Satsuma Imo (Sweet Potatoes)

[Hiroyuki]

I used to steam satsuma imo until I learned two or three years ago that boiling them was the best way to bring out their sweetness.

I now cut satuma imo so that they fit in the pan, and boil them for 20 minutes.

Then, I cut them into smaller pieces and put them in the 'oven toaster' (toaster oven?) and heat them for several minutes to remove excess water.

Left: Before heated in the oven, right: After heated

They taste really good, comparable to ishiyaki imo.

How do you cook satsuma imo?

[Akiko]

I love Satsuma Imo. I simply put them in the oven for an hour to an hour and a half. Roasting it for a long time carmalizes the edges so beautifully.

yummy.

[torakris]

It is that season isn't it...

We have been eating them a lot!

My favorite way to eat them is to wrap them whole in damp newspaper then in foil and snuggle them into the coals of your BBQ for 10-30 minutes (depending on thickness), unwrap and eat immediately. It tastes like you bought it off the yaki-imo truck. You can also do this in an oven, though the BBQ yields slightly better results.

The big hit a couple days ago, was deep frying. I cut them into french fry like pieces and soaked them in cold water for a bit, then dried them well. I cooked them in a med-high canola oil until crisp and th center was soft. I served them with a mayo-horseradish dip (the American Best Foods mayo and the western white horseradish, but it could be more Japanese with QP and wasabi I guess..)

For simmering/ boiling I use the following quantities:

per 1 medium sized satumaimo

1 cup of water

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon

good pince of salt

cut them into large bite sized pieces with the skin on and soak in cold water for about 15 minutes. Drain, then place the sastumaimo, water, lemon juice, sugar and salt into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover it, turn the heat to low and simmer for 15 (or so) minutes. These are really wonderful cold and go great in bentos.

Two days ago I made a great satsumaimo and onion stir-fry with chiles, cardamom seeds, cinnamon stick and seasoned with just salt and lime juice, my kids devoured this and although it is Sri Lankan in origin it goes well with Japanese foods.

[helenjp]

I know it's probably a bad thing to do, but I can't resist soaking them in cold water for a good long time (1-3 hours), then simmering or steaming them. Soaking them somehow makes them a very bright yellow when cooked, and also removes any "stinky" off flavors (I sometimes detect a sort of beany flavor in sweet potatoes). Since I discovered this, I haven't needed to use kuchinashi when making kinton for New Year.

[AmyDaniel]

Do satsumaimo taste different from standard American sweet potatoes?

Amy

[torakris]

Do satsumaimo taste different from standard American sweet potatoes?

Amy

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they tend to have a milder flavor and the flesh is quite light sort of a light yellow

[helenjp]

OK, just for you guys (can you tell I only have half my usual work this week?) I dragged out my Imo no Ryouri book, and reminded myself of all my favorites...

...apart from the sato-imo croquettes which we had last night...

I've made sweet-potato croquettes, but find them a little unpredictable - sometimes they are inexplicably stodgy, other times fine.

Imo-gayu with sweet potatoes. Definitely a favorite!

Sweet potatoes simmered in soy sauce and mirin, sometimes deepfried before simmering. I can take it or leave it...but simmered with soy and mirin AND shreds of kombu, yum!

Lightly seasoned nimono with green beans, atsuage, and early satsuma-imo. A big yes on that recipe!

Satsuma-imo simmered with lemon, a great bento favorite, and satsuma-imo simmered with pieces of apple - very nice with "yoshoku" pork or croquette dishes.

I once made a Chinese dish which had matchsticks of lotus root, sweet potato, cloudear fungus and what not, deepfried tender-crisp, then served in a thinnish ankake. It was a temple style, and it was delicious, and worth it for the special occasion I made it for, but VERY time-consuming. Keep wondering how I could simplify it...

[white lotus]

Do satsumaimo taste different from standard American sweet potatoes?

