purple sweet potato and taro cakes

中文：紫薯芋泥糕

I never understand why purple sweet potatoes haven’t been widely popular in America like potatoes do.  They are sweet, nutritious, and so pretty to look at. And there are so many ways to enjoy them.  You can steam them, deep fry them, and bake them like any regular sweet potatoes. They are sweeter and have a tenser texture.  I load up with purple sweet potatoes whenever I go shopping in an Asian grocery store. 

A lot of Asian dessert involves purple sweet potatoes too.  What I am making today is a really simple and fast snack. 

Ingredients：

2 small / or 1 medium size sweet purple potatoes
1 large piece of taro root (about 1 cup when cut into cubes)
5 to 6 tablespoon whole milk / heavy cream
4 to 5 tablespoons honey (use more if you have a sweet tooth)
water for steaming

Directions:

Steam the purple sweet potatoes until a fork can easily piece through them.  Peel and puree in a food processor with whole milk or heavy cream.

Peel the taro root and cut into half inch cubes.  Steam them over medium high heat for about 10 minutes.  Puree in a food processor with milk, honey, and a little water.  Taro root is very starchy after steamed.  Water will help to make it smooth.  But don’t add too much water.  We need taro paste here, not soup. O(∩_∩)O~

Spray a mooncake mold with oil.  Add 2 tablespoons purple sweet potato paste to the bottom, 1 to 2 tablespoons taro paste in the middle and then top with another 2 tablespoons purple sweet potato paste. 

Flip the mold; press it tightly for a couple seconds and then release.

If you have a mooncake mold handy, a mousse ring will do the work just fine. 

Top with honey and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Banana Pecan Cake

中文：香蕉山核桃蛋糕

What would you do with a couple overripe bananas?  I always make banana pecan cake with them.  This recipe is from foodnetwork: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/banana-bread-recipe/index.html . It calls for 3 ripe bananas.  It is quite interesting that I always have 2 bananas left, so I adapt it a little bit.

Ingredients：

2 ripe bananas
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 stick butter（6 tablespoon, room temperature）
2 small eggs（ or 1 1/2 large eggs, room temperature）
2/3 tablespoon milk
2/3 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
2/3 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 teaspoon baking powder
2/3 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup chopped pecans

Directions：

Preheat the oven to 325F/ 163.  Spray the baking pan or line it with parchment paper.

In a clean large bowl, add butter and sugar.  Beat with a hand mixer until the sugar melts; butter became pale color and volumes increase a little bit.  Add eggs while beating.  Mix until well combined before adding the next one.

In another bowl, add peeled bananas.  Smash with a fork.  Add milk and ground cinnamon. Mix well.

Shift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add banana puree to egg and butter mixture, mix well.  Add flour.  With a spatula or wood spoon, whisk just until the flour is cooperated.  Don’t over whisk.  Fold in chopped pecans.

Pour the batter into greased baking pan.  Bake for 45 to 60 minutes or until a wooden skewer can pierce into the center and comes out clean.

A cup of freshly brewed coffee is perfect with the cake!

Teriyaki tuna rolls

中文： 照烧吞拿鱼紫菜卷

Sometime when I crave for sushi but too lazy to go out, I make these teriyaki tuna rolls.  They are easy and fast to make, but still very tasty! O(∩_∩)O~

Ingredients：

1bowl of freshly cooked rice
1 ripe avocado
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 pound sashimi grade tuna
3 to 4 tablespoons teriyaki sauce
2 to 3 teaspoons toasted white sesame seeds
5 to 6 dried seaweed sheets
wasabi paste
soy sauce

Directions：

Defrost the tuna in refrigerator.  Cut it into small long strips, about the size of little fingers.

Peel the avocado and remove its core.  Cut it into thick slices.   Add rice vinegar and sugar.  Toss gently until they are well combined.

Place one seaweed sheet on the bamboo sushi mat.  Evenly spread a handful of freshly cooked rice over the seaweed sheet.  Add tuna strips to a end; spoon teriyaki sauce over tuna; sprinkle with white toasted sesame seeds and line up with avocado slices.

