Cooking: Oven-Baked Sweet Potatoes

You’re not a cute anime girl, and you can’t hug one like a bottle of cola, but you can still make yourself the same baked sweet potato she’d eat.

And the method couldn’t be simpler.

First, wash the sweet potatoes, line the oven tray with foil, and put them on it. Nothing else needed.

Straight into the oven. Preheat first, around 200°C, then bake once preheated. It takes 60–90 minutes depending on the size of your sweet potatoes and how your oven performs.

I’d suggest opening the oven and flipping them about two-thirds of the way through, though you don’t have to.

The goal with baked sweet potatoes is “getting the syrup out”—when you see that sticky stuff starting to seep out, you’re basically there.

When they’re done, take them out. They’ll be piping hot at first, so cut a small slit to check—it should be perfect.

Let them cool a little, then split one open and eat. Mmmmmm, insanely good.

I wonder if anyone still remembers the street-vendor baked sweet potatoes—crispy skin, soft inside. That’s exactly the texture you get from the oven.

But remember: only red-fleshed sweet potatoes work for baking. White-fleshed ones are too dry and not suited to roasting. Also, after I finished baking, I asked around and nobody knew which famous yellow-game heroine loves baked sweet potatoes. What a shame—Ono Ryoko hasn’t cooled off yet, has she?

おしまい。