About the Recipe
Sweet potatoes have been cultivated in Japan for much longer than their distant cousin the "common potato." Time was when the sweet potato was Japan's dominant fast food, being sold roasted on thousands of street corners from charcoal burners. The charcoal burner was ideal for caramelising the sweet potato in a mixture of soy sauce and sugar and these turned out to be very popular as a staple student food and hence, they became known as "daigaku imo" meaning literally, university potato.
Ingredients
1 large sweet potato
for the caramel:
3 tbsp brown sugar*
1 tsp soy sauce
2 tbsp water
1 tsp black toasted sesame seeds a garnish
some veg oil for deep frying
*you can use white sugar but you may not get the same deep brown colour
Preparation
peel the skin of the sweet potato, then cut into random bite sized pieces, then immerse in a plastic or glass bowl of water and stand for 10 mins
next, cover the tope of the bowl with a sheet of cling film & microwave for 3 mins (600w)
when finished, empty the potato pieces onto kitchen paper to absorb excess moisture
fill a pan with 2cm with veg oil and heat to 180’C / 350 F
deep fry the potato for 3 - 4 mins and drain again on kitchen paper
now, to prepare the caramel sauce:
add the sugar, soy sauce & water to a small pan and stir over a medium heat until the sauce thickens
add the sweet potato and coat well with the sauce
your "daigaku imo" are now ready to serve. sprinkle over the sesame seeds