African Sweet Potatoes

Perhaps I'm inspired by the plethora of root vegetables always around US groceries at this time of year. Or maybe it's the chilly weather that makes it feel like the season.  Or perhaps I'm just craving one of our favorite dishes from our Zim days....  'Tis almost the season to start harvesting these terrific tubers once again!

Meet a vegetable that is out of control in Zimbabwe: the sweet potato.  This crazy plant could just about save the whole country... for a few months anyway.  These giants can grow to well over a foot long and are abundant beyond belief.  Last year our first harvest tackled about a twelfth of the sweet potatoes plants growing in our garden... and we filled a large laundry basket!  My housekeeper, Ziwone, taught me the key to keeping these veggies fresh for a long time: never wash them!  Keeping the dirt on their outsides makes them last in a dark pantry forever....

 
It is a terribly arduous task. Digging up sweet potatoes is no joke and usually requires a long pick-axe or hoe.  Here Jonas tells Kurt where he should be searching for these goodies.  You can tell sweating Kurt appreciates it.


The easy part is replanting sweet potatoes, though.  After the potatoes are dug from the ground, the greens -no matter how torn- are simply covered with a little dirt and watered; they will grow a whole new (always larger) crop the next year!


(Above) my sister Caryn eats a plain, boiled sweet potato during our harvest celebration.  Typical Shona eating involves few ingredients.  Cook a potato.  Eat a potato.

The sweet potato of Zimbabwe is different than any other potato I've ever eaten; it is like no American potato, for sure.  Full of excessive starch and rock-hard white flesh inside, this potato took my child from loving to hating "sweet potatoes" in one taste. I admit that I hated them at first, too.  Even when cooked until they are almost liquid, they maintain a dry, chalk-like texture that can be hard to swallow. Then we realized we just needed some great recipes that did not treat them quite like the potatoes we were used to, and boy did we grow to love these monsters.  Below is one of our favorite recipes, which we often made over the campfire (not required) when our ZESA/electricity went out:   (Check out how you can make them in America, too!)

African Sweet Potato Pancakes

3 eggs

½ cup millk

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 ¼ cup flour

2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon dried thyme

12 oz of finely shredded African sweet potatoes

2 onions, sliced very thinly or finely chopped

Salt and pepper to taste (~3/4 tsp salt and ¼ tsp pepper)

Mix all ingredients together well.  Place in a hot shovel, skillet, or pan that is greased with either butter or oil. Allow first side to brown before flipping.  Brown second side.  Eat as a savory pancake: plain (my favorite!) or topped with sour cream (creme fraiche in Africa) or plain yogurt. 

Note: Give it a try even if you can't get African sweet potatoes... This recipe is great when you use American sweet potatoes and leave out the thyme, or when you replace the African sweet potatoes with a starchy white potato (Idaho or Russet) instead!

Yum!