When I asked Martin Shoemaker, who I know best for hard science fiction stories, for a dish and a title for ETWYRT, he surprised me. The story he recommended was one that he’d written this dish into… and it’s about voudon, and a grandfather, and a sweet potato pudding. Ok, the pudding isn’t really a big part of the story. But it is the primary part of this post today. Go grab One Last Chore for Grandpa, which is a novella, perfect while reading as the Pen Petate bakes and the spices tease your nose with the promise of their flavor.
This recipe is a Haitian family recipe, and it makes quite a lot – you’ll want to cut it in half if you aren’t feeding a family.
Pen Patate is sort of a baked pudding. It’s very easy to make, and if you have a sweet tooth it’s well worth the effort… Unless you cheat like I did, in which case it’s not a lot of trouble at all. The grating of the potatoes is the hardest part, and I used my Cuisinart for that.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. peeled and finely grated sweet potato/batata
- 1 mashed banana
- 1/2 cup grated coconut
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon grated ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 3 tablespoons melted butter
- 1/4 teaspoon salt (only if butter is unsalted)
- 1 12 oz. can evaporated milk
- 1 1/2 cups coconut milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Grate sweet potatoes into mixing bowl.
- Mash banana into sweet potatoes.
- Add all the ingredients (except 1 tablespoon brown sugar), mixing in 1 ingredient at a time until each is fully blended into the mix.
- Spread evenly into a 9-by-13-inch baking pan and sprinkle reserved brown sugar over top of pudding.
- Bake for 11/2 hours or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is golden brown.
- Serve warm or cold and refrigerate leftovers.
The verdict? This is rich, sweet, pudding-y without really being pudding… I did alter the original recipe a touch, reducing the liquid, and it came out nicely, a little loose but not runny. The First Reader’s comment was that the coconut mostly hides the flavor of the sweet potato (he doesn’t like sweet potato, but I love it). There’s a really complex flavor to this, with the spices being strong enough to tingle the tongue. Worth savoring, and the decision to have it with whipped cream was perfect.
I think this would be fantastic layered like a parfait, still warm, in a glass with vanilla ice cream (frozen yogurt for me) and some chopped nuts for crunch. Maybe pecans.
You can find the index page for ETWYRT – this is the 58th post in the series! – here. You can find the facebook page where we chat about books and food here.
Comments
2 responses to “Eat This While You Read That: Martin Shoemaker”
I’m going to have to try this one, especially since sweet potato, banana, and coconut are fresh and plentiful around here. One advantage to trying a tropical recipe while still in the tropics.
OOh! Using fresh ingredients would no doubt make this even better.