Daigaku Imo

Sachie shared a couple of Japanese snack recipes in an episode of Sachie's Kitchen.  One of these is Daigaku Imo, which she also affectionately calls University Sweet Potato because it is a well-known treat to cash-strapped students.


While this recipe sounds Japanese, the recipe will be oddly familiar to us Filipinos.  This is similar to our camote cue (or camote Q), with the addition of sesame seeds!

I think the sweet potatoes we have in the Philippines are more adaptable to this recipe because our variety ends up with a rather crunchy outside and mushy inside when fried.  I used an orange kumara (the local name for sweet potato) for this recipe and tried to fry it but it started oozing water and soon it was merrily boiling away.  I tried to get it to the frying stage but ended up with some mildly browned bits instead (as can be seen from the above photo!)

You will need:
1 big orange kumara, chopped into bite-size pieces
sesame seeds, toasted
the original recipe calls for sugar syrup, but I used maple syrup instead
cooking oil

Procedure:
Heat up some cooking oil in a frying pan over medium heat.  Fry the sweet potato pieces.

When cooked (pierce with a fork for doneness), remove from heat then drizzle and mix with maple syrup.

Sprinkle toasted sesame seeds.  Let cool a bit and serve. Good for 2 servings.