Spinach in Mashed Sweet Potato

If you may recall, I am currently writing my thesis which is due in less than two weeks' time.  Being a nursing student, writing a thesis is not just reading journal articles and inventing a story.  In fact, I had to plan and conduct my own research study from scratch.  I did a qualitative study exploring the experiences of older Singaporean Chinese women coping with chronic illness, which involved a series of face-to-face interviews with real-life patients in a hospital.  I then had to listen to the audiotapes on repeat and transcribe the interviews into written form.  That was not the end.  I had to read my transcripts again and again, analysing the content and coming up with themes  Painstaking?  You bet!

The research process was undoubtedly arduous but strangely rewarding in its own way.  As it approaches its end, I like to share with you one of the themes which emerged from my study.  The theme is 'To eat is wealth', which is drawn from the translation of a common Chinese saying '能吃是福'.  Now I am not sure about other ethnic cultures in Singapore and around the world, but being a Chinese myself, I think the finding resonates in me.  

Food is the embodiment of life.  You feed your body with nourishing food.  You feed your soul through the enjoyment of good food.  Food is also the celebration of life.  You eat with people and talk over food.  You celebrate birthdays with birthday cakes.  You cook food for your loved ones.  Most good things in life come with food.  

To the older Chinese women whom I interviewed, food was life and life was food.  This was in spite of their chronic illnesses which often imposed on them dietary restrictions.  Having been feeling somewhat ill for the last two weeks, I think I can attest to such ingrained mentality towards food.  Even though I was bloated and lost my appetite, I still felt sad over not being able to cook and eat the food I wanted!  

So now, I present to you a simple but delicious recipe that goes pretty well into my tummy.  

 Spinach in Mashed Sweet Potato

(inspired from a couple of similar recipes which I have forgotten)

Ingredients

• 2 medium-sized sweet potatoes
• Baby spinach leaves (amount depends on how much you love greens)
• 1 red onion (diced)
• 2 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
• 1 tbsp ghee/butter/VCO* 
• A few cloves (optional)
• 1 cinnamon stick (optional)

Directions

1. Steam sweet potatoes for 20-30 minutes until soft enough for a fork to penetrate easily.
2. Heat the cooking fat, and then add spices, red onion and garlic to stir-fry until the onion becomes soft and slightly brownish.
3. Add the baby spinach leaves and stir-fry for about 1 minute.  (Baby spinach wilts very fast, so make sure you don't overcook them!)  Then turn off heat.
4. Once sweet potatoes are ready, mash them up in a large bowl and then mix in stir-fried vegetables.  

Just an idea, if you like the mashed sweet potato to be more creamy, feel free to add (nut/rice/dairy) milk.

Verdict

I love it.  This is my third time cooking it.  The first was without spinach and the second was with fennel instead of red onion.  I think the third try is the best as I really like to see green against the yellow backdrop of the sweet potatoes.  Haha.

*In my humble opinion, I believe that ghee, butter and virgin coconut oil (VCO) are the best oils to use for high-heat cooking.  I don't believe in seed oils like sunflower or canola, even though they are aggressively promoted as 'healthy' oils.  Some emerging studies are showing that such oils may be more unhealthy than the much demonized saturated fats like butter and coconut oil.  I am traditional in the sense that if these oils weren't used in the past to make food, I shouldn't be using them at all.   

Sweet potato & millet cakes

I think it is pretty evident that I am a BIG fan of sweet potatoes.  Before I started learning how to cook, my idea of potatoes was erroneously predominated by images of commercial potato chips, french fries, KFC mashed potato and all that unhealthy stuff.  Potatoes aren't just those ubiquitous brown-skinned, white-fleshed potatoes.  As I have come to realise, sweet potatoes are severely underutilised in everyday cooking.  In my personal opinion, they taste so much flavourful than their white counterparts.  Plus, they have a much lower glycaemic index (GI) than their white peers, even though they are sweeter in taste. 

This afternoon, I attempted to make my parents and myself some sweet potato and millet cakes, the recipe adapted from Eating Bird Food.  The original recipe used quinoa (pronounced as keen-wah), cranberries and spring onion.  Here, I used millet and Goji berries, and omitted the spring onion which, in my opinion, functioned more as a garnish than as a key ingredient. 

Cake batter which can be eaten on its own!

Ingredients (makes for 12 patties)

• 2 medium-sized sweet potatoes 
• 6 tbsp millet 
• 1/2 cup Goji berries

Steam the sweet potatoes for about 20-30 minutes till they are soft enough to be mashed up in a large bowl.  Cook your millet at the same time.  Heat your oven at 180 degrees Celsius.  When your sweet potatoes are ready, mash them up and mix in the millet and Goji berries to form your cake 'batter'.  However, the batter was so irresistable that I ate it on its own.  I could imagine having it as part of a big warm salad on a cold day!

Batter on oiled tray

Once done, scoop up a handful of batter and mould it into a patty before placing on an oiled baking tray.  Repeat until the batter is completed (of course).  Then bake them for about 20-30 minutes.  Halfway through, remember to turn the cakes over so as to ensure both sides are cooked equally. 

These cakes, mind you, were no typical cakes.  In appearance, they looked like small patties.  They were lightly crisp on the outside, and when I took my first bite, they were oh-my-oh-my sweetly moist and delicious!  The millet rendered a kind of nutty density to the cakes.  The Goji berries diversified the overall sweetness of the cakes.

I had meant to make those cakes for my parents when they come home from work.  Most unfortunately, however, I gobbled down everything save for four cakes sitting in the oven right now.  Either I used too little ingredients or I was too greedy!

Sweet Potato Prata

I must confess that these sweet potato prata weren't meant to be prata.  I had wanted to create sweet potato pancakes which were supposed to look light and fluffy.  However, my pancakes looked slightly charred, creating an unwanted image of being oily.  They weren't!  Despite their less than ideal appearance, they tasted awesome.  The sweet potato provided nutritional and atomical density that filled me up fast.


Lessons learnt

1. Never use a traditional wok to make pancakes.  It produces charring on the surfaces of the pancakes.  Should use a non-stick large pan.  That is why pancakes are called pancakes.
2. Be diligent in flipping your pancakes.  They turn brown pretty fast!

Ingredients

• 1 sweet potato, steamed for 15-20 minutes and then mashed up
• About 3/4 cup buckwheat flour
• 1 tbsp extra-virgin coconut oil
• 1 egg replacer (1 tbsp ground flaxseed meal to 3 tbsp water)
• Water

Mix all the ingredients together, adding water until the batter has a smooth consistency.  However, if you like, you can use less water to retain the texture of mashed potato.  Slightly oil and heat up your pan before pouring your batter over it.  Makes 3 medium-sized pancakes...oops, prata, I mean!

Sweet Potato Chips

I love potato chips, especially those BBQ-flavoured ones.  However, commercial potato chips are deep-fried and loaded with chemicals.  You know how bad they are when you reach out for them again and again, never feeling fully satisfied.  On the other hand, these sweet potato chips are dehydrated to the point of being crispy.  They are raw, which means these chips are packed with nutrients!

Ingredients

• Sweet potatoes, sliced thinly using a mandoline
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Apple cider vinegar
• Paprika powder
• Ground cinnamon

Marinate your sweet potato slices in the remaining ingredients mixed together.  Dehydrate them for 3-5 hours.