Gateau patate

Ingredients

Pastry

• 800 gsweet potato
• about 200 g plain flour
• 60 gsugar
• 40 gbutter, melted
• 1/2 teaspoonsalt
• 1/2 teaspoonground cardamom, optional

Coconut filling

• 250 ggrated coconut, fresh or desiccated
• 150 gsugar
• 100 mlwater
• 1/2 teaspoonground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoonvanilla
• a pinch of salt

To fry

• oil, for deep frying

To serve

• paper bags
• tea

Directions

1. Flour is added only to bind it. That gives a soft dense pastry rather than a flaky one. Wash and peel the sweet potatoes. Cut them into even sized chunks.
2. Boil them in unsalted water until tender. Give them about twenty minutes. Drain them thoroughly in a colander. Let them steam dry for five minutes. Then return them to the dry hot pan. Shake them over a low heat for a minute. Wet mash needs far too much flour. Mash the hot sweet potato completely smooth. Add the sugar, salt and melted butter. Add the cardamom if you want it.
3. Let it cool until it is just warm. Adding the flour takes judgement. Add the flour a handful at a time. Work it in between each addition. Stop as soon as it holds together. Put the water and sugar in a pan. Warm it until the sugar dissolves. Add the grated coconut to the pan.
4. Add the cardamom and the salt. Cook it over a gentle low heat. Stir it constantly as it cooks. Cook it for about eight minutes. The liquid should almost all go. Stir in the vanilla off the heat.
5. Let it cool down completely first. Rolling the pastry takes a light hand. Dust the surface lightly with flour. Roll the pastry out to four millimetres. Cut rounds with a cutter or a glass. Aim for about ten centimetres across.
6. Put a spoonful of filling on each round. Set it slightly off the centre. Do not overfill any of them at all. Fold it over into a half moon. Press the edges together very firmly.
7. Press out any trapped air as you go. Crimp them with a fork all round. Check every seal before frying. Chilling them helps considerably. Set them on a tray and refrigerate them. Give them at least twenty minutes. Pour oil into a deep pan to eight centimetres. Never fill a pan more than halfway with oil.
8. Heat the oil to about 170C for frying. Sweet pastry browns fast because of its sugar. Fry them for about four minutes. Turn them over as they colour. They should be deep golden brown. Lift them onto a wire rack to drain. Serving them is done warm or cool. Bake them at 190C for twenty-five minutes.

Technique

• The pastry is mostly mashed sweet potato with only enough flour to bind it, giving a soft dense pastry rather than a flaky one, and the flour amount changes with how wet the potato is.
• The coconut is cooked in sugar syrup first, which makes it sticky and cohesive, since raw coconut and sugar falls apart inside the pastry.
• They fry at a slightly cooler temperature than most fritters, since the sugar in both pastry and filling browns fast.

Substitutions

• Desiccated coconut works in place of fresh, soaked briefly in the syrup.
• They can be baked at 190C rather than fried.

Variations

• Some cooks add cardamom to the pastry as well as the filling.
• A version with a sweetened chickpea filling is also made.
• Similar sweet potato turnovers are made across the Indian Ocean islands.

History

Sweet potato pastry turnovers filled with sweetened coconut and fried, a Creole tea-time cake sold in paper bags.

Frequently asked questions

What is Gateau patate?

Gateau patate is a dessert from Mauritius: sweet-potato and coconut cakes fried for tea time. Sweet potato pastry turnovers filled with sweetened coconut and fried, a Creole tea-time cake sold in paper bags.

How long does Gateau patate take to make?

Gateau patate takes 50 minutes of preparation and 25 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes about 20 turnovers. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Gateau patate?

Yes, within limits. Desiccated coconut works in place of fresh, soaked briefly in the syrup. They can be baked at 190C rather than fried.

What is the most important thing to get right in Gateau patate?

Flour is added only to bind it. That gives a soft dense pastry rather than a flaky one. Wash and peel the sweet potatoes. Cut them into even sized chunks.