Marjorie's Sweet Potato Pudding

Ingredients: this is a pretty incredible pudding/cake

• 2 lb. Sweet Potatoes - peeled & grated
• 2 cups Brown Sugar
• 3 cups Coconut Milk
• 2 tsp. Almond or Vanilla Extract
• 1 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. Grated Nutmeg
• 1 lb. All-purpose Flour
• 1/2 cup Jamaican Rum
• 1 cup Raisins
• 1 tsp. Salt

Directions:

Soak raisins in rum for 3 hours.

Peel and grate potatoes into a large mixing bowl.

Instead of grating the sweet potatoes, you can use a food processor with the fine shredding blade attached. The initial appearance of the potatoes will be different than if using the grating method, however, the texture of the finished pudding will be identical.

Crack open a dry coconut, and remove the meat from the shell with a knife. Grate the coconut meat into a bowl. Add water to the grated coconut, and squeeze coconut to extract milk into the water. Strain out solids. If necessary, add enough water to make 3 cups of coconut milk.

An easier way to make the coconut milk is to use a blender. After removing the coconut meat from the shell, cut the meat into small pieces, and place half the meat in blender jar with enough water to cover it. Grate until coconut is very finely chopped, if necessary add more water to allow the mixture to circulate in the blender jar. Strain coconut mixture into a bowl to remove the solids, and repeat process with remainder of the coconut. Squeeze the grated coconut to extract as much milk as possible.

Mix coconut milk, brown sugar and almond extract together. Add to the grated potatoes and mix until blended. Mix flour, cinnamon and nutmeg together. Stir in flour mixture to potatoes, then add rum/raisin mixture.

Pour mixture into 9inch or 10inch round pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 2 hours, or until pudding is firm.