How to Cook Sweet Potatoes including Fartes de Batatas!

I first tried sweet potatoes many years ago when I visited New Zealand, where they are called kumura (unlike in the States where they are often called, quite wrongly, yams!). What a lovely surprise they were, I think I eat them more often than “normal” potatoes. 

And not only do I prefer them, sweet potatoes are much better for us than normal potatoes.

What can you do with sweet potatoes?  

Well …

This post starts with simple ways to cook sweet potatoes, progresses through more unusual ideas towards the end of the post.

Firstly, anything you can do with a potato you can do with a sweet potato.

Sweet Potato Fries in the Oven

~   Heat the oven to 425ºF/220ºC/200ºC fan/gas 7.
~   Put a baking tray in the oven.
~   Peel a sweet potato per person and cut into chips.
~   Toss them with a drizzle of olive oil and some seasoning; salt and pepper plus cayenne if
      you fancy it.
~   When the oven is hot spread the sweet potato chips on the hot tray with space around
      each chip. If you need more space heat another tray.
~   Bake for about 20-25 minutes depending on how thick they are. They are ready when
      golden and crisp and tender.

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

~   Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into 1-inch ish cubes.
~   In a saucepan cover cold water, add a little salt and bring to the boil.
~   Partially cover the pan, reduce the heat and simmer till tender which won’t take as long as
      normal potatoes; about 10 minutes.
~   Drain and then return the sweet potatoes to the pan and set aside to steam dry for a few
      minutes.
~   Add a knob of butter and maybe some double cream or sour cream and mash with a fork
      or masher then taste and season.

Sweet Potato Hash

(aka Bubble and Squeak, Rumbledethumps, Kailkiddy, Colcannon or Clapshot!)

Leftover mashed sweet potatoes make a lovely hash – basically fry the letover sweet potatoes in a litte oil or butter over medium heat, leaving them undisturbed for several minutes so that a crust forms before turning them and cooking on the other side. You could fry a little onion and/or garlic before adding the sweet potatoes, you could also add whatever seasonings you fancy and maybe leftover meat or fish but only add these towards the end of frying the potatoes.

Baked/Jacket Sweet Potatoes

large, clean dry and evenly sized sweet potatoes
a little oil and salt

~   Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F/180ºC fan/gas 6.
~   Put a little olive oil and a little sea salt in a
      bowl and rub each potato thoroughly with this
      mixture.
~   Prick the potatoes several times with a fork.
~   When the oven is hot either lay the potatoes 
      directly on the oven rack line with foil, sweet
      potatoes tend to ooze a bit when baked.
~   Bake till soft in the middle and crisp on the
      outside – timing depends on the size of the
      potato but say 30-40 minutes, they cook faster
      than normal potatoes.

Sweet Potato Crisps

~   Preheat the oven to 325°F/160ºC/
      140ºC fan/gas 3 and grease a baking
      tray.
~   Slice raw sweet potato into rounds,
      pretty well as thin as you can.
~   Lay onto the greased tray, brush with
      oil and sprinkle with sea salt and black
      pepper or chill powder.
~   Bake for about half an hour, keeping
      an eye on them, till the edges have
      curled and the middles are shade
      darker. Cool on a rack to crisp.

Crunchy Fried Sweet Potatoes

See the soup recipe below for how to make delicious crunchy frazzled sweet potatoes.

Spicy Sweet Potato & Coconut Soup

The recipe for this luscious sweet potato soup is here plus how to make the delicious frazzled sweet potatoes on top.

Sweet Potato Scones

225g/8oz self-raising flour 
a generous pinch of salt
60g/2½oz cold butter or margarine
25g/1oz caster sugar
100g/3½oz mashed cooked sweet potato (or pumpkin!)
approx. 60ml/2½ fl oz milk

~   Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/180C fan/gas 6.
~   Stir together the flour, salt and baking powder (if using). 
~   Add the butter or margarine and “rub in” with your fingers until a breadcrumb texture is
      achieved (see this post for how to rub in).
~   Stir in the sugar once you have finished rubbing in; if you add it earlier it’s uncomfortable
     on the hands although, of course, it does exfoliate.
~   Add the mashed sweet potato and seasoning and then just enough milk to form a soft
      workable dough.
~   On a floured surface press or roll the dough out to about 1½cm/½” thick and using a
      cookie cutter cut into rounds or squares which are easier and more economical on time: no
      re-rolling. They look quite good too. 
~   Transfer the scones to a greased baking try, brush their tops with a little milk and bake in
      the oven till risen and golden – about 15 minutes. 
~   Transfer to a cooling rack till needed.

Depending on what you intend doing with the scones you could add a little seasoning such as cinnamon or ginger of even a little chilli.

For lots of interesting scone recipes see here.

Fartes de Batatas!

These are little sweet gooey cakes or sweeties from Portugal. Their name means something like “Potatoes that Satiate”, what did you think it meant?

170g caster sugar plus more for sprinkling
1 egg
15g soft butter
170g cooked, mashed and cooled sweet potato
(slightly warm the sweet potato before removing from its skin and mashing.)
70g ground almonds
finely grated zest of 1 orange
a squeeze of lemon or orange juice
1 egg white, lightly beaten with a pinch of salt

~   Whisk together the first three ingredients very well indeed till light and fluffy.
~   Stir in the mashed sweet potatoes, ground almonds, citrus zest and juice.
~   Scrape the mixture into a pan and stir over medium heat to dry out; when the texture of
      stiff mashed potato spread onto a floured board to cool.
~   Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/180ºC fan/gas 6.
~   Roll into walnut sized balls then flatten into little cakes.
~   Place on a greased baking tray, brush with the beaten egg white and sprinkle with caster
      sugar.
~   Bake for about 20 minutes till slightly puffed up, golden and fragrant
~   Cool on a rack and serve with coffee.

Roasted Sweet Potato, Cinnamon and Brown Sugar Ice Cream 

See here for this lovely easy no churn ice cream recipe.

Kamote or Camote Cue

These are Filipino street food; caramelised sweet potato slices, often served on sticks. Cook in small batches – serve immediately, eat while hot.

~   Slice a sweet potato about 10mm thick.  
~   Heat 250ml of vegetable oil in a small pan and when hot sprinkle in 200g soft light brown
      sugar.
~   Cook the oil and sugartogether for a minute or two during which time the sugar will rise to
      the surface and form a bubbly crust. 
~   Carefully add the potato slices and cook over medium high heat turning occasionally for
      seven or eight minutes till tender and speckled with caramel.
~   Lift out and drain on kitchen roll.
~   Thread on sticks if you feel like it!

Sweet Potato Toast – not recommended!

I’ve read about this, it involves putting a slice of sweet potato in the toaster and giving it several toasts till soft and crisp in places.  Before trying it I was a bit dubious, wondering if it was along the lines of other silly hacks I have seen such as cooking veggies in the dishwasher.  I’m not sure if I was right or wrong, the sweet potato caused a bit of a mess in the toaster and I gave up before it was cooked!

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