Purple Rain--Purple Potato Salad

I'm the one! Yes, the one who loves everything purple. (Imagine Prince singing Purple Rain here.) I wear purple. I love purple irises--they make me happy. I could stare lovingly at a beautiful amethyst stone for hours (while drinking red wine, of course, which is actually purplish, not red). I'm always drawn to purple when I approach a department store clothes rack. I'm a sucker for the purples of an autumnal sunset when the purples are so much purpler! With such a fondness for the color purple, it might come as no surprise that I'm also fond of purple foods. Surprisingly, purple foods taste (for me, at least) the way the color purple looks. It's satisfying. It's pleasing. It's so luxurious! Take a peek at my recipe.

My friend Yvonne King used to clip recipes from magazines. That was back before the internet reduced us to doing everything online. She had once shared a sweet potato salad recipe with me, which I've since lost but reconstructed from memory. This purple sweet potato recipe has evolved from the one that Yvonne gave me about 30 or more years ago. Have a look at my purple recipe here.

The flavors are subtle and gentle on the palate. A hint of sweetness from the potatoes and maple syrup, a touch of spicy and salty from the soy sauce, a bit of acid from the rice wine vinegar, a comforting toasty touch from the toasted sesame and a hint of freshness with the green onion. Purple perfection leaning towards Asian flavors. You want the recipe, don't you?

The only difficulty with this salad is that you have to search for a Chinese or Asian grocery store near you. I live in a relatively small town, but we have an Asian market here. If they don't have what I need, I go one hour away to where there are at least three such markets and I can find the purple sweet potatoes. If you can't find them locally, amazon.com carries both Japanese purple sweet potatoes and the sweet yams, but they are quite a bit more expensive. 

They may be the color purple and purple-ish delicious, but I warn you, they are not pretty. These tubers tend to be gnarled and often a bit soft and moldy. It all depends on how long they've been sitting around. I look for ones that are firm and uniform in size.

Instead of orange foods during this Halloween season, perhaps you will try purple foods. Here's my recipe.

The purple yams have a more washed-out purple appearance than
the Japanese purple sweet potatoes.

And, because it's appropriate, here's Prince all purpled up singing Purple Rain.