Sweet Potato Dumplings

Place the sweet potatoes on a baking sheet and bake in your oven at 350F until they are past squishy and shrunken. The trick is to slowly cook them through then continue cooking as they lose moisture, concentrating their flavour. This will take about an hour or so. Take them out when they have begun to brown, before their juices leak out and are lost to the pan.

When the sweet potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel them and toss the flesh into a large bowl. Add the cumin, olive oil, salt, pepper and most of the flour, (but not all of it.) Mash and knead everything together into a dough. If the dough seems wet adjust its consistency with some more flour. The trick is to add the least amount of flour needed to bring the sweet potato into a workable dough. A little too much flour will dilute their flavour a bit, but still work just fine.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the water liberally. Meanwhile roll the dough by hand into a log about 2-inches in diameter. Sprinkle the dough, your hands and the work surface with lots of flour to ease the way. Cut into 1-inch or so pieces. Depending on the size of your pot drop half of them into the boiling water and cook until they float to the surface, about 2-3 minutes. Strain out and add the rest.

You can serve the dumplings straight from the pot. If you like you can also continue and brown them. Heat a large skillet over medium-heat and add the butter. When it foams, add the dumplings and pan fry until golden brown. Season with salt and pepper.