Taro (Malanga) Ice Cream...

A wonderful phenomenon has started taking place in my neck of the woods.  Lately all of these little frozen yogurt shops have started springing up everywhere.   Anyone who knows me well will attest that I am a total frozen yogurt junkie.  I have two favorite snacks: fro-yo and popcorn.  But not at the same time, and definitely not microwave popcorn.  That doesn’t even count in my opinion, but I digress.

So as I mentioned, there have been several fro-yo places that have opened close to my house/work.  My favorite is called “Yumilicious” – and I hate to sound redundant, but it really is so very yummy. They have like a billion flavors and you can serve yourself which is nice because you can mix and match all you want. They also have a huge topping bar, but I am a bit of a purist when it comes to ice cream and frozen yogurt; I like it plain.

The yogurt shop is owned by an Asian man and they always have the Taro flavor.  Purple taro to be exact.  Taro is an root vegetable that is commonly eaten in the Caribbean and in Asia. To us Cubans, it’s known as malanga and it’s usually white instead of purple. The flavor is the same as the purple one which I used for this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 large taro root, peeled and cut into cubes
1 cup cream
3 cups milk
1 cup plain, nonfat yogurt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt

In a deep sauce pan, bring combine the cream, milk and taro  and bring to a boil.  Once the milk begins to boil, reduce the heat to  medium and let the taro root cook in the milk until it is tender.  

Strain the milk and cream through a fine meshed sieve into another pot. 

Taro is extremely starchy and slightly sticky so a non-stick pan or pot would be best for this next step.  Add the Taro infused milk and cream to your non-stick pot and add the sugar and salt. Cook on medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Lastly, add the yogurt and combine well.  

Chill in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight before churning.  I just added the mixture to my ice-cream machine and followed the manufacturer’s instructions.

Side note: This ice-cream turned out really well but nothing like the yogurt  I was trying to recreate.  I have a theory about this though.  I think the frozen yogurt has “taro flavoring” not actual taro.  Sort of like how artificial grape flavor tastes nothing like real grapes.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the Taro frozen yogurt, but it was really different tasting than my version.