Sweet Potatoes

Also known as batata, sweet potatoes are white-, yellow-, or orange-fleshed tubers with a reddish brown, purple, or pink skin. In the Caribbean, the white-fleshed sweet potato is most commonly used, but in the French West Indies orange-fleshed sweet potatoes are used for some desserts. I prefer white-fleshed sweet potatoes because they are denser, so that is what I usually call for. However, you can substitute yellow-fleshed sweet potatoes. In markets, yellow-fleshed sweet potatoes are sometimes labeled “Japanese sweet potatoes.” Although sweet potatoes have a thin skin, if they are old they can be very difficult to peel. They can be baked in their skin, or peeled, chopped into cubes, and boiled (see photo).