Kuih Keria (Malaysian Doughnuts)

Traditional Malay Recipes, p. 55

1 lb/500 g keledek/sweet potato (cooked and peeled)

¼ tsp salt

A little ground kayu manis/cinnamon

1 egg (well-beaten)

3 ½ oz/110 g flour (sifted)

Oil for deep frying

4 oz/125 g granulated sugar

4 tbsp water

Mash together the keledek [sweet potato], salt and kayu manis [cinnamon]. 

They kind of took for granted that we knew how to mash this thing. If you're like me and you have no idea what to do, start out by boiling it for fifteen to twenty minutes.

Then peel. You can either wait for it to cool, or you can use the Matt-method of just braving it with a dish towel.

And then, provided you've boiled it enough, you can go at it with a potato masher.

Together with the other ingredients, it looks like this!

When smooth, add egg and mix well.

Fold in sifted flour. Knead the mixture to obtain a soft dough.

What we ended up with wasn't really "dough," so it was hard to "knead." I just kind of shoved it around for a minute.

Roll out on a floured board, to ½ in/1.3 cm thickness. Divide into 14 parts and shape each into a ring.

It also wasn't really shape-able, so I spread it out on a floured board, covered it with more flour on top, and divided it into segments. (I got eight parts total. They'd have to be extremely tiny to get fourteen!)

Heat oil for deep frying. Fry dough-rings till golden brown. Drain well and keep aside.

We found that the easiest way to do this is just to drop circles (not rings, which are impossible to shape with this "dough") into the oil and make the hole in the middle with a fork.

Time to make the doughnuts. :)

Despite all the snafus, they came out looking happy!

Dissolve sugar in water. Boil to a thick syrup. Toss fried doughnuts in this till well coated and the sugar crystalizes. Cool and serve. 

Shiny, shiny doughnuts. YUM.

My Rating: 5/5 "They taste like CARAMEL. The sweet potatoes, man... and the sugar...! Dude. You should make these. For dinner."