Don’t Pierce Sweet Potatoes Before Frying
Unlike white potatoes such as blush or yukon, yams and sweet potatoes do not have a peel that is pleasant to eat. Instead of getting crunchy, they become tough, with a texture somewhere in the middle between paper and leather. The insides are quite tasty, though, and we have a lot to thank the peel for – it acts as the perfect bake bag for the fluffy inside of the tuber, and it does a great job as long as you don’t poke it before cooking.
Sweet potato piercings allow steam and sugar to escape during frying, and you don’t want any of that to happen. I’m sure you fried the pierced sweet potatoes only to discover the streams of goo covering the outside of what I call “waste”; that the sticky sweet flavor belongs to the inside of the potato (and eventually to the mouth).
There is also no reason to let the pair out with a few strokes of the fork. Without it, the potatoes will not burst. In fact, I’ve found that sweet potatoes cooked without a fork are much easier to peel after frying, as the steam is pressed against the peel as it tries to come out, separating it from the pulp. Baking a whole, unpunched sweet potato in a hot oven – I’m talking 450 ℉ for an hour – produces a tender, fluffy potato with thin, soft, slightly charred skins that flake off in huge chunks with a delicate twist. tugs. (If, however, you are microwave-cooking yours first, be sure to give them a couple of shakes, as microwave-cooked sweet potatoes / yams without piercing can tear.)
I say this is the most efficient and low-effort method of baking sweet potatoes that I have tried. I only used it last night . I took a whole unwashed pomegranate sweet potato, put it on a small baking sheet in the oven at 450 degrees and left for an hour. When it finished cooking, I cut it in half to reveal a very noticeable gap (about 1/4 inch) between the skin and the potatoes. I peeled off the skins, diced the potatoes and ate them with ramen noodles seasoned with a little chili oil. It was good. I would do it again and I recommend you try it too.
Updated 1/20/21 11:15 AM to include information on microwave cooking.