Sweet Potatoes

I'm not sure how experts classify sweet potatoes but I divvy them up into "bunch" types, "semi-bush" types, and wild unkempt ramblers. Of those three types I like the following named varieties: Bunch Porto Rico, Vardeman, and Okinawan Purple. The Bunch Porto Rico are nice to grow in containers since they are quite happy to stay in one small (relatively) area. It is a pretty standard store-type sweet potato. Vardeman, a semi-bush type, has a beautiful purple tint to the new leaves so it is quite decorative while the flesh is a deep orange and tasty. It also will do fine in containers but needs a bit more pruning to stay in place than does Bunch Porto Rico. My favorite for eating is the wild and unruly Okinawan Purple. It has a rosy purple flesh that turns deep blue purple when cooked. It has very little of the carroty taste of orange fleshed varieties so it is often used in deserts. But it is also nice just boiled and mashed (see my recipe at the Edible Plant Project Website . Unfortunately it take a lot of space to grow it since it really does ramble all over.

Growing sweet potatoes is fairly easy. They just need lots of sun and enough water to keep them growing. A bit of fertilizer now and then goes a long way but mostly you just stand back and let them do their thing then search for them in the fall. However, when they are in the ground the tubers get somewhat bug eaten in my yard. I find that too much organic matter seems to make this worse so I keep them in sandy soil areas where they thrive. I do, however, also have some sort of toothy critter that is able to find the tubers and eat them under ground before I get to them and for some reason I never seem to be able to find where the tubers are growing amidst all the vines. So I've been experimenting growing them in containers in various soil mixes. I won't go into that here since I plan a series of posts on container types and soil mixes. Later for that dudes and dudettes!


Sour Sweet Potato Cream Pie

I used to call this Fermented Sweet Potato Cheese Cake - but a friend told me it tastes a lot like key lime pie and since it does have more of a key lime pie custardy texture I've changed the name. The surpising thing about this recipe is it does not taste at all like sweet potato. Basically it uses lactic acid fermented sweet potato and a kefir fermented soy cheese base with pumpkin pie spices added and that filling stuffed into a premade graham cracker crust with a pecan praline topping. Everything else is pretty much decoration and flavor enhancers so go crazy experimenting with it! Just one caution - the whole point is to have living lactic acid bacteria in your diet so don't cook this after fermenting. You'll kill the bacteria and loose the pro-biotic benefits.

1) Ferment two cups of cooked sweet potato according to the process for Sour Mashed Sweet Potato. The fermentation should last two days at room temperature.

2) While the sweet potato is fermenting add a couple of tablespoons of Kefir and a teaspoon of salt to a half gallon of soy milk, cover loosely with a lid and let it ferment also for two days at room temperature.

3) Strain the fermented soy milk through a fine cheese cloth or a clean handkerchief and save the whey (to use as a starter for your next batch or for other recipes). You should get about 1 cup of soy "cheese" out of two quarts of soy milk.

4) Mix the 1 cup of soy cheese and the 2 cups of fermented sweet potato together and blend in a blender or with a wire whip.

5. Add in 3 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spices, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon lemon extract, and 1/2 to 2/3 cup of sugar.

6. Spoon the mixture into a pre-made graham cracker crust.

7. Add a topping of pecan pralines (see Maple Glazed Pralines).

8. Put it into the fridge and chill.

The longer it stays in the fridge (or the longer you let the fermented sweet potato sit in the fridge before using it in the recipe) the more sour it gets. After sitting a week in the fridge it is still good to eat and as sour as a key lime pie. A shorter stay and it tastes more like pumpkin pie. The texture of the filling is rather soft - it may be useful to freeze it and serve like a frozen custard pie. Instead of the praline topping whipped cream might be good if you are going to freeze it. And, you might just want to forget the pie crust and topping and put the filling into your ice cream maker for a tangy sweet tater ice cream. Endless variations! One final comment - the Okinawan Purple Sweet Potato is remarkably beautiful in this recipe - change out a few of those pumpkin pie spices and add something like a half cup of whole cherries to that deep blue mix and you have a near stupifying sweet potato ice cream. Look up "Ube Ice Cream" for some ideas. Note that true "Ube" is a yam (Dioscorea alata variety) not a sweet potato (Ipomea batatas) but the ice cream is made with both.