Chinese ‘Candied Sweet Potatoes’

拔丝地瓜 (BáSī DìGuā) is a Northern Chinese dish that highlights the 拔丝 (BáSī) technique, which translates to “pulling thread”, because of the sugar strands it creates when picking up a freshly served piece. There aren’t many dessert-type dishes in China and all my child pallet wanted was sugar (oop), so it was always a personal favorite grandparents’ household. Only takes 4 ingredients, and few tricks to make yourself!

Tips for set up

Taking a minute to set yourself up helps streamline with any cooking, and I think is especially helpful for when frying and when making sugar syrups.

Frying–

• Wok or High-edged Pan: to prevent hot oil splashing out
• Wire Rack Over Tray or Paper Towel Lined Plate: to drain excess oil from sweet potatoes after frying
• Chinese Spider Strainer / Perforated Ladle / Mesh Sieve: to remove sweet potatoes from oil
• Thermometer or Wooden Chopstick/Spoon: to gage oil temperature (see recipe instructions for wooden chopstick/spoon method)

Sugar Syrup–

• Cleaned Wok or Pan: wipe down whatever you used for frying so there aren’t any bits of sweet potato that would start burning in the sugar
• If drained on a rack, transfer sweet potatoes to a plate / bowl: to make adding them to the sugar syrup all at once is easier
• Serving plate, wiped with a bit of oil: so sugar will stick less, makes cleaning easier
• Cold bowl(s) of waters for serving: since it’s best served fresh, having the serving set up ready will make it less of a hassle (dipping is both to harden the sugar for that satisfying *cronch* and to cool down each bite, so don’t skip it b/c they’re really frickin hot).

What to do with frying oil

Reuse: If using a quality oil (like avocado oil) and you want to save it, here’re a few tips to help preserve the quality and keep it from going rancid –

• Let oil cool completely
• Strain through a mesh sieve, ideally lined with cheesecloth (to remove food debris), into an airtight container
• Store in fridge
• Can be used a few more times for frying, or just as usual with cooking

Discard: Pouring a lot of oil down the drain can clog your pipes or city sewer mains. The best practice for discarding oil is as follows –

• Let oil cool completely
• Pour into a (non-recyclable) container (e.g., milk carton, wax or plastic lined paper container, takeout container)
• Throw away in garbage

Clean up

To clean hardened sugar off of a wok / pan: run under hot water until sugar has dissolved / melted off.

A note on sugar syrup

Processes to caramelize sugar can be difficult without a sugar thermometer and/or a trained eye, but there’re a few simple tricks for this recipe to get the sugar strands (I have neither a sugar thermometer nor a trained eye so). However, the strands are really just for fun / aesthetics, so the taste won’t be affected if you don’t care to precisely follow the recipe details below. 🙂

Chinese ‘Candied Sweet Potatoes’

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook TIme 30 minutes mins

Cuisine Chinese

EQUIPMENT

• Wok or pot with high edges
• Wire rack over a tray, or paper towel lined plate
• Chinese spider strainer or any perforated ladle
• Thermometer or wooden chopstick/spoon

Ingredients

  

• 2 weet potatoes (~500 g)
• Vegetable oil (with a high smoke point)
• 1/2 c cane sugar
• Pinch of salt

Instructions

 

• Peel sweet potatoes (SP's) and cut into bite sized chunks.
  
• Optional: soak SP's in cold water in the fridge for 30 min. ¹

Frying Sweet Potaotes

• Add enough oil to cover SP's. If there's not enough room for all SP's at once, do them in batches of 2-3 (you don't want to overcrowd each batch, or the oil temp will drop too much).
• Thermometer Method: heat oil a bit past 350˚F. Carefully add SP's, then monitor oil temp and adjust heat to keep ~350˚F.

  Wooden Chopstick/Spoon Method: heat oil over high heat. Using a wooden spoon or chopstick, place in oil to gage when the oil is hot enough – you should see strong bubbles gathering around the base (see video). Carefully add SP's, then reduce to medium heat.
  
• Fry for ~4-5 min, or until an outter crust has formed, and a fork can pierce through the SP with relatively little resistance. Then, remove SP's and set aside to cool on wire rack or plate.
  
• Pour frying oil into a heat safe container to cool (see: "what to do with frying oil" paragraph above).

Sugar Syrup

• Add enough oil to coat the bottom of wok/pan (~1-2 tbsp), along with sugar.
• Over medium heat, wait for the sugar to start melting at the edges (~1-2 min), then turn the heat to low, and stir constantly to keep sugar from burning.
  1/2 c cane sugar
  
• Add a pinch of salt while stirring – salt balances sweetness and excentuates flavors in general.
  
• Right when all the sugar has melted (no more solid sugar bits) into an amber syrup, add SP's and mix/toss to coat evenly.
  
• Transfer to serving plate, and serve immediately with a bowl of cool water to dip each piece in before eating. ²
  
• Enjoy the cronch !

Notes

1. Soaking SP’s removes sticky surface starches (same concept as why you wash/soak rice), so that they get crispier when frying.
2. The time to pull sugar strands is relatively short (until sugar hardens), so serve immediately. Buttt even when the sugar’s hardened it still tastes just as good 🙂

Keyword basi digua, candied sweet potatoes, chinese, recipe