Sweet Potatoes in Chinese cooking

[phatch]

I was reading the most recent National Geographic article on recycling e-waste--most of which happens in poor Asian countries. And they had a picture of a man in a Chinese town with his harvest of sweet potatoes grown in dioxin laced ground.

The dioxins aside, I don't think I've ever seen a Chinese dish or recipe with sweet potatoes. Nor a Thai dish. I'm pretty sure I've had some Indian ones though.

So who has had sweet potatoes in Chinese food or has a good recipe for such?

Thai accepted as well.

Phil

[shel]

I think I saw some such recipes at Rhonda Parkinsons site ...aybe that'll get you started at least.

shel

[Blueicus]

There's actually a Cantonese dessert sweet potato soup, which is basically sweet potatoes in a sweetened ginger "broth". Sweet potatoes are also commonly eaten roasted and plain, although in dishes they are certainly less common in Cantonese cooking, although I'm sure they exist they just weren't part of my childhood.

[brreynolds]

Indeed, sweet potatoes do not seem to occupy prominent places in Chinese cookbooks that I have seen. (In fact, potatoes of any kind aren’t prominent.) But I have these recipes, which suggests that in main dish-type cooking, sweet potatoes are used mostly in braises, and with meats that pair with sweet things (duck and pork). I have made the first two and thought they were pretty good:

Fragrant Duck, Braised with Sweet Potatoes

1 duck, boned & cut up ¼ tsp powdered anise seed
2 large sweet potatoes 1 tbsp. soy sauce
1 clove garlic (mashed) 1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp minced fresh ginger 1 cup chicken stock
¼ tsp cinnamon cornstarch
¼ tsp ground cloves cornstarch binder

Pare the sweet potatoes, cut in chunks (about ½”), roll in cornstarch and deep-fry until golden. Drain and keep warm.

Heat a little oil in a wok or skillet, add the garlic, ginger, and duck meat. Saute for about 5 minutes, then add the sweet potatoes. Sprinkle with the spices, add the soy sauce, sugar, and stock. Cover, and simmer for 15 minutes or until the duck is tender. Thicken the sauce with the cornstarch binder.

Curried Tenderloin of Pork, Braised with Sweet Potatoes

2 large sweet potatoes 1 tbsp soy sauce
1 lb. pork tenderloin 1 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp. minced ginger 1 cup stock
1 small onion, thinly sliced cornstarch binder

Pare the sweet potatoes and cut into ½” thick slices. Fry in deep fat until golden (about 5 min.). Drain.

Cut the pork into cubes (1” or so). Saute with the ginger and onion until browned. Add the soy sauce and season with salt (optional), and pepper. Add the curry powder and the stock. Stir well, then add the deep-fried sweet potatoes.

Cover and stew slowly until the pork is cooked. Thicken the sauce with cornstarch binder, if necessary.

Sweet Potato Dumplings

2 lbs. sweet potatoes, pared and
thinly sliced Filling mixture:
6 tbsps. lard 1 ½ tbsp. sweet red bean paste
1 ½ cups sifted cornstarch ¼ cup shredded coconut
2 tbsps powdered sugar ¼ cup minced candied orange peel
½ cup sesame seeds ½ tsp vanilla
Oil for deep frying

Steam the sweet potatoes until tender. Drain well, and puree, to equal 3 cups. If not dry enough to make a paste, heat until the excess moisture is absorbed. Add the lard, cornstarch, and sugar to make a smooth dough. If too moist, add more cornstarch.

Combine all filling ingredients and set aside.

Divide the dough in half. Roll each half into an 18” log. Cut into 1” pieces, flatten into a 3” circle, put a bit of filling on each piece, and fold around the filling to make a cylinder.

Moisten each dumpling with water, press into sesame seeds to coat, and deep fry at 350 F. until light brown and crisp. Drain & serve.

[I haven’t made this last one, and the directions seem to be a bit light on filling for the amount of dough, but one could always multiply the filling recipe.]

[phatch]

With the length of cooking required for sweet potatoes and normal potatoes, it's not surprising they don't show up in stir fry. Even sprinking some five spice powder on some sweet potato cubes and steaming them sounds interesting.

Thanks for the recipes. They should be worth trying.

Phil

[brreynolds]

Your question piqued my curiosity, so I started looking through various Chinese cook books that I have. Very little on the subject, but besides the recipes I posted earlier, I found a couple of recipes for sweets in a set of books by Fu Pei Mei (a prominent Taiwanese cooking teacher of some years ago). The recipes called for taro (steamed and then mashed), but she said that sweet potatoes could be substituted for the taro, so there's another way they might be used.