From the Kitchen : Taiwanese Sweet Potato Balls.

When people talk about Taiwanese food, a few suspects come to mind. Stinky tofu, Hot Star chicken, and of course, taro and sweet potato balls. Seeing that I may get complaints from my neighbours on the tofu part, and I am seriously trying to cut down on deep fried foods (although I still have a cheeky KFC from time to time), I am left with the dessert variant. 

With all the travel restrictions and limited resources, taro was really hard to get taro in this present time, so I was only left with sweet potato. Why not right? So here my take on the classic sweet potato ball dessert. Also, they are are actually "square-ish" so why are they called balls? 

Sweet potato balls dessert:

For the sweet potato balls: 

200 gm sweet potatoes. 

100 gm tapioca flour

For the ginger syrup:

Ginger

Brown sugar 

My makeshift steamer

1. Cut the potatoes into small cubes and then steam under a heavy flame until tender. It took me about 25 mins. Do make the cubes smaller to ensure a faster cooking time. For variety I used 200 gm regular sweet potato and 200 gm purple sweet potato. 

All natural colours mind you!

2. Mash the potatoes well and do this when its hot as the potatoes are more pliable and tender, thus making it easier to work with. If you can, use a proper potato masher. It will save you a lot of time and effort. Incorporate the tapioca flour along the way and knead until everything is well incorporated. Add a splash of water of somehow the mixture becomes too dry to work with. 

Consistency is key!

3. Roll into logs and cut them into bite size pieces. Dust your workspace and knife with flour for easy rolling and cutting. It will also prevent the balls from sticking when being touched or when they are in the pot later. 

What beauties. The Taiwanese answer to gnocchi. 

Pro tip:

In order to make the balls consistent in size, I measure everything to match the width and length of my pointer finger. So you may want to try that out. Making everything evenly now will ensure an even cooking time and makes separation of portions much easier. 

Bubble bubble, toil and trouble!

4. Bring a pot of water to a boiling, and then gently lower the balls in. You know when they are done when they float. Let them float about in the hot water for about 30 seconds before taking them out to ensure that they fully cook through. 

Not photoshopped! The colours are simply awesome. 

5. For the ginger syrup, I had 5 slices of ginger with 3 tbsp of brown sugar inside a 250 ml pot and I left it to boil at the same time I cook my sweet potato balls. This will take approximately 15 minutes. Feel free to add more ginger or sugar, according to your taste.

This is a bit of a tedious recipe, but it pays great yield and dividends if you are preparing it for huge crowd. And its great for a cold rainy day. However, if its hot and sunny, you can opt the ginger syrup with a honey and lemon solution, or even cold soy bean milk. 

Enjoy!