When guests come to visit us, I usually get excited.
I start to go through my mind, thinking what treats I could try serving my unsuspecting companionship.
My husband tends to get nervous at this times.
He is normally my testing bunny these days, if he doesn't like something then I better leave it or improve it.
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So in my mind I had decided on a little "impress me" snack, caramelized sweet Potatoes aka Daigaku Imo.
Why was my husband nervous?
Because the visitors were some business friends of his and mostly I guess because he hadn't had a test drive on that one.
While it was cooking he came to peek and I randomly thought I ll mention that it is a Japanese snack.
He looked at me full terror in his eyes and begged me not to come up with some raw fish.
Well.. I guess he was lucky with that one. 😉
Anyway, one day I ll teach him how wonderful Japanese food is.
I myself wish I knew more about all those wonderful flavors they cook with and the gorgeous unique way of presenting food.
Everything they do is perfect and full of details and sometimes I would call it brilliant too.
Unluckily certain ingredients are 98% of the time impossible to obtain, especially fresh foods, so when I discover a great recipe I tend to just stare at the picture and think "da**! I wish I could try that now.
At least time to time I score some sweet potatoes and I am able to perform some japanize foodie style magic.
So,... our visitors looked sceptically at the funny named snack on the table. Not sure what to think off those glossy brown potato pieces.
In this situation, I tend to act like as if I was busy with something else and then I wait, anticipating a reaction, observing from my eye corner, trying to read the first bite in the face of my innocent test person.
What an adrenalin kick I tell you,... seconds seem like ages!
The relieve came when one of the 2 attacked more,... and then some more...
The 4 of us finished 2 plates of Daigaku Imo and in addition to that our visitors played with a thought of trying it out in their restaurant.
I didn't give them the recipe, for that they ll have to come here, and check out my blog. XD
For those of you who love Japanese food I can recommend you all, Namis wonderful Japanese themed foodie blog, "Just one Cookbook". Click on the button to visit her blog.
📖 Recipe
Caramelized sweet Potatoes – Daigaku Imo
Ingredients
To Deep fry
- 1 l Oil
- 3 medium Sweet Poato - preferably with red skin
To Garnish
- Sesame Seeds I had only white ones
- thick Sea Salt
Instructions
- In a Frying pan dry fry the Sesame seeds with the Salt till they start to get a light brown colore and they pop up. Keep aside
- Heat the oil for Deep frying. Scrub the Sweet Potatoes well and cut them into bite size chunks ( don't peel the skin!). Once the oil is hot enough add in the Potato chunks.
- In the mean while, grab a frying pan and add into it all the mentioned above ingredients for the caramelization. Keep it all on low fire and mix and stir all the ingredients well till it gets thicker.
- The potatoes should be finnished cooked now, you can see that if they are swimming on top of the oil pan. Take them out and directly add them into the caramel combination. Mix it all well as long as it is still hot. Once it all cooles down it will get sticky hard. Just before that happens, sprinkle some of the toasted sesame salt on top to garnish.
Those look amazing, I'm always looking for new ways to use sweet potatoes.
These look beautiful. I love roasted root vegetables. Caramelised sweet potato is so yummy, my local Japanese restaurant serves it fresh off the grill. You are making me hungry!
Hi Helene,
Thanks for stopping by my site the other day - your name seemed familiar for some reason, and I think I know where I saw you before now. Did you make a comment on someone's post about Monte Christo sandwiches a while ago? The poster was wondering if the sandwich was French and you let them know that the sandwich was most certainly not French 😀 LOL! In all the years I've been living in Paris I've never seen such a thing.
Anyway - for the recipe - it looks so wonderful! I've never heard of it before, but I can well imagine how it would be - sticky, slightly crispy, with the wonderful nuttiness of sesame seeds. I think I'd love it! What a fabulous snack... thanks for sharing it 🙂
Yep that was me. the debate about the origin of the monte christo sandwich is still open. that sandwich is a variation of the Croque Monsieur which is french, but the monte Christo sandwich got its name in the US. so anyway...
thx for your lovely words about my post. =)
Oh dearest Helen, thank you so much for introducing my blog! You are so kind!! What a surprise at the end! And this is my favorite dessert growing up. I love the caramelized sweetness outside and sweet potatoes are just perfect for this treat. Helene, your Daigaku Imo is wonderful. I was smiling when you described about your husband. Hahaha. Well at the end you can pull off anything! Love this post!
This is almost a dessert. There's a Danish Christmas dish I made called Brunede Kartofler. Its regular caramelised potato - didn't realise the Japanese also had something similar.
Agree, the red skin and sesame seeds give the dish a certain design cutting the sweet potaoes into wedges instead of slices add another dimension.
This looks delicious! I'm a great fan of sweet potatoes already and with the caramelization gooeyness ... I'm sold! And sesame seeds!
I had a friend who was enjoying this plate of fried something or other and finished almost 3 quarters of it and then asked me what was in it. And when I told her, she said,"Oh, I don't eat that (one particular ingredient), don't like the taste" and promptly pushed the plate away. Go figure 😛
Your potatoes sound terrific! I think that with some guests it's better not to mention the origins of the dish nor the content. Some people have such strong sterotypical views of certain cuisines (or of their likes/dislikes) it's really funny to observe how they adore for example beef cheeks and take second helpings (they wouldn't even taste them if they knew!).
Nami's blog is certainly a wonderful source of Japanese recipes. I am a big fan too!
I hope you will be able to buy certain products at least through internet although fresh ones, needing special packages might be difficult to order...
haha reading through your comment, I just remember a story. my husband had gonne to dubai and his friend convinced him to go to a place where they served tasty omletts. It was tasty he said but it had a weird texture. he figuered out later that it was goat brain. I dont think so he ll have it so soon. but what u r saying sissi, is correct. often we love a dish when we dont know what it it, once u know its weirdness then u tend to dislike the idea. lol