Taiwanese Fried Sweet Potato Balls 炸地瓜球

So glad to have Mister at home. Sometimes I cook for pleasure only, doesn't really mean that I would eat the food I made. Take this Taiwanese fried sweet potato balls for instance, I only ate two out of the entire batch. Deeply appreciate Mister who happily and without any complaints, finished the rest of the sweet potato balls. Also I think he gained one or two pounds because of that.

Taiwanese fried sweet potato balls 炸地瓜球 - 

Ingredients (about 24 balls)?

• 270 grams sweet potato
• 135 grams sweet potato starch
• 45 grams granulated sugar
• Some light-flavored oil/frying oil

How?

It's hard to buy exactly 270 grams of sweet potato, and that's the weights after peeling. So just keep the ratio in mind. Peeled sweet potato: sweet potato starch: granulated sugar about 6: 3: 1.

Peel and slice the sweet potatoes, it happened to be two sweet potatoes for me. Weigh the prep sweet potatoes in order to figure out how much sweet potato starch and sugar will be used. Luckily my sweet potato totaled 270 grams, a good number that can be easily calculated. 

So for 270 grams of sweet potatoes, I also measured 135 grams of sweet potato starch and 45 grams of granulated sugar on the side.

Steam the sweet potato till fork tender, about 25 minutes or so.

Once ready, remove the sweet potato from the steamer. While the sweet potato is still hot, add in sugar and mix till evenly blended and the entire mixture became paste-like. 

Add in sweet potato starch and knead till the dough is no longer sticky. If uncertain, you can start with half of the weighted sweet potato starch and add your way up. Feel the texture with your hands. Keep adding the starch till it feels right.

Shape the dough to small balls. The shape doesn't have to be perfectly round.

Pour enough oil to the frying pan, I used a big wok instead. I also used up whole bottle of oil too. Turn to medium high heat and wait till the oil turns hot. Transfer the sweet potato balls over one by one.

Don't move the balls too soon. Wait till they slightly firmed up then it'll be ok to swirl them around. The oil shouldn't be splashing like frying other ingredients such as fish or vegetables, so don't be too scared there.

Switch to medium heat and use a slotted spoon to press down the sweet potato balls. I used a handheld colander instead. 

I really mean it when I said "press down" the sweet potato balls. It's like you want to squeeze out the air in the center and really squash down these balls. You won't ruin the shape of sweet potato balls, they'll slowly puffed up again, and even more after a while.

Repeat the squashing down step a few times till the sweet potato balls have been fully puffed up or turned slightly golden color. Scoop them out and transfer to a dish lined with kitchen towel, which will help soaking up any excess oil.

Serve immediately, the sweet potato balls are meant to be eaten while they're still hot. Once cooled down, the texture will harden and can be too chewy to enjoy.

Mister finished the last few sweet potato balls after they turned cold a day or two later. Personally speaking, I think the sweet potato balls are far from delicious once they're not hot anymore, but again, thanks Mister who always being so supportive to the snacks I made.