Enjoy an exquisite baked sweet potato through the recipe that we will share with you today in this fantastic culinary article. Do not miss any detail!
A tuber from Central and South America, for the whole world.
Baked sweet potato: Origin
The sweet potato, also known as sweet potato, sweet potato or sweet potato, is an edible tuber produced by the Ipomoea batatas plant. Generally, the products of this yellowish or reddish pulp plant are to which the term sweet potato is attributed.
For their part, the flesh-colored pulp tubers are commonly called sweet potatoes or sweet potatoes. Generally, it is ovoid in shape and more or less brown in color on its surface.
The domestication of the sweet potato began in Central and South America more than 4500 years ago, and this process may even have begun as early as 2500 BC
It is believed that in the year 700, the sweet potato arrived in Oceania from South America, thanks to the Polynesians who had traveled to this region and returned with the exotic tuber, although there is also the possibility that it was the South American indigenous who will take to this continent.
From Polynesia it came to New Zealand and later to Hawaii, it is not believed that the plant has reproduced or expanded spontaneously in the oceanic environment, this is based on the fact that in this region the cultivation of the plant is done by cutting and not using seeds. .
The cutting is the separation of stem fragments that are then introduced underground to generate roots that, in turn, give rise to a new plant with genetic content equal to that of the original (parent).
These types of plants require tropical climates, as well as subtropical, with temperatures ranging between 14 and 26 ° C and can share space with other plants such as Allium cepa (onion).
Nutritional value
The sweet potato has large amounts of fiber, minerals, starch and vitamins, among which B1, C and E stand out. It also contains preformed vitamin A, known as beta-carotene, being found in greater quantity in sweet potatoes with yellowish pulp.
Thanks to the benefits of beta-carotene, this food is widely used in Africa and Asia to share vitamin A deficiency.
The most important protein of this tuber is lysine, an essential amino acid that is used in the production of cereals. It has fatty acids such as oleic and linoleic, it also has a sweet taste thanks to the sucrose, glucose and fructose it has.
In summary, the sweet potato has elements that help reduce cholesterol, facilitate digestion, prevent colon cancer, diabetes and heart disease (the latter due to antioxidants).
Baked sweet potato recipe
Ingredients
Sweet potatoes (the amount depends on the number of guests)
parchment paper
Preparation
To make the baked sweet potato, the first thing you should do is turn on the oven at a temperature not lower than 200 ° C, in this way it warms up by the time we put the sweet potatoes in it.
Wash the sweet potatoes with plenty of water to remove the sand or soil that may be stuck to the skin of the sweet potato, dry them well or wait for them to drain.
Place the parchment paper on the tray that you will use for baking and immediately afterwards place the sweet potatoes on it.
Let cook for about an hour, although this depends on the size of the sweet potatoes, if they are very large they will require more time and if they are small, they will need less time.
You will know that they are ready when pressing with a utensil, the sweet potatoes yield, you will also notice that they have adopted a soft consistency.
Remove them from the oven, let cool and serve to your liking, you can use them as a main meal, as well as a companion or ingredient in another recipe or dish.
Tips
Normally, sweet potatoes contain a large amount of sand stuck to their skin, as this is not removed but is cooked together with the pulp, make sure to wash them very well to remove dirt.
As for the cooking time, a sweet potato that has less than three hundred grams is usually cooked in just over 50 minutes, while one of up to five hundred grams will do so in more than an hour.
As mentioned above, the time of the sweet potatoes in the oven depends on their size and weight, following the previous examples, a sweet potato of more than one kilo will obviously need more than an hour and a half to cook properly.
Another fact to take into account is the shape of the sweet potato, usually the round ones take longer to cook than those that are elongated.
When the sweet potatoes are more than two kilos, it is advisable to wrap them with aluminum foil so that they do not dry out excessively.
When removing the sweet potatoes from the oven, cut them to check that they have cooked well, otherwise you can put them back in the oven for another few minutes. In some regions, such as Cádiz, Spain, they insert cloves into the sweet potatoes to complement the aroma and flavor of the tuber.
If you are interested in more baked recipes, go to the following link and discover one that will undoubtedly delight your palate: Valencian Oven Style Rice.
Sweet potato cake: Another recipe with sweet potatoes
Ingredients
This traditional recipe of Valencian cuisine, typical of the Christmas season, requires to make about 18 cakes of: 400g of sweet potato, 150g of sugar, 1 egg, 250g of wheat flour, sunflower oil, sweet white wine, sweet anise, 35g extra sugar.
Preparation
First of all, we must prepare the sweet potato puree that will be the filling of our cakes, for this we remove the skin of the sweet potatoes and cut them into small pieces of the same size.
Place the sweet potatoes in a saucepan with plenty of water, let them boil until they are soft. When they are ready, remove the water and add the 150g of sugar, crushing the sweet potatoes and mixing everything very well.
Set the filling aside to cool, the next step is to prepare the cake batter. In a bowl or container, add the sunflower oil, white wine, anise and the other 25g of sugar.
Beat or stir the mixture well until you get a uniform dough, with a spoon we mix the flour. When the dough thickens, you should knead it on a clean surface.
Place two sheets of parchment paper, one on top of the dough and one below, then roll it out with a rolling pin. With a round cookie cutter approximately 10cm in diameter, cut the cakes.
We add in the center of each circle a small spoonful of the sweet potato puree, grabbing two opposite sides of the dough we stretch upwards and bring both sides together.
The cakes are sealed by finger pressure. We place the cakes on a tray with parchment paper, beat the egg, paint each cake and sprinkle sugar.
We take them to the oven at 180°C for about 15 minutes, until they are golden brown, when this happens we remove them from the oven and let them cool and then enjoy them alone or accompanied, for example, by a delicious cup of coffee.