Jamaican · Dessert
Jamaican Sweet Potato Pudding
- Intermediate
- 35 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with richness that coats and comforts, warm spice humming through the middle, leaving a faint perfume.
Ingredients
- 900 g Jamaican sweet potato (batata), peeled
- 650 ml coconut milk: 400 ml for the batter, 250 ml for the top
- 200 g dark brown sugar
- 60 g plain flour
- 60 g fine cornmeal
- 60 g unsalted butter, melted
- 80 g raisins
- 5 g ground cinnamon
- 2 g grated nutmeg
- 3 g fine salt
- 10 ml vanilla extract
- 15 ml dark rum
Equipment
Grater / zester
The skills inside
The words inside
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy · alcohol
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Grate the sweet potato on the fine side of a box grater: you are after a wet pulp, not shreds.
- Stir in 400 ml of the coconut milk with the sugar, flour, cornmeal, butter, raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, vanilla and rum until it is a loose batter that pours.
- Pour into a buttered 22 cm dish at least 7 cm deep, one holding 2.2 litres, leaving 1.5 cm of freeboard for the late pour, and bake at 180C (350F) for about 60 minutes, until the surface has gone dull and will hold a spoonful of liquid. 60 min
- Pour the last 250 ml of coconut milk gently over the top and return it for 25 minutes to 30 minutes, until that layer has thickened to a custard skin and the pudding no longer ripples when you move the dish. 25 min
- Cool it completely in the dish before cutting; it firms as it goes cold.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Tempering a custard 59 recipes
- The hot liquid went into the eggs a little at a time with constant whisking, and only then did everything go back to the pot.
- The heat under it stayed gentle throughout and it was never allowed to boil.
- Stirred continuously and right into the corners of the pan, where it thickens first and sets unnoticed.
- Judged by behaviour: it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon and hold a clean line when a finger is drawn through it.
- Taken off before it looks finished, and strained. Residual heat carries it the rest of the way, and a custard held on the heat until it looks right arrives past right.
Where it goes wrong The hot liquid went in too fast, or the pot went back over full heat to save time. The yolks set into threads before they could thicken smoothly, and a scrambled custard does not come back; straining hides a little of it and nothing hides the rest.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Demi-sec Champagne
- Also Right
- Off-dry Chenin (Vouvray)
- From the Taps
- Fruited sour
- Zero-Proof
- Coconut water with lime
Tropical sweetness wants bubbles or Chenin’s honeyed acid: richness met with lift, not more weight.
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