Amy

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This is not a direct response to the flavor aspect of satsumaimo but the texture and consistency is different to me. One Thanksgiving, I mistakently made the assumption that one could just substitute satsumaimo in a candied yam/sweet potato recipe. What resulted was tasty but not recognizable as the traditional side dish. They were firm and yellow and could have been some confection from a third world country, neither Japanese or American. It was an interesting experiment.

[itch22]

Tempura.

[Pumpkin Lover]

Do satsumaimo taste different from standard American sweet potatoes?

Amy

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We had them while we were in Japan, remember? They were not as soft as American sweet potatoes, and definitely not orange. They reminded me of chestnuts or just any old nut. They were also a lot more crumbly than our regular baked potato over here.

[helenjp]

They reminded me of chestnuts

I hear you. In fact, they are a wonderful sub for chestnuts in a "satsuma-imo vermicelle". As husband's birthday is in October, now and again I make him satsuma-imo filled cakes or Mont Blanc. If you soak the imo to get rid of the sappy stuff, you get a very nice colored satsuma-imo paste too.

Maybe satsuma-imo are really designed to be steamed? I like them best that way, when baked they seem dry and crumbly to me compared with the fat kumara sweet potatoes we have in New Zealand.

[Hiroyuki]

They reminded me of chestnuts or just any old nut.

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Interesting remarks. As a matter of fact, satsuma imo are often said to be 'more delicious than chustnusts' (kuri yori umai).

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

I've had them before, and I find that they're less sweet than the orange sweet potatoes or "yams" here in the US. I can find Japanese sweet potatoes at Whole Foods Market occasionally, and I like them done up in tempura (along with green beans). American sweet potatoes make lousy tempura.

[torakris]

has anyone else been noticing the greater variety in satsumaimo in recent years?

One of my new favorites is the hayato-imo, which is very similar the the sweet potato I ate in the US. Two weeks ago I bought a satsumaimo sampler from my co-op, that included three varieties ( "regular", an orange one and purple one--I forget the names).

The supermarket closest to my house has a little satsumaimo section right now, along with a couple types of the "regular" satsumaimo, they have 4 other varieties. I bought three of them--

the hayato-imo, 安納こがね (I am not sure how to pronounce the kanji.. ) and a purple variety that I forget the name of..

some pictures of the different types can be found here:

http://www.k-yurakukan.com/floor/yakata/imo/imo.htm

[Hiroyuki]

安納こがね (I am not sure how to pronounce the kanji.. )

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Found it. Annou　あんのう.

http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~seed/veget.htm

[torakris]

purple satsumaimo chips!

purchased product, devoured in seconds by 3 children....

[curlywurlyfi]

Two days ago I made a great satsumaimo and onion stir-fry with chiles, cardamom seeds, cinnamon stick and seasoned with just salt and lime juice,

Kris, this sounds delicious. Did you part-cook the sweet potatoes before stir-frying?

[melonpan]

yes, do provide a recipe! i would like to try this!

[torakris]

yes, do provide a recipe!  i would like to try this!

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the potatoes are boiled a couple minutes until tender but still firm.

Heat some oil in a large frying pan toss in a couple dried red chiles, then add a cinnamon stick and 2 to 3 cardamom pods stir a couple times and add about 3 good sized onions worth of thinly sliced half rings. Cok a couple minutes until lightly browned then add the sweet potatoes. Stirfry a couple minutes then add some salt and a couple squeezes of lime juice. Cook a bit more until tender.

Adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian

[torakris]

This morning my kids an I attended a yaki imo (fire roasted sweet potato) event put on by the local kodomo kai (neighborhood children's group). They set up 3 fires at a local park and cooked a couple hundred satsumaimo, there were probably about 100 kids that showed up.