Roll it up from one end as tightly as you can.

With a sharp knife, cut it into 8 equal pieces.

Repeat the process until all the tuna and rice is finished.

Serve with soy sauce and wasabi paste. Enjoy!

Dried Sweet Potatoes

中文： 红薯干

Dried sweet potato was one of my childhood favorites.  It can be served as a snack or a side dish.  It is sweet, soft, and a little bit chewy because of the drying process, which makes it so much joyful to eat dried sweet potatoes.

In sweet potato harvest season, most people in my hometown used to make dried sweet potatoes at home.  The homemade version is so much better than the ones you can buy from grocery store.  They were dried under the warm autumn sunshine, with the dry warm wind blowing over.  For the ten-year-old me, fall is the best season of the year. 

That is also why I still make a large batch of dried sweet potatoes every year.

Ingredients：

10 pounds sweet potatoes
water for steaming/boiling

It is super easy and fast to make dried sweet potatoes at home.  Steam/ boil them over medium high heat for 25 to 45 minutes, depending their sizes, or until a fork can easily pierce through the center.  Remove from heat and let them cool down to room temperature.

Peel the sweet potatoes and cut each into 6 to 8 halves.  Transfer to dehydrator racks and dehydrate at 135F/ 57 C for 7 to 8 hours.  The time needed is also depending on the sweet potato sizes and how chewy you want them to be.  I like mine on the soft side.  Dehydrate for a couple more hours if you prefer chewy texture.

There is a natural way to DIY dried sweet potatoes if you don’t have a dehydrator handy.  Place them on a cooling rack or any kind of racks you have, and dry them under the sun for 2 to 3 days.  It might take an extra couple days to dry if it is cloudy or cold.  Again, it is all depending on the sweet potatoes and your personal preferences.

The natural sweetness from sweet potatoes is good enough for me.  So I didn’t add any sugar.  If you have a sweet tooth, add sugar as needed when steaming or boiling them.

Here it is, one of my childhood favorites!

Soft and Sweet Potato Dinner Rolls

中文： 薯泥玫瑰小餐包

Unlike other baking lovers, I like to bake soft, sweet fluffy dinner rolls instead of French bread or sour dough bread.  Mashed sweet potato is a great ingredient in making dinner rolls.  It gives the rolls such pretty and bright vibrant yellow color, light sweetness and softer texture.

Ingredients：

250 g bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoon yeast
50 to 60 g whole milk
100 to 110 mashed sweet potato
1 large egg
40 g sugar
20 g butter (soften, or heated in microwave for a few seconds )
3 to 4 gluten flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
egg wash or honey + water for brushing

Note：

You can get mashed sweet potato from baked, boiled or steamed sweet potatoes.  Please remember that water content will differ greatly in each cooking ways.  You may need to adjust how much bread flour is needed here depending on the mashed sweet potato.  I get mine from baked sweet potato.

I add extra gluten flour to help with bread texture because 100 g mashed sweet potato is a lot for this recipe. 

Directions：

Heat the milk in microwave for 30 seconds; add the milk to bread machine container; dissolve yeast into the warm milk; and let it sit for 5 minutes.

Add eggs, flour, gluten flour, sugar, salt and mashed sweet potato; start dough cycle.  My bread machine will knead the dough for 20 minutes and proof for an hour. 

When kneading is done, abort the cycle; add diced butter; and start the dough cycle again. It will knead the dough for another 20 minutes, which should be able to get the dough past window panel test.

When the dough is doubled in size, transfer it to a well dusted wooden board.  Gently press down and knead for a minutes; cover and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Divide the dough into 32 equal pieces.  Roll each piece out; and line up four together.

Roll them up from one end

Cut it right in the middle.  Now you have two yellow roses!

Repeat the process until all dough pieces are turned into roses.  Place them cut side down in a greased baking pan; cover; and let it proof again for another 30 to 40 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400F/204 C.

Brush the bread with egg wash or honey + water.  Bake for 14 to 16 minutes.  Cover the bread with a large piece of foil if necessary to prevent dark color on top.

How beautiful they are!