Sweet Potato Fritters

[tupac17616]

So with Turkey Day just a few days away, I was studying the library (Read: daydreaming about food) today, and thought it might be interesting to change up the old candied sweet potatoes recipe. My mother and I are still going to make the usual candied sweet potatoes, but I thought I'd try my hand at a variation on that theme.

So I came up with...Chipotle Sweet Potato Fritters with Homemade Marshmallow Fluff Dipping Sauce.

Of course, I have no recipe, no experience making any kind of fritters, but that just adds to the fun, right?

Anyway, here is the preliminary plan...

Bake some sweet potatoes. Peel. Mash together with cinnamon, brown sugar, nutmeg, clove, allspice, salt, and chipotle peppers for a spicy kick. I'd like to add some butter as well, but will this hold up okay when I fry them? I am guessing I need to add some eggs and breadcrumbs to the mix to hold the fritters together, right? Planning on using the recipe for homemade marshmallows from the Barefoot Contessa cookbook I have, not whipping them up quite as much, and voila...homemade marshmallow fluff to dip the fritters in. Do these flavor combinations sound decent to anyone else, or am I going crazy? I'm all for kitchen experimentation, but it'd be nice if the family would enjoy the dish, too. Gotta please the crowds, after all, it is Thanksgiving.

Any and all suggestions to help me make this dish a success would be greatly appreciated.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Yeah, eggs will glue pretty much anything together .. your concept sounds appetizing: combining the heat and sweetness with the lightness of the marshmallow! I'll bite!

Actually, unfried, it might make an interesting kugel ...

[Ling]

Those sound fantastic! When I clicked on the thread, I was picturing your idea to be thin slices of sweet potato dredged in a thin, cinnamony batter and then fried. I like you idea much better though!

[Kevin72]

I'd leave out the butter, especially with eggs in there and the marshmallow dipping sauce.

[tupac17616]

Thanks for the responses so far.

I am thinking maybe I ought to use chopped pecans instead of breadcrumbs. They would provide a similar textural element, but the flavor of pecans would probably add something nice to the dish, as pecans and sweet potato are a natural combo. Do you think I should use the pecans to "bread" the fritters, or would they burn once fried if I do it that way? Maybe I should just mix them throughout the batter instead. Who knows.

I am thinking I will probably just form them by hand into small fritters, and drop them into some really oil (peanut?) for frying. Sounds like it should work, right?

I just worry about making them over-complicated, you know. Too many flavors going on at once.

Hopefully it'll all work out, and turn out a tasty dish.

[FoodMan]

maybe not very traditional, but a little ricotta cheese mixed in is wonderful.

Elie

[elrap]

Cool idea, I love the fluff. I had a lot of baked sweet potatoes left over once and mashed them with some chipotle in adobo, added an egg plus I think an egg yolk and maybe some fresh breadcrumbs for body. I formed them into latke-like shapes and dredged them in more breadcrumbs to fry. They were fine but needed more work & I never revisited the concept. Maybe the fluff would've put them over the top.

I remember I got the original idea because I had sweet potato fries with chipotle ketchup at Moat Mountain Smokehouse in North Conway, NH.

I think if I were doing it again I would consider using grated raw sweet potatoes so the edges get really crispy. More latke, less pancake.

Good luck!

L. Rap

[Kevin72]

Thanks for the responses so far.

I am thinking maybe I ought to use chopped pecans instead of breadcrumbs.  They would provide a similar textural element, but the flavor of pecans would probably add something nice to the dish, as pecans and sweet potato are a natural combo.  Do you think I should use the pecans to "bread" the fritters, or would they burn once fried if I do it that way?  Maybe I should just mix them throughout the batter instead.  Who knows.

I am thinking I will probably just form them by hand into small fritters, and drop them into some really oil (peanut?) for frying.  Sounds like it should work, right?

I just worry about making them over-complicated, you know.  Too many flavors going on at once. 

Hopefully it'll all work out, and turn out a tasty dish. 

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Do a compromise and mix the pecans in the breadcrumbs. You're grinding them into a meal, right?

