Tuesday 23 August 2011

a prelude

I know, there are still six days to go before the lunar eighth month...or another three weeks before the mid-autumn festival. I am not in the hurry to make any mooncakes before the end of next week.


What you see here are not traditional mooncakes which we are familiar with...


rather, they are steamed purple sweet potatoes...moulded with a mooncake mould...


and served with maple syrup and chopped nuts. I got this recipe from a magazine, and it is actually a recommended dish to serve to guests during the Chinese New Year festive season.

Visual wise, the clever use of a mooncake mould does make it a very presentable and stylish dish. However, what is important to me is, I've found an interesting way to eat steamed sweet potatoes ;) The maple syrup helps to moisten the sweet potatoes...which tends to get dry especially when it is left cold. The pairing of chopped nuts lends a sharp contrast to the soft texture of the mashed sweet potatoes. My younger child who doesn't care for sweet potatoes or pumpkins, helped himself to as many sweet potatoes 'mooncakes' he could stuff inside his stomach. Overall, it is a simple, healthy and delicious 小吃 (snacks), something to reach out for in between meals instead of unhealthy snacks or junk food :)



Sweet Potatoes 'Mooncakes'











Ingredients:

300g purple sweet potatoes
50g chopped cashew nuts (or walnuts, pistachios, hazel nuts, peanuts etc)
20ml maple syrup or honey (adjust according to preference)

Method:
  • Roast nuts (of your choice) with a small frying pan over low heat until lightly browned, stir constantly. Leave to cool and coarsely chop the roasted nuts, set aside.
  • Wash, peel sweet potatoes. Cut into small chunks.
  • Steam under high heat for 15-20mins until soft.
  • Mash sweet potatoes with fork. Mould into small round balls about 30g each, (my mooncake mould is for 50-60g mooncake). Place inside the mould (comes with a plunger), push the plunger to release the sweet potatoes.
  • Drizzle over maple syrup or honey and serve with roasted nuts.
Recipe source: adapted from 贝太厨房







34 comments:

celine said...

BRILLIANT!!!! Prefer this to mooncakes (not a fan) anytime. Off to the market to get some sweet potatoes.

Thanks, HHB for sharing! :)

Edith said...

Brilliant idea and the purple is such an intense hue. Lovely.

Agnes CF Lee said...

Thanks for sharing such a good idea of making a healthy mooncake.

happybowl said...

hi HHB where did you get your mooncake moulds from..? Igot one from shop n bake online, but they didn't give me good impressions like this. I am a novice in photography, are these pictures meant to be like this, with a matte effect. Apologies, no offence meant.

Anonymous said...

Oh my, this is so so pretty! Have to try soon. Amy

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi happybowl, I got it from shop n bake too. I used this free photo editor, Photoscape to add in the matte effect, I love to play around with my photo image ;)

hanushi said...

This is really cool and interesting.

Small Small Baker said...

Ah, you tricked me! I thought it is sweet potato snowskin mooncake. Very pretty!

Erica said...

I love the bright purple color! so beautiful! Where do you get the mooncake mold?

Cuisine Paradise said...

Soooo pretty!!! Lovely colours tooo!!!!! Will try this out for our coming cell group Mid-Autumn party!!! Thanks!

ann low said...

WOW! This is very pretty,healthy and delicious!! Must try this out soon. Thanks for sharing :)

Anonymous said...

i love sweet potatoes and mooncakes! and these really look like mooncakes. V pretty!
octopusmum

soh said...

Hi, may I know where to get purple color sweet potato from? I can only get yellow from NTUC.
Thank you for sharing.
Soh

Unknown said...

What a great idea... and as mentioned, it's very healthy ^_^

miss said...

I thought it was mooncake and actually it is sweet potato dessert! It looks beautiful! :D

sherlyn said...

Nice nice.
I also want to try make mooncake, but the real snowskin, using your recipe. I can only target the Sept holiday...
A pity my kids are picky eater. I am sure they wouldn't eat this as well. Purple sweet potato is really good, infact all sweet potatoes are good and nutritious. Maybe I should try putting all nutritious food into ice cream form.
Maybe put yellow sweet potato inside as egg yolk :)

Happy Homebaker said...

hi soh, I got them from the wet market.

MH said...

I thot you "fast hand fast leg" make mooncakes already! (now still lunar 7th month but coming to an end in a couple of days) :D

And wow! your mould is very very pretty! Don't think can get such mould at phoon huat, sun lik or kwang xiang tai...!

Do you think is a good idea as a "Teachers' Day" gift??

mj said...

V interesting way of presenting e sweet potato, i always hv mine in soup. Wonder if i can 'trick' my daughter into eating it, she loves snowskin mooncake but will never eat sweet potato.

EE said...

Hi HHB,do u mind to share with us how the taste of the mooncake? Since the recipe without adding any sugar, wondering will it taste not sweet at all?

Anazar said...

Wow, what a colour! I've never seen a purple sweet potato. Awesome mould!!

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi MH, I got the mould from Shop and Bake a few years ago. It is very easy to use. I dont think it is a good idea to give this 'mooncake' as gift, I dont think it can keep well.

mj, my boys dont like sweet potatoes too! I dont know why, but they like potatoes.

EE, this is not a mooncake, it is just sweet potatoes, so it is not as sweet as a mooncake.

Anonymous said...

Hi Happy
I made this too, thanks so much for sharing. I mixed the maple syrup with the sweet potatoes to make them sweeter. Maple syrup can be so addictive, I added quite a bit :)The paste smelled really marvellous too with maple syrup. But I don' t have a mould yet so my purple mooncakes didn't look as tempting as yours. Will go hunt for a mould.

Anonymous said...

Hi HHB
Need your advice. If a recipe calls for 12g custard powder, do you know what can be used as a substitute? thks :)
May

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Anonymous, glad to hear that you have fun with this recipe :)

Hi May, I am sorry, I have not used custard powder, but I have read that it can be substituted with corn flour, but I do not know whether it will work for your recipe? It probably will depend on the what kind of thing you are making?

Anonymous said...

Hi HHB, May I replace shortening by corn oil or any vegetable oil for snow skin mooncakes. Please advice. Tks

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi, you can't replace shortening with veg oil, as shortening is in solid form.

Anonymous said...

Gd Mrng HHB, What type of shortening can I use, I hardly use shortening, any sub for it? Yeah!! Tks for your prompt reply.

Cheers

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi, I got mine from local baking supplier? or u a local? if yes, you can get it from Phoon Huat. You can also try replace it with this brand "Crisco" shortening.

Anonymous said...

Ok. Tks HHB, I am s'porean. Do u have any idea about "Poeny Jade" or "Garden" yam mooncake recipe? Their pastry look diff fm spiral teochew mooncake.

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi, I do not know of recipes that are close to those you mentioned.

Anonymous said...

@soh – (24/8/11 1:36 PM)
Hi, may I know where to get purple color sweet potato from? I can only get yellow from NTUC.
Thank you for sharing.
Soh: Hi soh, purple sweet potato is just a food color or you may use the UBE root crop as Filipino called it... Ube root crop is naturally purple... Hope you got this message and help you...

Chandra Tan
you can catch me at facebook: chai_artworld@yahoo.com

:)

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure where did you get your info from, but this is not a dish served during the Chinese New Year festive season. This is served during the Mid-Autumn festival. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Autumn_Festival)

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi, Thanks for your comments. As stated in my blog post above, the recipe was taken from a Chinese magazine (published in China) that it is a recommended dish to serve during Chinese new year. I don't serve this on CNY or mid autumn festival. It is just a snack not the usual mooncake.