For Father’s Day, one of the side dishes I decided to make was the Candied sweet potato.I followed the recipe I found on Maangchi.com (which by the way, is my go-to website for Korean recipes! Check it out.).

Ingredients:
1 lb sweet potato (I actually used two big potatoes, since this was just a side dish)
5 cups vegetable oil
1/4 cup sugar
black sesame seeds (I substituted with regular sesame seeds)

Directions
1. Peel the potato.

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2. Rinse in cold water and dry it with a paper towel.

3. Slice into chunks about 1.5″-2″ wide. I made them a little smaller since they are appetizer size.

4. I hate wasting oil, so I only used as much oil as I needed, so if you need less than 5 cups, I suggest using less. I used as much oil to cover the potato so I could fry it. Anyway, heat the oil first.

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5. Fry the potato chunks over medium heat until golden brown (7-10 minutes).

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6. Strain the potatoes out of the frying pan and set aside.

To make the syrup:
7. In a thick bottomed pan, add 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil and spread the oil by moving the pan around.

8. Sprinkle 1/4 cup white sugar over the oil evenly. You might need more or less depending on how much oil you use.

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9. Heat up over medium heat for a couple minutes.

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10. When the sugar starts to melt, lower the heat and simmer for 7-8 minutes until the sugar turns golden-brown. DO NOT stir syrup with spoon.

11. Lay out a non-stick sheet of parchment.
12. Add fried potato to the syrup and gently mix to coat the potato in the syrup. Try not to use any utensils as it will get stuck onto it, but sometimes it cannot be helped!

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13. Sprinkle black sesame seeds over the top.
14. Transfer to parchment sheet and leave gaps between so it won’t stick, when it cools, transfer to a serving bowl. I was in a bit of a time crunch so I skipped this step and it still worked out pretty well.

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