# Shusse Imo ｜ Our Regional Cuisines

**Cuisine Name**: Shusse Imo

**Region**: Our Regional Cuisines

## Main Lore Areas
Kaiyo Town, southern part of prefecture

## Main Ingredients Used
Taro or sweet potatoes, azuki beans

## History, Origin, and Related Events
During periods when rice was insufficient, people commonly ate tubers in place of rice in the southern part of the prefecture, which includes Kaiyo Town. "Shusse imo" is a local food devised among the variety of tuber dishes that are made. Steamed taro were fit into a cylinder, wrapped with smooth red bean paste and sliced into rounds. In the past, shussei imo were made in place of ohagi (rice balls with red bean paste); tubers were eaten as rice and thus promoted ("shusse") to the status of rice, and because of this shusse imo was given this auspicious name. Nowadays it is typically made with sweet potatoes instead of taro. Besides both azuki beans and sweet potatoes having a high fiber content, azuki beans have polyphenol and sweet potatoes are abundant in vitamins and nutrients like potassium, so it's handy not only a meal that fills you up, but as a food with a great deal of nutritional value.

## Opportunities and Times of Eating Habits
From its auspicious name, it came to be made for celebratory invents, incorporating the wish for one to "succeed in life." It is said that it was served especially when boys were born and on Boys' Day, as well as sometimes made for the day of a wedding.

## How to Eat
When making shusse imo, start by making the smooth red bean paste. Boil azuki beans that had been soaked in water, and pulverize them in a blender. Add sugar and salt to make red bean paste. After that, peel the skin off freshly boiled sweet potatoes and shape them, wrap in rolled out red bean paste and chill in the refrigerator. When serving, cut into 3cm long slices. Nowadays there are many families that quickly make it using ready-made red bean paste.

## Efforts for Preservation and Succession
Tokushima Prefecture has introduced recipes for shusse imo in "Tokushima's Local Cuisine" and "Tokushima's Food Education Cheer Squad" which were initiatives to compile regional cuisine within the prefecture. Further, when Kaiyo Town collected recipes that used local ingredients (the 2011 "Let's Make Healthy Kayo Snacks That Are Delicious for the Body!"), many recipe variations for shusse imo were suggested; even today the town is boosting the recognition of shusse imo as an easy-to-love snack.

## Ingredients
- Sweet potatoes (or taro): 2 whole (narrow ones, if medium-sized, use 1 that is 200-250g)
- Smooth Azuki red bean paste: 300g

## Recipe
1. 1. Steam unpeeled sweet potatoes in a steam cooker until soft.
2. 2. Once steamed, peel and shave the thicker parts until about the same thickness, then shape If using taro, mash after steaming and then shape.
3. 3. Spread plastic wrap on the red bean paste (rolled to the length of the sweet potatoes or just enough to go around them), place the shaped sweet potatoes on top, and roll up. After chilling it in the refrigerator, cut it without removing the plastic wrap into slices 2-3cm thick. Remove the plastic wrap and plate with the cut end face-up.

## Provider Information
provider : Recipe source: Shikoku University TAKAHASHI Keiko

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