Beni-imo Karukan

Pasted purple fleshed sweet potato & red bean goes well with the Karukan dough more than expected.

“Beni-imo Karukan” made by Gokashi-Goden in Okinawa is a Karukan-manju, a steamed sweet bun made from grated yam and rice flour, a traditional confectionery derived from Satsuma region.  This is arragned version made with Okinawan red potatoes. Gokashi-Goden is an Okinawan confectionery shop who is also very famous for their “Beni-imo Tart“.

Karukan is famous as a traditional confectionery in Kagoshima and other areas in southern Kyushu, and it is also widely eaten in Okinawa. The most distinctive feature of this “Beni-imo Karukan” is that it contains red bean paste made from red potatoes.

The dough of the Karukan is kneaded with red sweet potatoes.  It is slightly purple color and is beautiful light hue.

It contains mixed paste of red bean jam and purple sweet potato paste inside and it is amazingly vivid purple as per naturally derived from such purple fleshed sweet potato.

The red bean paste goes well with the Karukan dough beyond expectation.  It is very tasty and ranks high in my personal list of the Karukan manju I have eaten so far. I could feel more potential of Okinawan ingredients.