I'd think with everything being pretty much cooked you shouldn't have a problem with the nuts burning. Deep-frying might be the way to go to set it quickly though.

I like your thought process on all this; very creative.

[Malawry]

Nuts burn pretty easily, and they are nasty when burnt. I'd try one or two fritters before breading all of them with the pecans to see how they come out. I'm guessing you'd be safe if your fritters are small so they heat through quickly.

Personally, I think the idea of the marshmallow fluff sounds too sweet--unless you're trying to make this a dessert. But I scrape the marshmallows off the top of sweet potato casserole, so perhaps that's just me.

[tupac17616]

Ricotta cheese, eh? Not a bad idea. I kinda like it.

I am planning to deep-fry them, but I'll definitely do a small test batch to make sure the ground pecans are not going to burn. Could I roast the pecans a little to bring out a little flavor before grinding them up, or would they definitely burn later on that way. Hmm. I wonder. But like Kevin72 said, I don't think the fritters will require much frying time at all since the potatoes will already be cooked.

As for the marshmallow fluff, I don't think the sweetness will be overpowering. I've made marshmallows with the recipe I have many times, and they are not overly sweet, so I know the homemade fluff won't be as sweet as the marshmallow fluff I could buy from the grocery store. It will also be a small batch, so it won't make or break the dish. I just thought it'd be a nice touch. I am looking for this to be a small appetizer/side dish, not a dessert, but I guess I will just see how it ends up.

By the way, thanks for all the helpful tips and advice everyone

[KatieLoeb]

Since the potatoes are already cooked, basically you're just crisping the outside and heating them through, correct? If you made them flatter like a latke rather than like a "dough-ball" type fritter (think hushpuppies) they'd probably heat through and crisp up fast enough not to burn the pecan meal.

But the only way to know is to try a few.

I hope you realize we expect a full report with photos at this point.

[Marco_Polo]

Mmmnn, this is a great idea, but I'm thinking savoury not sweet so no marshmallow fluff here. How about simply grating the sweet potatoes raw, mix with a couple of tablespoons of polenta flour, salt and pepper, a beaten egg or two, mix well, spoon into a hot skillet and fry like potato pancakes? I wonder if this would work? They could be fried in advance, then simply reheated in the oven while the turkey is resting? Perhap I'll try an experimental batch for lunch...

[Kevin72]

You could also go a slightly different route and make the mashed sweet potatoes and chipotles into savory beignets (sp?). . . mix with flour, a little warm milk, yeast, even the chopped pecans you wanted in there. Let it rise and then spoon into hot oil.

For some reason I keep thinking that a little lemon juice in the mix (either one) would help lift the flavors.

[tupac17616]

Well, I made the fritters, and they turned out okay. Due to some unforeseen circumstances regarding the location of my family's Thanksgiving meal, I wasn't able to make the Marshmallow Fluff dipping sauce. But here is what I did manage to do:

Bake 4 sweet potatoes until fork tender. Peel. Mash. Add one whole egg, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, pumpkin pie spice, a few finely chopped chipotle peppers, some ground pecans. Form into small hush-puppie-sized fritters using hands, spoons, or whatever you choose. Drop into hot oil to deep-fry (I used peanut oil and kept it at about 350-360 degrees). When done, take out of fryer with slotted spoon or spider and salt immediately. Make fresh whipped cream sweetened with a good amount of powdered sugar. Use for dipping sauce. Enjoy.

I was pretty pleased with the results. The combination of flavors worked well. My family all loved the hot/sweet combination. The whipped cream turned out to be a fine replacement for the marshmallow fluff dipping sauce I had in mind. I wish the texture had been more crisp. When fresh from the fryer, the texture was better. By the time we had moved the fritters and all the other food from point A to point B, the fritters were barely even lukewarm, and had turned a little soggy

Oh well. It was a hit with the family anyway. I will definitely try this (or something similar) again in the future and see how I might be able to tweak it to get a better texture. The flavors, though, were right on, so I probably will not tweak that too much.

So all in all, I'd say the fritters were a pretty successful Thanksgiving experiment. It was fun trying something new. Sorry I wasn't able to take any pictures, but that situation was kinda out of my control.