A view of two of the fires

pulling the satsumaimo out of the fire with rakes and sticks

enjoying their yaki imo

Mia

and Julia

[chibirisu]

I've just rediscovered satsuma-imo (had 'em in Japan, couldn't find 'em here for the longest time, now two of the local Asian groceries have 'em) and I'm looking for fun stuff to do with 'em for one of my Japanese cooking classes.

I'm already planning on making kuri-kinton the REAL way (it just turns out bizarre when you do it with canned sweet potatoes) and daigaku-imo and as close as I can get to yaki-imo without setting off school fire alarms. I'm also thinking about making satsuma-imo paste to stuff into manju like koshi-an, and I've seen little tartlets with satsuma-imo filling and a few black sesame seeds sprinkled on top that I'll bet I could duplicate with a little tinkering.

Anybody got more ideas?

[torakris]

chibirisu,

welcome to eGullet and the Japan Forum!

I really like your profile name.

Other than the ideas listed upthread some other things I can think of would be:

satsumaimo takikomi gohan (with goma-shio sprinkled on top)

pork and satsumaimo miso soup (one of my favorite versions!)

imoyoukan (made with satumaimo instead of anko)

satsumaimo no mushi pan (just a plain mushi pan recipe made with little cubes of satsumaimo, I like it with brown sugar instead of white)

and a sweet that I am not sure of the name...

This is a very popular snack for kids-- whole satsumaimo are roasted then cut in half lengthwise, the insides are then scooped out leaving the skin intact. The insides are mixed with cream, butter, sugar and an egg yolk (cinnamon and vanilla are also sometimes added). It is usually pushed through a sieve to make it smooth and then it is placed bake in the skins and baked, it is often brushed with an egg yolk before cooking. Most people I know just call this snack 'sweet potato' but I am not sure if it has a real name of not. It is wonderful though.

[BarbaraY]

A lot of wonderful ideas to try. Thanks to all. I'm always looking for interesting ways to prepare sweet potato. There are pale ones available here but I'm not sure if they are the same as the Japanese ones. Will have to check it out.

[chibirisu]

This is a very popular snack for kids-- whole satsumaimo are roasted then cut in half lengthwise, the insides are then scooped out leaving the skin intact. The insides are mixed with cream, butter, sugar and an egg yolk (cinnamon and vanilla are also sometimes added). It is usually pushed through a sieve to make it smooth and then it is placed bake in the skins and baked, it is often brushed with an egg yolk before cooking. Most people I know just call this snack 'sweet potato' but I am not sure if it has a real name of not. It is wonderful though.

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That sounds INSANELY good. Any particular proportions, or is it like mashed potatoes in the US where everyone's mom makes it their own way and never writes down a recipe? ^__^

(going to dig for info on how to make the other suggestions too - since my dessert class is going to be right before Thanksgiving, I'm figuring "variations on things to do with sweet potatoes & cousins" will go over pretty well...)

[torakris]

This is a very popular snack for kids-- whole satsumaimo are roasted then cut in half lengthwise, the insides are then scooped out leaving the skin intact. The insides are mixed with cream, butter, sugar and an egg yolk (cinnamon and vanilla are also sometimes added). It is usually pushed through a sieve to make it smooth and then it is placed bake in the skins and baked, it is often brushed with an egg yolk before cooking. Most people I know just call this snack 'sweet potato' but I am not sure if it has a real name of not. It is wonderful though.

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That sounds INSANELY good. Any particular proportions, or is it like mashed potatoes in the US where everyone's mom makes it their own way and never writes down a recipe? ^__^

(

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You got it!

I received a recipe from a friend the first time I ate them at her house and since then just add the ingredients to taste...

A search of yahoo Japan gives quite different variations as well, including things like milk, condensed milk, rum, orange juice, honey, etc

Here are a couple that look similar to the one I make:

http://www6.plala.or.jp/lasaison/sub38.html

http://cookpad.com/xxmarixx/index.cfm?Page...72658&Mode=full

http://www.sukoyakanet.or.jp/recipe-db/recipe?ID=349