Best for: A one-ingredient dessert or snack cooked in the coals’ leftover heat.
Gungoguma is the Korean street vendor’s winter warmer: whole sweet potatoes roasted slowly until their skins char and the flesh inside turns to caramel-sweet custard. The grill does the same work as the vendor’s drum roaster — all you need is time and a fork to test for softness.
Grill: Indirect medium heat; 375–400°F with the lid closed. Equipment: Covered grill, tongs, fork.
Ingredients
Rest: 5 minutes. Total: 1 hour.
- 4 medium sweet potatoes (Korean bam goguma if available, or garnet), about 2 lb total
- 1 teaspoon neutral oil
- 1/2 teaspoon fine table salt
Directions
Scrub the sweet potatoes, dry them well, and prick each one several times with a fork. Rub the skins lightly with the neutral oil and sprinkle with the salt.
Heat the grill for indirect cooking at 375–400°F.
Set the sweet potatoes on the indirect side, close the lid, and roast for about 50 minutes, turning once halfway.
The sweet potatoes are done when they squeeze very softly with tongs, the skins have puffed and charred in spots, and syrupy juices begin to bead at the fork holes.
Rest for 5 minutes — the flesh will be steaming hot.
Split each sweet potato open and eat the custardy flesh straight from the skin with a spoon, plain, or with butter or honey if you like.
Grilling tip: Smaller, slimmer sweet potatoes roast more evenly than fat ones — pick a matched set so they finish together.
