Recipe of the week

In Japan, sweet potatoes are so beloved they are sold out of passing vans, like Good Humor ice cream trucks, said Albert Stumm in Milk Street magazine. If you can find Japanese sweet potatoes, use them here. But we’ve taken the idea of daigaku imo, or “university potatoes,” and developed a version that can be made with American sweet potatoes and without deep frying. Ours are more a dinner side than a carnival snack, but they still have the kind of bold, savory-sweet coating that makes daigaku imo so popular.

Japanese-style glazed sweet potatoes with sesame

½ cup water • 2 tbsp grapeseed or other neutral oil • ¼ cup white sugar • 1 tbsp soy sauce • 2 tsp unseasoned rice vinegar • 1 tsp toasted sesame oil • kosher salt • black pepper • 2 12-oz orange-fleshed sweet potatoes or Japanese sweet potatoes, scrubbed but not peeled, quartered lengthwise, then cut crosswise into 1½-inch pieces • 2 tsp white or black sesame seeds, toasted

• In a 12-inch skillet, combine water, oil, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, and ½ tsp each salt and black pepper; stir until sugar dissolves. • Add sweet potatoes and stir to coat. Cover pan and cook over medium, stirring and turning potatoes about every 4 minutes, until a skewer inserted into largest piece meets no resistance, 16 to 20 minutes.

If skillet looks dry before potatoes are tender, add 1 or 2 tbsp water as needed and continue cooking. • Uncover, increase heat to medium-high and cook, stirring constantly, until potatoes are glazed and sizzling, about 2 minutes.

• Off heat, toss in sesame seeds, then taste and season with salt and pepper. Serves 4.