(The other recipe in this video is Ppottetto)
Matang (마탕) is a very delicious snack. It’s chunks of fried sweet potato coated in translucent hot brown syrup. They are sweet and super crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside! Freshly made matang is so hot that I used to burn my tongue when I ate it.
Don’t forget to bite into it though. You’ll enjoy the crunchiness between your upper and lower teeth, and the sweet, soft, fluffy, creamy sweet potato will be melting in your mouth. This is another easy recipe, but making good coating syrup is a little tricky and takes skill. Well made matang will look like shiny candy.
Ingredients
1 pound of Korean sweet potato, vegetable oil, sugar, black sesame seeds
Directions
Prepare your potato:
- Peel a 1 pound Korean sweet potato.
- Rinse it in cold water and dry it with paper towel or cotton cloth.
- Slice it into chunks that look like smooth-edged triangles, about 2 inches wide and ½ inch thick.
- Put 5 cups of vegetable oil into a wok or frying pan and heat it up.
- Fry the chunks of the the sweet potato over medium high heat for about 6-8 minutes until golden brown.
*tip: You can tell if the oil is hot enough to fry by dipping the tip of a sweet potato chunk into it. If it bubbles, it’s the right temperature to fry.
Make coating syrup:
- In a thick bottomed pan, add 1 tbs vegetable oil spread the oil by moving the pan around.
- Sprinkle ¼ cup of white sugar on over the oil evenly.
- Heat it up over medium heat for a couple of minutes.
- When the sugar starts melting, lower the heat and simmer about 7-8 minutes more, until the sugar turns into a golden-brownish syrup.
*tip: Never stir the syrup with a spoon; spread it by moving your pan.
Put it together:
- Lay out a non stick sheet of baking parchment.
- Add the fried sweet potato to the syrup in the pan. Gently mix to coat the potato chunks in the syrup.
- Sprinkle some black sesame seeds over top.
- Transfer the potato to the parchment sheet. Leave a gap between each potato piece so that they don’t stick to each other.
- When the coating cools down and become solid, transfer to a serving bowl.
Posted Tuesday, December 7th, 2010 at 9:41 am.
Tagged: candied sweet potato, 마탕, 고구마탕, goguma, gogumatang, korean dessert, korean food, Korean kitchen, Korean recipes, Korean snacks, maataang, matang, sweet potato snack, vegetarian dessert, vegetarian food
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I just found your website and already super excited to make everything! My mom(korean)is an extremely good cook but an awful teacher, lol. Thank you for your recipes.
I would love to take these to a party for my husbands family, at their house.
Is there anyway to partially cook or prepare these ahead of time so that I can make them fast. I would like them to try it fresh and burn there tongue too;) it’s the best way to eat them hot!
“I would love to take these to a party for my husbands family…” What a great idea! You can make this 5 to 7 hours in advance before serving. Keep it at room temperature.
Dear Maangchi,
This is my 3rd attempt. Sadly, the sauce is still turning out wrong. Could it be that I’m using the Splenda instead of regular sugar? It comes out too watery or in burnt chunks.
I came to the U.S. when I was finished with 1st grade. Therefore, the few things I remember well about Korea are the foods. My girls had just made the Ppopgi and Hotteok during their snow days. (Thank you, by the way, for the recipes.)
yes, you need to use sugar.
I love your channel so much <3 lol you can say that I'm addicted to it . I've tried to make a lot of your recipes but I only succeed in making 볶음밥 and 양념통닭 …. and today I will try 마탕 :) it look so yummy!
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe Maangchi!! I really enjoyed making it! – The only problem was that the sauce started to burn so it wasn’t as sweet, but it was still good! I’ll make it again and next time be sure to watch the sauce! :)
yeah, so you will have to cook the sauce really low heat. “next time be sure to watch the sauce! :)” great!
I guess that’s what I forgot to do :) – Thanks!
i like eating this snack with milk
oh my you created your id as maangchisyummyfood? lol,
thanks for the recipe!
I am eating right know! It is so good! it turned out!
Hi Maangchi! :)
When making the sweet potato fries, do you ever season them with anything or just leave them ‘plain’? I plan on making them as a side dish tomorrow, but my little brother might need some seasoning to try them because he doesn’t like sweet potatoes. My mom wants him to eat his sweet potatoes but he never does! Hoping he’ll like them better as crunchy fries :)
“my little brother might need some seasoning to try them because he doesn’t like sweet potatoes..” oh I see what you mean. Yes, it’s up to you. You can add his favorite seasonings to this. Why not?
I love sweet potato because I used to eat this for substitute to rice. It is healthy and I feel full when I eat sweet potato. I know how to make this recipe it’s simple and very good appetizer or dessert. Is it okay to use vegetable oil or olive oil for more healthy recipe, since I am on a diet??
I would use vegetable oil. Good luck with your Korean cooking!
Hey Maangchi, I just made these for me and my friend Mirei but the sugar coating didn’t harden on the sweet potato, i don’t understand what went wrong,
the fries also came out kind of floppy instead of crunchy, i don’t normally fry things so i’m sure i did something wrong, i’ll try again though and do my best to make them into crunchy perfection.
p.s. i love your recipes and korean food, thank you for showing us hoe to make them. :) Gamsahamnidad!
answers!
“the sugar coating didn’t harden..” cook the coating syrup longer
“the fries also came out kind of floppy instead of crunchy” cook them longer until crunchy
Maybe your stove is not as strong as mine. Everybody’s stove has different heat, so you will need to adjust for that.
Let me know the result if you make this again!
Happy cooking!
maangchi hi,
I like potatoes however your cooking concept using oil and sugar was a great idea thanks…!