#Kūmara

[askwhatsforlunch]

Kūmara and Beef Shepherd's Pie

Whilst the days are still sunny, they are quite chill; and the nights are even chillier. This hearty Kūmara and Beef Shepherd's Pie thus makes an excellent, warming Sunday dinner, rather like a proper hug! Have a good one!

Ingredients (serves 4):

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

540 grams/1.20 pound beef chuck

1/4 cup plain flour

1 small onion

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 large red Bell Pepper, rinsed

1 teaspoon dried sage

1/2 teaspoon ground chilli

1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or sea salt flakes

1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

1/2 cup good red wine (such as a Bordeaux or Pinot Noir)

1 cup water

2 large kūmara or sweet potatoes

1 heaped teaspoon coarse sea salt

1/2 tablespoon demerara sugar

1 tablespoon pure (Grade A) Canadian Maple Syrup

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 tablespoon demerara sugar

1/4 cup double cream

Peel and cube kūmara, and add to a large pot. Add coarse sea salt. Cover with water, and bring to the boil over medium-high heat. Once boiling, cook, about 20 minutes until tender.

In a large pot or Dutch oven, melt butter with olive oil over a high flame.

Cut beef chuck into large chunks.

Spoon flour in a shallow plate, and dredge beef chuck pieces, coating them well and shaking off excess flour.

Once the butter is foaming, add floured beef chuck pieces and brown well, on all sides. Transfer browned beef chuck pieces to a plate to rest; set aside.

Peel and finely chop onion, and stir into the Dutch oven. Reduce heat to medium-high. Stir in garlic; cook, 1 minute more.

Finely chop red Bell Pepper, and add to the pot. Cook, a couple of minutes.

Season with dried sage and ground chilli. Then, season with fleur de sel and black pepper.

Sprinkle in remaining flour, and cook out, 1 minute.

Deglaze with Bordeaux wine, stirring well to loosen brown bits. Then, stir in water. Bring to the boil.

Once boiling, reduce heat to medium, cover with a lid, and simmer, at least 45 minutes until the meat is juicy and tender, and the sauce has thickened. Remove from the heat and let cool completely.

Meanwhile, peel and cube kūmara, and add to a large pot. Add coarse sea salt. Cover with water, and bring to the boil over medium-high heat. Once boiling, cook, about 20 minutes until tender.

Once the beef has cooled enough, cut into very thin slices, and return to the pot, coating in the sauce. Add demerara sugar and Maple Syrup. Give a good stir.

Lightly oil a baking tin with olive oil, and spoon beef stew mixture in, levelling well with a spatula. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 200°C/395°F.

Drain kūmara, and return them to the pot. First, mash them thoroughly with a potato masher and stir in half of the butter, until melted. Then, process using a hand-held blender, so the mixture is very smooth. Energetically stir in remaining butter, demerara sugar and double cream with a wooden spoon, until perfectly blended and sugar and butter are melted.

Spoon kūmara mash on top of the beef mixture, levelling into an even layer with a spatula.

Place tin in the middle of the hot oven, and bake, at 200°C/395°F, for 30 to 35 minutes.

Serve Kūmara and Beef Shepherd's Pie, with a glass of Bordeaux or Waiheke Island Pinot Noir.

[irawhiti]

using my extremely limited internet time to desperately let everyone know i am making some kūmara starch to make boba and i'm gonna use the remaining shredded kūmara paste to make some milk tea in the style of taro milk tea. my final message. change da world

[original-punks]

pizza, drink, and movie w/ my beloved mum 🥰

[magdelanian]

I put so much kūmara in this curry........

[kurthorton-moving]

I think kurt would go insane over kūmara. I think he'd love it so so much

[balthazarslostlibrary]

We’re having a hāngī to celebrate Matariki tomorrow and I’m thinking of silly things that could happen.

[drhoz]

#2303 - Wiseana cervinata - Pasture Porina

AKA Elhamma cervinata, Hepialus despectus, Porina vexata, and Pielus variolaris.

A Hepialid endemic to New Zealand, where it was first described by Francis Walker in 1865. I'm not sure how many of those scientific names above are the result of him describing the same species more than once. He became notorious for that.

These are both males - females have indistinct markings at best. A common moth in grassy areas around New Zealand, where the caterpillars devour clover and grass, and may have been a pest of kūmara when sweet potato was more intensively grown as a staple crop.

Horopito, North Island Volcanic Zone, New Zealand

[ranahan]

I’ve thought a lot about amber-root, a root vegetable grown on Mandalorian worlds, and what it should be named. I eventually arrived at

mara or maru

(Or maybe both—I love the idea Mando’a is a pluricentric language. And sometimes I just can’t choose, so I keep both and call it dialectal variation.)

One, it comes from Te reo Māori kūmara (or in English sweet potato), which I think amber-root rather obviously is. Unless it’s supposed to be a space!carrot instead. But I prefer to think of it as a staple food crop, since it’s one of the few established things we have.

