highly prized because people did not have the control of temps. like we now have. I've a girlfriend who cannot cook frybread in the house with any success. She claims it is because the frying fat does not act the same in the house.