I·ATE Food Term of the Week: SWEET POTATOES

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Do you already start visualising and tasting the Sweet Potatoes?

 

Many people from different parts of the world love Sweet Potatoes not because of its name but rather its delicious taste and popularity. Sweet Potatoes originate from either Central or South America at least 5,000 year ago. However, a recent study in 2018 suggests that the present Sweet Potatoes existed in Polynesia thousands of years before humans arrived to Polynesia. The starchy Sweet Potatoes are very popular not only in South America but also many Asian countries like Bangladesh for example. It ranks as the world’s seventh most important food crop after wheat, rice, maize, potato, barley and cassava. People are very motivated to cultivate this crop because it has low production costs and is easy to process. It is consumed in different forms e.g. boiled, fried, pan-fried, deep-fried and roasted. Sometimes, it appears as a vegetable in curry dishes. Lately it is getting more and more popular in South Asian and even European countries. Most of the Bangladeshi families boil and fry the Sweet Potatoes along with different other ingredients.

Curious to try? Here is a recipe:

Ingredients:

  • 750 g sweet potatoes (peeled and chopped)
  • 4 tablespoons coconut oil
  • 2 teaspoons panch phoron (mixed of cumin, fennel, nigella, fenugreek, and mustard seeds)
  • 2-4 garlic cloves (sliced)
  • 1 onion (large sliced)
  • 1 tablespoon coriander leaves (finely chopped)

 

Method:

If you want to try the delicious Sweet Potatoes that are tender on the inside and crispy on the outside, then you need to follow five directions.

 

  1. Boil sweet potatoes until soft.
  2. Heat a wok, add the oil and stir fry the panch phoron for 1 minutes and then add the garlic and stir fry for another minute.
  3. Now add the onion and stir fry for 5 minutes.
  4. Add the sweet potatoes and coriander and stir fry until all the ingredients are well blended and heated through.
  5. Season with salt if desired and serve immediately.

If you feel hungry and want to eat some starchy and crispy delicious side dish, then grab the sweet potatoes and follow the ingredients and method.

 

Sources:

S R M Mahe, S & Ahmed, Md & Nath, Sudhir & Harun-Or-Rashid, Md & Wheatley, Chris. (2015). Analysis of value chain of sweet potato in two districts of Bangladesh. International Journal of Agricultural Marketing. 2. 78-83.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_potato

https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/agriculture/2018/02/23/sweet-potato-framing-rise-rajshahi

http://paleofood.com/recipes/veggies-bengalisweetpotatoes.htm 

https://iate.europa.eu/search/standard/result/1553249927221/1


Written by Md Shahadat Hossain, a study visitor in communication at the Terminology Coordination Unit of the European Parliament (Luxembourg) and a student of the Master’s programme in Learning and Communication in Multilingual and Multicultural Contexts at the University of Luxembourg. He holds a Bachelor degree in English Language and Literature, and a Master’s degree also in English Language and Teaching from Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh. He speaks Bangla, English, French, Hindi, Urdu and Arabic.