Two, it makes for a suitable in-universe etymology: since the root *mar- means ‘find’, mara/maru would be something found, like roots are dug up from the earth.

And then I decided that calquing a Māori idiom (Tuakana Kūmara) would also make sense: ba’buir mara (or babu’mara for short), “granny potato”, meaning “older none the wiser”. And colloquially, calling someone mara means “simpleton”. That one is thanks to my sibling; don’t know where they picked it up but chances are the army. That’s where most of the fun slang in my family seems to come from, anyway.

So next time you wonder what tiingilar is served with, here’s my take.

[soup-mother]

fun linguistic game of trying to work out what exactly someone is talking about when they say "yam"

in this case it was oca because the wretched kiwis call them yams for some reason

I know the context behind calling sweet potato/kūmara yams in the US I'm not gonna be rude about that but it makes finding recipes for actual normal true yams so difficult because everything is identical yanksgiving sweet potato recipes and sweet potatoes aren't even actual yams

[southisup]

I'm doing a kind of winter solstice celebration today. It's a few days past but it's just to mark the occasion. I didn't have time to really think about it a lot.

Having a slow cooker pumpkin curry but subbed in some kūmara because it's strongly associated with this season (unfortunately it's also $15/kg this year which makes it the most expensive vegetable available).

We have a fancy dessert.

Going to try a spiced coffee!

Invited my Mum over.

I like to do gift but wasn't sure what to do but the kinder surprises at the supermarket are supposed to be "ice" themed so got them.

Maybe have candles, I like light symbolism at this time.

Also a book I ordered online for my husband arrived and I gave myself a macrame kit I already had. Like, activities for being indoors for winter.

I was given a bunch of flowers that contained dry flowers so hung them up seperately - seems appropriate since there are so few flowers now. BUT also the bunch of flowers and leaves was all from her garden so it's all appropriate right now. The rest are in the hall.

Oh, and I bought some mead, which was an unexpected find at the supermarket. Shh, it's a secret!

I guess the idea of the winter solstice is to prepare for the cold couple of months coming, while also celebrating light. Also about hope, and faith in the sun actually doing it's thing. Maybe appreciating the small changes and believing they mean something.

[askwhatsforlunch]

Manuka Honey and Thyme Roasted Kūmara

As we were travelling on the Coastal Pacific, Ava and I lunched gazing out at the sublime Aotearoa landscapes. The scenery was gorgeous; the kai (food) and wine was excellent, too! She had the lamb, and I the chicken, and she kept picking at my kūmara, deeming it a better side! And so it was; so it is! Whichever meat your Sunday Roast is, these beautiful Manuka Honey and Thyme Roasted Kūmara will compliment it gorgeously! Happy Sunday!

Ingredients (serves 4):

4 medium kūmara (orange-fleshed sweet potatoes)

1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or sea salt flakes

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon good Manuka Honey

Preheat oven to 200°C/395°F.

Peel the kūmara and cut them into thick slices. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle generously with fleur de sel, dried thyme and cracked black pepper. Drizzle with olive oil, and toss well, with clean hands, to coat the kūmara in herbs, seasoning and oil. 

Place baking dish in the middle of the hot oven, and roast, at 200°C/395°F, 25 minutes.

Then, remove the oven from the oven, and add Manuka Honey, gently tossing the roasted kūmara to coat evenly. Return to the oven and bake, at 200°C/395°F, another 10 minutes.

Serve Manuka Honey and Thyme Roasted Kūmara hot, as a side to Roast  Lamb or Chicken.

Pacific Ocean from the Coastal Pacific, New Zealand (20th October, 2022)

[barbieyaga]

I love you kūmara

[original-punks]

What's it like living on that big rock in the middle of nowhere?

[morethansalad]

Kūmara Mānuka Crunch (Vegan-Friendly)

Honey -> any liquid sweetener, butter -> coconut oil or vegan butter

[cat-appreciator]

Tlazohcamati, Mexica*, for corn, peppers, tomatoes, pumpkin, squash, beans, and avocados!

Yupaychani, Kichwa, for chocolate!

Anchatan añaychayki, Quechua, for potatoes, kūmara and yams**!

Truly the world would be a sad place without them.

*The original cultivators of these crops almost certainly did not speak Nahuatl, Kichwa, or Quechua, and we have no idea what they did speak. I’ve done my best to find the modern local indigenous languages of central Mexico, southern highland Ecuador, and the Andean highlands respectively. I blame the Internet for any errors.

**It turns out that “yam” gets applied to basically any tropical root vegetable in different times and places; this is a reference to Oxalis tuberosa, known as uqa in Quechua and yams in New Zealand. The kūmara is the root known in North America as the sweet potato.

Everyone say thank you american indigenous people for cultivating corn, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, cacao, pumpkin, squash, and anything i missed. Makes life more meaningful globally

[haunt-i-ng]

I ❤️ KŪMARA CHIPS