Kaukau - Papua New Guinean Sweet Potato

Step 1

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit

Step 2

Rinse your sweet potatoes thoroughly, then wrap in tinfoil

Step 3

Place your tinfoiled sweet potatoes into the oven and bake for 30 minutes. You'll want to turn them over at the halfway point, but otherwise you can leave them to bake until they're soft enough to poke through with a fork

Step 4

Once the sweet potatoes have cooked, remove them from the oven (keep the oven on, though) and peel the sweet potatoes out of the tinfoil

Step 5

Slice your kaukau very carefully lengthwise

Step 6

Take a spoon and hollow out your sweet potato into a bowl. For presentation's sake, try to keep the skin of your sweet potato intact, although this is optional

Step 7

Begin to puree your sweet potato insides with a whisk. As the sweet potato begins to puree, add your coconut oil and continue to whisk

Step 8

Add your coconut milk, shallots, garlic and ginger and whisk in well

Step 9

Next, add your orange juice, cinnamon, salt and pepper, and whisk again

Step 10

Very carefully and gently scoop your kaukau coconut mash back into the sweet potato skins (which will have cooled and slightly hardened again)

Step 11

Place your filled kaukau canoes into the oven for another 5 minutes, then remove and let cool. Enjoy!