Sweet Potato Mock Eel Kabayaki

Ingredients

• 13 oz (375 g) Japanese sweet potatoes
• 2 tablespoons (15 g) flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Several sheets of nori (roasted seaweed)
• Vegetable oil, for frying
• Cooked brown rice*, for serving
• 6 tablespoons (85 g) soy sauce
• 4 tablespoons (50 g) sugar

Instructions

1. To make the mock eel kabayaki: Scrub the sweet potatoes well. Grate the sweet potatoes on the small holes of a grater, then grind it in a mortar into a paste. It probably won’t get completely smooth or paste-like, but do the best you can. Depending on the size of your mortar, you may need to do it in a few batches.
2. Transfer the sweet potato paste into a bowl and mix in the flour and salt until it’s well combined.
3. Cut your nori sheets. The size is up to you, but the larger the pieces, the more difficult they are to work with. I made mine about 2x4 inches (5x10 cm).
4. Spread the sweet potato mixture about 1/4 inch (1/2 cm) thick on the pieces of nori to make the kabayaki. It helps to spread it to the edges then pack it in. To make it look a little more like eel, I pressed a line down the center with the edge of a spatula, or you could use a butter knife. Repeat until you’ve used up all of the sweet potato.
5. Heat about 1/4 inch (1/2 cm) of oil in a pan. When the oil reaches 325°F (165°C), gently place a few pieces of kabayaki nori-side down in the oil. This is tricky because the mixture will want to fall apart, so be gentle. If the oil doesn’t cover the kabayaki, carefully spoon some hot oil over the top while the kabayaki fries to a nice golden brown, about 60 to 90 seconds. Once they’re browned, remove them to a wire rack over some paper towels to drain. Repeat with the remaining kabayaki.
6. To make the soy sauce glaze: In a small pan, whisk together the soy sauce and sugar until combined. Set the pan over medium heat and bring it to a simmer. Let it simmer, stirring occasionally, for 2 to 3 minutes or until it’s thickened up a bit (it will continue to thicken after removing it from the heat). Once it’s thickened, take it off the heat.
7. Heat a grill pan or other grill. Brush the sweet potato side of the kabayaki with the glaze, then set them on the hot grill. Cook for about 30 seconds on each side, just enough to give them some grill marks. They still may want to fall apart here, so be gentle and patient. The original recipe says to brush them with more glaze and grill them again, but I found that they just burned without otherwise changing the flavor very much, so brushing and glazing once is sufficient, but go ahead and do it twice if you’d like.
8. To serve: Lay the pieces of kabayaki onto some brown rice, brush with a final layer of glaze, and serve it forth.