Cookbook:Camotes Enmielados

Camotes, at a tianguis market in Metepec, Mexico State

Camotes enmielados, also known as camotes con pilocilo, or camotes enmielados al horno, camotes con piloncilo al horno, is a baked, or stovetop, dessert-style Mexican yam/sweet potato dish. It is a traditionally home cooked food, not typical restaurant fare.

Ingredients

• Yams, or sweet potatoes (White fleshed varieties are definitely in use) (peeling is optional)
• Piloncilo - unrefined Mexican sugar, sold in cones. Any dark, unrefined sugar product may be reasonably substituted, including turbinado sugar, brown sugar, brown sugar with added molasses, muscovado, even East Indian jaggery
• Cinnamon
• Water
  • Proportions: 1 lg yam/1 lg piloncilo cone/4 sticks cinnamon/.5 cups water works to give a minimum of sweetness and caramelization.

Camotes for sale, along with cooked bananas, Barrio de la Merced, Mexico

Place whole or thickly sliced yams in a large baking dish. place piloncilo cones atop the yams, and add water and cinnamon (sticks give a more delicate flavor than powder). cover dish, and bake for about 60 minutes, braising the yams with the now sweetened cooking liquid as needed. The finished product should have a strong caramel flavor, with a typical hint of bitterness from the molasses component of the sugar used. The sauce should be syrupy, very dark in color. Cinnamon flavor should be an accent, and not dominating. The dish is similar to US baked yams, but with a more pronounced caramel flavor. The dish is served as a dessert, and can also be found at Mexican food stands.

Street vendor applying sweetened condensed milk to Camotes, Mexico City

Further reading

• Latin American Street Food: The Best Flavors of Markets, Beaches, and Roadside Stands from Mexico to Argentina, Sandra A. Gutierrez. The University of North Carolina Press (2013), ISBN: 978-1469608709

See also

• Camote cue, a similar dish from the Philippines
• Carrito de los camotes (Spanish wikipedia)