SC - Yams/Sweet Potatoes

[Janine De Villiers]

Greetings, all from Meriel of the Marsh in Cape Town, South Africa

Linneah wrote:

>I have heard that Henry VIII liked sweet potatoes, or yams (which are
>different - one being a root the other a tuber) and ate them often.  Any
>comments, recipies or information?  I assume that the "they" who say
>this are refering to the African yam and not the New World
>sweetpotato.  They are similar, hence the trend to call both by the
>other's name.
If I may comment on this, sweet potatoes are tubers and are readily
available right through southern Africa. I for my part have never tasted a
yam and they are not available down here; they, to the best of my
knowledge, grow much further north in Africa. They provide a staple
food in West Africa, ie, north of the Equator; can't tell you exactly where
else, not having books here at work to look it up (same old song!)
We have 2 different kinds available - a dark skinned type of which there
are several varieties, which has a white, rather dry flesh and a
light-brown skinned one, which comes off by merely scratching it with a
finger nail, with a more yellowy tinge to its flesh and a buttery texture.
This latter kind makes better eating. We bake them in the oven in their
skins and serve them with butter, or peel them, cut them in thick slices,
boil them in a little water with cinnamon and then caramelise them when
they are almost cooked by adding sugar or honey and butter to the pot,
without discarding the bit of water they have been cooking in. This is a
typical Cape speciality, BTW.! 
Don't know if this way of cooking them could be regarded as 'period'? 

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