Sweet Potatoes: the Topic

[FL Heat]

Gourmet ran a recipe for Sweet Potato Salad with Mustard Vinagrette several months ago.  It's a total change from the usual sweet preparations seen with sweet potatoes.

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Ohoh! I made that! A nice gentleman was selling sweet potatoes from his truck at the gas station just before Hurricane Jeanne, and I bought some, realizing $1 too late that I didn't have any idea what to do with them. I found that before the power went out, and it was really, really good. Even the "ew, I don't like sweet potatoes" company thought it was pretty good.

My Mamaw peels/cubes/boils, then smashes them with some cinnamon, then makes little "nests" on a cookie sheet (just glops for family, pipes it out for company), and fills the center with pecans, bakes them til they get a little crunchy, then pours on a honey/orange juice glaze. I've never gotten the recipe, but that's the general idea. And they're pretty.

Diana

[Cusina]

Sweet potatoes are great just sliced, slicked with olive oil and salted then put on the grill for a few minutes. And I love sweet potato fries.

I also make a sweet potato and butternut squash soup. Slice the butternut in half, scoop out the seeds and place on a baking sheet with 2 sweet potatoes. Roast until squishy. Scoop out the flesh, put in a nice large soup pan on the stove top, cover with chicken broth. Add a little cream and some ginger and cumin if you like. Whiz with the immersion blender. Top with diced chipotle pepper and a little adobo sauce. Or, sometimes, for a sweeter soup, I'll add bourbon and maple syrup to the puree and top with candied pecans instead of the spices and peppers.

[fifi]

This thread has to be pretty near a champion for the number of fabulous ideas and recipes in one thread. And you all seem to be of a same mind... not a bunch of sweet stuff, thank you very much.

I gotta get some sweet taters this weekend and start planning for Thanksgiving.

[mantee]

Sweet Pototoes, chocolate, ginger and persminons. I did pancakes, but pies, puddings or cake. I love orange with this combo, so I broke out some of my blood orange zest for a cream cheese drissle.

[lamb]

Sweet potatoes are great just sliced, slicked with olive oil and salted then put on the grill for a few minutes.  And I love sweet potato fries.

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I was just thinking of sweet potato fries. Martell's Tiki Bar at Point Pleasant Beach, NJ, makes the best sp fries. I haven't been down there in about a month or so, and tried to make them at home. Sliced the potatoes and attempted to deep fry them. They came out terrible; can't figure out what I did wrong. Any thoughts? They were dry and hard, not all all like to moist, flavorful fries on the n.j. boardwalk.

[RebeccaT]

So all I do is to poke a hole or two, then put them on a baking sheet, and bake in the oven for a couple hours.

We like to cook them a long time until they get nice and soft and caramely.  Then just slice them open and top with some butter and salt and pepper.

This is how my great-grandmother used to prepare them (hailing from Perry, GA, since this is on the Southern Food Culture forum), and my mom (who learned from her). Great-grandmother was a terrible cook, but she always got these right. She called them "Candied yams." They seriously were in the oven for about 4 hours on no more than 200 degrees.

I like to cube them up, boil them, drain and mash them, and stir in some butter, minced chipotle (with adobo sauce), a bit of cinnamon and a bit of lime juice. And kosher salt or course. Yum.

[Cucina]

I actually posted this as part of the discussion over pecan pies or cheesecakes. My grandmother served a sweet potato casserole on special holidays. Don't know exactly how many sweet potatos it takes, but enough where when they are mashed, they can fill a good sized round and deep caserole dish - here goes -

hand mashed sweet potatos

dash of salt

1 to 1.5 cups of orange juice (fresh squeezed is of course best) - amount depends on consistency

a little grated orange peel to taste

mix all of this together and put in the casserole

cover the top of this with a generous layer of chopped pecans and light brown sugar - drizzle about a half cup of melted butter on top. Add a generous dollop of borbon on top of that. Bake at 350 until the top all goos together and is a bit crispy. Yum

[andiesenji]

I am still trying, after many years of making numerous attempts, to duplicate the candied sweet potatos (or squash) that used to be sold by the street vendors in Mexico City. They carried or wheeled around a little metal brazier, (looked like they were made from a metal 5 gallon can) and would spear (with a round wooden stick that looked like a piece of 1/4 inch dowel with one sharp end) a slab of partially cooked sweet potato from a pot that held a sweet syrup (might have been agave syrup), and put it onto the pierced top of the brazier, turn it a few times until all sides were bubbling and beginning to get black and brown on the edges, then twist a bit of newspaper around the stick and hand it over.

I can remember trying to wait until it had cooled enough so one wouldn't scorch lips and tongue because it seemed to be about the temperature of molton lava.

One did not have to worry about getting "tourista" from this because no germ could have survived in either the hot syrup or on the surface of the brazier.

The closest I have come is parboiling until they were just barely tender, slicing into 1 inch thick rounds, soaking in hot syrup, then cooking over the charcoal grill on one of the pierced pans made for cooking small items on the grill.

The problem is that I am not sure that I am using the same kind of sweet potato or if there is a step in the pre-cooking process that I am missing.

The last time I was in Mexico City we couldn't find a single one of these particular street vendors, although every other type was there in abundance, although it may have been the wrong time of the year for them.

If anyone has any idea about this, I would certainly appreciate it.

[FistFullaRoux]

I like to cube a sweet potato (about 3/4 inch), toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, and a little minced garlic. Place a single layer of potatoes on a baking sheet, and roast at 300 for about 25 minutes, or until done to your taste.

