cupcakechef
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On the topic of seasonal foods, one delicious fall recipe that I learned living here is Kuri Kinton, which is candied chestnuts and sweet potato. It's pretty famous in Japan and since everything is in season right now here it's a great time to try it.
Here's the recipe - it might be hard to find the candied chestnuts outside Japan but if you have a Japanese market or Asian food store near you they might possibly have it!
1 pound Japanese sweet potatoes
7 ounce bottle of kuri kanroni (candied chestnuts in syrup)
pinch of salt
mirin (eyeball it!)
sugar (eyeball it!)
Method:
Peel the sweet potatoes then cut them into one-inch slices and soak them in a large bowl of water (about 4 hours).
Boil the sweet potatoes until very tender. Mash them with a fork and then push the mashed sweet potato through a sieve to get it extra smooth in consistency.
Put the mashed sweet potato into a small pot. Add the syrup from the bottle of candied chestnuts, along with a pinch of salt, and cook the mixture over low heat. Gradually add mirin and sugar in equal amounts if the mixture looks too dry. The kuri kinton will stiffen slightly once cooled, remember this when you're eyeballing how much liquid to add in.
Continue cooking on low heat, stirring to make sure the mixture doesn’t burn, until it has a slightly glossy look to it. Add the candied chestnuts and cook for several more minutes to heat through and then let cool.
Serve and enjoy!
Here's the recipe - it might be hard to find the candied chestnuts outside Japan but if you have a Japanese market or Asian food store near you they might possibly have it!
1 pound Japanese sweet potatoes
7 ounce bottle of kuri kanroni (candied chestnuts in syrup)
pinch of salt
mirin (eyeball it!)
sugar (eyeball it!)
Method:
Peel the sweet potatoes then cut them into one-inch slices and soak them in a large bowl of water (about 4 hours).
Boil the sweet potatoes until very tender. Mash them with a fork and then push the mashed sweet potato through a sieve to get it extra smooth in consistency.
Put the mashed sweet potato into a small pot. Add the syrup from the bottle of candied chestnuts, along with a pinch of salt, and cook the mixture over low heat. Gradually add mirin and sugar in equal amounts if the mixture looks too dry. The kuri kinton will stiffen slightly once cooled, remember this when you're eyeballing how much liquid to add in.
Continue cooking on low heat, stirring to make sure the mixture doesn’t burn, until it has a slightly glossy look to it. Add the candied chestnuts and cook for several more minutes to heat through and then let cool.
Serve and enjoy!
as for the soaking, I think it's to do with the starch. I learned the recipe from a Japanese cooking class I did here in Tokyo, and it was one of the seasonal dishes that the instructor helped us make! She had pre-soaked the sweet potato for us but I'm guessing that it would work okay without soaking it as well. And yes, the consistency is much like mashed potato but it's a sweet!
