Who knew sayote could taste this good?
My husband recently came home with a huge sack full of sayote. He had visited a friend in Cavite and when he arrived there, the sack of sayote was already waiting to be loaded in his car.
It seems his friend had just had an abundant harvest of sayote in their farm, so he wanted to share the fruits of their harvest with our family. And what a plentiful harvest it was, for even after we had given away some of the sayote to friends and relatives, there were still a lot left in the sack.
I’ve often cooked sayote at home—sautéing it with garlic and onion to make a quick vegetable dish, or adding it to chicken tinola in place of raw papaya.
While I was wondering what to do with all the sayote we had been blessed with, I remembered a sayote dish that my staff and I once featured in the now-defunct Food magazine. Shared by jewelry designer Wynn Wynn Ong, it was a Burmese dish called sayote fries, and it was quite a novel way to use this vegetable.
I remember tasting the dish after we had cooked it in our office’s test kitchen and it was delightful—crisp, just like French fries, but acquiring an Oriental flavor once it was dipped in the tamarind soy sauce.
Last week I cooked some of the sayote following Wynn Wynn’s recipe—and it turned out to be as amazing as I remembered it to be. Who knew sayote could taste this good? Frying it caramelizes the long, thin slices of sayote, thereby releasing its natural sweetness.
In fact, these sayote fries can be as addicting as a platter of crunchy, hot French fries, perhaps even more so because the piquant dip gives it an exotic twist.
I’m so glad my husband’s friend gave us a whole sack of it. Not only was I able to share it with others, but it also reminded me of Wynn Wynn and her delicious recipe—which in turn gave me a new perspective on this humble vegetable. I’ll never look at sayote the same way again.
I’m sure there are other novel ways of cooking sayote, and I’m so eager to try them. Several years ago, for instance, when apples were so expensive in Manila, some bakeshops were augmenting their supply of apples by sneaking slices of sayote into their apple pies.
No one noticed the difference in taste until someone tattled on them—and it caused quite a scandal. Which gives me an idea: one of these days I just might try baking sayote into a pie. However, unlike those bakers of yore, I’ll give credit where credit is due—I’ll proudly name the pie sayote pie.
Meanwhile here’s the recipe for sayote fries, which I adapted from the recipe of Wynn Wynn Ong.
Sayote Fries
- 1 large sayote
- Water, for soaking the sayote
- 1/4 cup rice flour
- 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon glutinous (malagkit) flour
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1/2 tablespoon baking soda
- Dash of turmeric
- Dash of salt
- 1/3 cup water (or slightly more, for a thinner consistency)
1 cup cooking oil
For the dip:
- 2 – 3 bird’s-eye chilies (siling labuyo)
- 1 stem spring onions, chopped
- 1 whole head of garlic, pounded and diced
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce (patis)
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon tamarind paste (available in the condiments section of supermarkets)
Peel the sayote then slice it into long strips. Soak the strips in a bowl of water for about 30 minutes, then drain and pat them dry with paper towels.
In a bowl, whisk together the rice flour, glutinous rice flour, cornstarch, baking soda, turmeric and salt. Pour in the 1/3 cup water and stir to combine, until the mixture is smooth. Dip the strips of sayote into the mixture and coat them evenly.
In a wok or large cooking pan, heat the oil until it starts to smoke. Fry the sayote strips in the hot oil in batches until crisp (do not overcrowd the pan).
The sayote fries will turn brownish because of the turmeric. Transfer to a plate lined with absorbent paper or paper towels. Serve with the dip.
To make the dip:
Chop the chilies and, if desired, remove the seeds (this will make it less spicy). Stir the chopped chilies and the rest of the dip ingredients together until well blended. Serve with the sayote fries.