Imobera Azuki (Kochi Dried Sweet Potato and Azuki Sweet)
Quick answer
- Total time
- 355 min
- Level
- Easy
- Servings
- 5 servings
- Ingredients
- 5
About this dish
Imobera azuki is a local sweet from Ino, Kochi, in which yudebera, a distinctive boiled-and-dried sweet potato, is simmered with azuki beans and sugar.
Read more
Whole sweet potatoes are traditionally boiled for hours, dried until the outside firms, sliced into rounds, and dried again; in Ino these pieces are called yudebera or nibera. Soaking 300g yudebera in lightly salted water for 4 to 5 hours restores moisture to the center. The pieces then cook slowly in the same liquid and are mashed while some texture remains. Cooked azuki and 130g sugar are added in stages so the beans stay recognizable and the mixture remains moist enough to scoop. It is not a flour dumpling soup, but a substantial preserved-food snack with chewy sweet potato and tender beans.
Ingredients
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Instructions
Read the steps as a cooking flow: prep, heat, seasoning, doneness control, and finish.
- 1Season
Rub and rinse 300g yudebera thoroughly.
Mix 1200ml water with 1g salt in a large pot, submerge the yudebera completely, and soak for 4 to 5 hours.
- 2Control
Put 150g cooked unsweetened azuki in a small pan with the remaining 300ml water.
Heat almost to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes, stirring minimally so the centers soften without splitting the skins.
- 3Control
Set the yudebera over medium heat without discarding its soaking liquid.
Once boiling, reduce to low, leave the lid slightly ajar, and simmer for 35 to 40 minutes until the centers yield easily to a spatula.
- 4Finish
If much liquid remains, ladle it out and reserve it.
Mash the yudebera with a spatula while retaining small pieces, add 65g sugar, and stir over low heat for 3 minutes.
- 5Finish
Drain the azuki and fold it into the yudebera.
Add the remaining 65g sugar and 1g salt and cook gently for 5 to 8 minutes. If too stiff, add reserved sweet-potato liquid 1 tablespoon at a time; stop when softly scoopable.
Practical Cooking Checks
The cues that matter most while cooking.
- Key technique
- A method that restores yudebera, sweet potato boiled and dried in stages
- Finish cue
- Drain the azuki and fold it into the yudebera.
- Avoid this
- Cook and mash first, add sugar in two stages, and do not reduce the final mixture until firm.
Cooking decision evidence
Calculated Charim data and applicable official cooking and food safety guidance.
This recipe
355min, 5 ingredients
Category median
45min, 6 ingredients
Based on 144 recipes