Eat This While You Read That: Martin Shoemaker

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.

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:36]

Pulling all the ingredients together in one place.

Grated sweet potatoes - the easy way!

Mixing together all the ingredients in a big bowl.

Fresh out of the oven. I let it cool for a short time, then served warm. I'll try it cool tomorrow.

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.

You can still see the sweet potato, but the only chewiness is the coconut shreds.

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.