Japanese "Satsuma-imo" simmered sweet potato さつま芋の甘煮

Since my wife is a big fan of Japanese "Satsuma-imo" sweet potato 薩摩芋, she got three when we were at our near-by Whole Foods.  We cooked them in our Weber grill when I did my our usual pork roast. My wife put "dibs" on two of them. She made mashed sweet potato with butter and soy sauce and we enjoyed it with the roasted pork. The leftover mashed sweet potato became sweet potato rolls. So, I got one potato to use to my heart's content. I made this simple sweetened simmered sweet potato (making sweet potato even sweeter appears to be common in Japan).

I garnished this dish with black sesame 黒胡麻. For some reason, black sesame is often used with sweet potato. I am just following the tradition.

The sweet potato we got was "organic" and had some (read: a lot of) dirt on them. Maybe a thick coating of mother earth is part of the "organic" appeal. My wife would not allow them anywhere near the refrigerator until I scrubbed them with a brush. (below).

Ingredients:
1 Japanese "Satsuma-imo" sweet potato, scrubbed clean, skin on, cut into 1/4 inch thick rounds and the larger round cut in to two or four.
Water just enough to cover (sweet potato in one layer)
1-2 tbs sugar
A pinch of salt
Black sesame seeds for garnish

Directions:
In a large frying pan (large enough to hold the sweet potato in one layer), add the potato and water to just cover.
Place the pan in medium-low flame.
Simmer for 10-15 minutes with a lid on until a bamboo skewer goes thorough easily.
Sprinkle on the sugar and keep simmering for 1-10 minutes, add a pinch of salt.
Remove the lid and turn up the flame and shake and cook until the liquid is almost all gone.
Sprinkle the black sesame and serve hot or at room temperature.

Japanese almost always add sugar to already sweet Japanese sweet potato. This recipe was no exception. It is a bit sweet as a side dish but it is good as a snack and also surprisingly goes well with a sake or even wine.