Steamed Yam and Ancestral Fried Rice with Silky Peanut Sauce

Fried rice is a meal that feeds many mouths. This recipe is a special homage to Gonaives, Haiti, a land known for fragrant rice, spices, and spiritual celebrations. Although in Haitian tradition, yam (pumpkin) reserved for soup joumou, I’ve substituted a southern style yam as a node to a friend and feminist icon, bell hooks, author of Sisters of the Yam: Black Women and Self-Recovery. The jubilant textures of vegetables and sea purslane harmonized by a protein-rich peanut sauce (as spicy as you would like!).

TIME

Difficulty: Intermediate

Tools: 1 pot, 1 skillet

20 minutes preparation
50 minutes cook time

Ingredients

Sweet Potato and Fried Rice
1 large sweet potato
Fresh or frozen mixed vegetables (diced carrots, corn, peas, green beans)
White onion
Jasmine rice
1/2 bulb garlic crushed
2 inches of ginger minced finely
Cooking oil (sesame seed oil)
Cabbage (julienne cut)
2 cups fresh sea purslane
Moringa leaves (optional, I pulled mine from our garden

Peanut Sauce
Creamy peanut butter
1 tomato (tin tomato acceptable substitute)
Cumin
Garlic powder
Lime or lemon
Cooking oil
Optional: 1 scotch bonnet or habanero pepper (seeded)

Directions

This meal is completed in three parts.

Preparation:
1. Wash 1 large sweet potato. Slice into large horizontal quarters. Puncturing the tuber reduces cooking time and aids in the presentation. Leave the skin on for full nutrients.

2. Assemble vegetables. Dice onions. Chop green beans. Julienne cabbage. Etc.

Set cabbage, moringa, and sea purslane to the side; these will be cooked last.

3. Measure out a 2:1 cup ratio of water to rice. Pour water into a pot. Bring to a boil.

4. Next, add sweet potato quarters to boiling water.

5. Meanwhile, in a separate skillet, saute minced garlic and ginger until brown. Then add vegetables and cook until diced onions are translucent.

6. Once yams are cooked, remove yams and set aside.

7. Add rice to the boiling water used to cook yams. Cook rice on medium heat for 10 minutes until nearly soft. Stir in mixed vegetables. Add water if necessary. Place cabbage on top. Steam until cooked thoroughly.

7. Peanut sauce requires about 5 minutes — drizzle sesame seed oil in a pan. Add diced tomatoes. Add two spoons of peanut butter and water until the consistency is that of pancake batter. Add garlic powder and cumin generously. Salt as needed. Add heat as desired (scotch bonnet pepper). Cook on low heat.

8. Plate and serve.