It took
me an entire childhood to like sweet potato soup. I had always found it
visually boring and plain in taste; and even though there weren’t that many
Chinese desserts to pick from back then, I always shied away from it.
My
family, however, took desserts seriously, and seemed to like them all. Often, dessert
was planned at the start of the day and prepared in advance. Among Western
desserts, grape jello and baked bread pudding were my top choices. If we
decided to go Chinese, steamed egg custard; bean curd skin and gingko nuts; and
red bean soup would be my favourites.
These
days, sweet potato dessert is prepared in a basic, thoughtless manner --
peeled, cubed, and boiled with sugar. The end result offers sweetness and little
else; you have a dessert that’s flat in taste. My family’s recipe was far more elaborate,
but yields a multi-layered stimulation to the taste buds.
Try it
and see it what I mean……..
Sweet Potato Soup
Sweet
potato 350 g
Water 1½ litres
Salt ¼
tsp
Rock
sugar 100 g
Brown
sugar 50 g
Lard 1
tbsp
Ginger 35 g,
bashed
Pandan
leaves 6,
tied into a knot
Method:
1. Peel potato and cut into cubes.
Add salt into 6 cups of water, stir until salt is dissolved. Soak potato in
water for 4 hours to remove excess starch. In between the period, change water
twice.
2. Rinse potato and drain completely.
Wipe potato with kitchen towel.
3. Using a claypot, sauté ginger with
lard for 2 minutes. Add potato and sauté for another 3 minutes.
4. Add water and pandan leaves, boil
until potato is soft.
5. Skim off the oil if necessary
during boiling.
6. Serve hot or lukewarm.
This
method of sauteing potato helps to prevent the potato from turning mushy. The
broth, as well, is packed full of flavour from the ginger, pandan leaves and
potato.
