One to make on long hot days, when there is nothing else to do but lie in the garden with a good book, occasionally reaching over to flip some strips of sweet potato that are drying out under the sweet summer sun.

Not so much a recipe (as there is only one ingredient and the application of heat), but more of a method to create a chewy, more-ish and delicious delicacy.

The drying process enhances the sweetness of the potato, they become tender and begin to taste more like candy than a savoury vegetable.

A bit like fermenting, sun drying sweet potatoes is not something we really make ourselves. We prep the potatoes, roast them and slice them, but the rest is handed over to time and nature.

It’s a test of patience to wait for the perfect moment when the potatoes have become the perfect balance of being firm to touch, but are still soft and squishy in the centre.

Somehow, it’s incredibly satisfying to watch the moisture evaporate from the shimmering flesh of the potatoes, before it slowly starts to wrinkle in the summer heat and observe the colour fade from a vibrant flame orange into a darker and more muted red tone.

Timings in the recipe below can’t be specific as each potato will have a different water content and will dry at different speeds. The weather also plays a big factor here too, as each climate will change the speed of the drying time, as well as the temperature of your chosen ‘sweet potato drying day’.

Check the weather forecast and find a couple of days where there is no rain predicted.

The sweet potato slices pictured took 1.5 days to dry in the southern French heat, during a particularly hot July. In England they tend to take around 2.5 days in the height of summer.

To make the most of the sunshine, I like to roast the potatoes in the evening and leave them to cool in the oven overnight so they are ready for peeling first thing in the morning. This means the potatoes get a full day out in the sun, as opposed to baking them in the morning, waiting for them to cool and not getting them into the sun until the mid-afternoon.

The more time the potatoes have to cool, the firmer they will be, which makes for easier peeling and slicing.

INGREDIENTS:

• As many sweet potatoes as you care to dry (I like to do three large ones at a time and roast them at the bottom of the oven when baking cakes or cooking dinner).

METHOD:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Place the sweet potatoes onto a baking tray and then into the oven when it’s nice and hot.
3. Bake the potatoes until they are soft to touch and oozing.
4. Let them cool completely (this can take several hours ~ I normally leave them in the oven overnight for peeling in the morning, this way they also get a full day of sun).
5. Peel the skin away from the potatoes and discard.
6. Slice the potatoes lengthways into 1cm strips.
7. Place the strips onto sheets of baking paper with a good amount of space around each one.
8. Place your sheets of sliced sweet potatoes in the sun.
9. Placing wire racks under the sheets will help to speed up the drying time, if you don’t have any of these to hand, slatted chairs or tables work just as well.
10. Turn the slices over every so often so the sun gets to both sides.
11. Keep checking on the potatoes every few hours, they are ready for eating when they are dry to touch on the outside and squishy in the centre.
12. If they are not ready by the evening, bring the sheets inside and place in the oven until the following morning. Then return the strips into the sunshine the following morning to carry on the drying process. Repeat until they have reached the desired texture.

Once ready, the dried chewy strips can be eaten straight away or stored in an airtight container or kilner jar to be snacked on for up to a month.