Sweet Potato Pudding

I am sure we all have heard, via various sources how amazing the sweet potato is for you. From sweet potato fries to mashed sweet potato (I mean come on! ) and many other dishes in between sweet potato is ruling the world. 

But the thing is, for us growing up sweet potato was not a new thing. Our elders knew the value of sweet potato. It was available as a breakfast item in my home. We would boil it and eat with “pol sambol” , a mixture of grated coconut, red chilies and onions. 

Boiled sweet potato mashed up with a little milk is a great dish to feed little babies. It’s naturally sweet and does not get any better than that.  

So, today’s recipe was born out of necessity. Now I am sure there may be many different recipes out there that’s called a sweet potato pudding. My version was made to save a few boiled sweet potatoes sitting in my refrigerator. I am making a conscious effort to avoid wasting food. We eat at home a lot but we also tend to have leftovers. While I try to make only a limited quantity, I still sometimes end up cooking for the whole village. So, back to the recipe. 

When I saw these sweet things sitting in the refrigerator and giving me the stinking eye every time I opened the doors it was time to invent a recipe. It’s an invention for me because I have not made this in my kitchen before. 

I took the sweet potatoes and went into the pantry to get inspired. Several cans of condensed milk caught my eye. That’s it, let’s boil them together and see what I can get out of it.  

Thats exactly what I did. Added the sweet potatoes and condensed milk into a pan and started to cook it on low heat.  

I added one can of sweetened condensed milk to the sweet potatoes.  

It’s boiling away, but my gut says I need something else added to it. Now what would a girl grown up on a island coconut estate would just cannot live without? Coconut ofcourse. In this scenario it was dried dedicated coconut, unsweetened ofcourse because no one wants to end up in a sugar coma. 

Now to give perspective, I used about 2 cups of boiled sweet potatoes, one 14 oz can of condensed milk and half a cup of dedicates coconut powder. 

I boiled the mixture together about 15 minutes while stiring often. Because it can get stuck to the bottom. I took it off heat when I saw the mixture starting to leave the sides of the pan and coming together like a ball, sort of a pudding consistency. Just before taking it off heat I added some cardamom powder.

Once it’s off heat you can fry some almonds or cashews to add some crunch. I added some sliced almonds. 

What you have in front of you is sweet and creamy decadence. 

The way I see it, this recipe can be modified in many different variations. You can increase the coconut quantity, you can increase the sweet potato quantity and add some sugar also. Adding sugar will give you a harder consistency. Like a burfi. Don’t want sugar, how about jaggery instead? Any which way you slice it, this recipe cannot go bad. The way I see it you really need to try hard to mess it up.