Serve with a dipping sauce made of sour cream, ground cumin, paprika, and cayenne. Or whatever kind of sauce like this you wish. A little horseradish works as well... Good with beef and chicken. It's a little overbearing on pork though.

[highchef]

These sweet potato pancakes (with shrimp) are divine, especially with the chipolte mayo. I like the chaote slaw with it for a main luncheon dish, but make small ones for teasers. the latin spice mix is good in chilli and as a dry rub.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/102840

[curlywurlyfi]

have just had sweet potato for lunch - baked, split open + topped with guacamole, chunked tomato + some chopped red onion. really good.

[ludja]

Citrus goes very well with sweet potatoes-- like the lime juice mentioned above.

An easy quick meal is a baked sweet potato topped w/lime juice, black beans, spicy salsa and yogurt (or sour cream).

Something I've made for many Thanksgivings-- baked sweet potatoes, cut in half and served with a compound butter made of lemon and black pepper and a little brown sugar. (a really good combination).

For dessert-- Bill Neal's Sweet Potato Pie in his first cookbook, Southern Cooking. The eggs are separated, with the whites folded in last to lighten the texture. Flavored with butter, brown sugar, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon and Bourbon. Topped with a butter/brown sugar/pecan crumble. (This graces my Thanksgiving Table each year also).

Edited November 15, 2004 by ludja (log)

[wcmckinney]

This sweet potato outpouring is all quite interesting. I am surprised by how many Latin American influences come out with the sweet potato, and frankly how "un-southern" these recipes are. When you out there eat a sweet potato do you think of it as entering into the southern cooking tradition, like you would if grits were on the plate, or does the sweet potato have to be prepared in a certain way?

Since we are sharing good ways to eat sweet potatos with each other I would just note that my friend prepared a tasty savory sweet potato bake with rosemary this past weekend. Rosemary brightens up the dish without making it too sachrine.

[Pan]

William, sweet potatoes were a very common food in my Jewish New York household when I was growing up. We seldom thought of them as particularly Southern, though since we had spent 1967-68 in Baton Rouge while my father was in residence at LSU, my parents couldn't have been said to be ignorant of the South or its food. But the most common way we had sweet potatoes was simply baked in the oven, with butter added with a knife on the table or not, according to our preferences (I always abstained). Another way sweet potatoes were used was in tsimmes, a traditional Ashkenazic Jewish dish which doesn't always use sweet potatoes but which I think is much improved by them. It's a kind of beef stew with various sweets that's traditional for Passover and we have sometimes made it for Thanksgiving, too. Prunes, sweet potatoes - various sweet things with stew beef, pepper, etc. We did sometimes have candied yams, too, and those were usually made with canned yams in those days (the 70s). My other exposure to sweet potatoes, though, was even more decidedly Southern. A wonderful black lady came by every week or so to do some cleaning and babysit me. She was a great baker and liked to bake things for us in her Harlem kitchen and bring them over. One of the things she brought sometimes was a delicious sweet potato pie. To this day, I remember my fictive third grandmother, Mrs. Carr, with love every time I eat sweet potato pie or any other Southern dessert.

[lovebenton0]

Eunny, if you're looking in on this when buying sweet potatoes in the US, fresh or canned (even if they're called yams!) you really are getting sweet potatoes unless you're in a specialty market for Caribbean food. The two are similar but not at all the same. They are both roots. Yams are not from N America. So, choices then become based on variety which is usually exhibited by color: Red, orange, yellow, or even nearly white.

That said, some of my favorite ways of eating/preparing them are:

Puerto Rican sweet potato chips!

Baked plain to carmelize with butter or nothing.

Sweet potato, black bean, corn stew with pork and Cajun spices.

Baked then mashed with lime, EVOO and soft cooked jalapeno, salt.

Curried sweet potatoes (with peanut butter or tahini -- depends on what I've got -- both are good, just different.)

Curried with coconut milk also, mashed.

Sweet potatoes (mashed) for bread doughs and in cinnamon rolls. Makes breads/rolls moist and a lovely golden color. These cinnamon rolls are holiday season tradition for me the last several years, ever since I thought to try them one T-day morning with an extra SW. Will be served with coffee on T-Day morning. Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls

Also on menu, another from my own kitchen is Sweet Potatoes, Plantains and Pecans been doing these for a long while. Started out doing them with bananas as an alternative to that marshmallow thing (bleh!) but the baked plantains are so much better I switched a few years ago.

Ummmm, so yep, I guess you could say we really like 'em sweet 'taters!

[hazardnc]

I will buck the gourmet trend here. I just finished making my recipe for praline sweet potatoes. These really qualify as a dessert more than a side dish. Mashed sweets are mixed with butter, sugar, cream and eggs the put in a pan and topped with a mix of brown sugar, butter, flour and pecans then baked.

Truly rich, decadent and sweet - excellent

[chromedome]

At my school, we made a tart with sweet potatoes. They were shredded, raw, and mixed with some eggs and nuts and chocolate and one or two other things which elude my recollection at the moment. Then poured into a prepared unbaked tart shell, and popped into the oven until nicely caramelized. It was pretty tasty.

[Jaymes]

Edited to add sweet-potato spice cake. How could I have forgotten one of my favorite cakes?! It's marvelously moist and dense and just plain good.

This sounds absolutely wonderful. I'd love this recipe....if you've a mind to share.

[Swisskaese]

I like to bake them and eat them plain.

My grandmother use to hollow out oranges, fill it with pureed sweet potato that she spiced up and baked in the oven. At the last minute she would top it with a large marshmallow and grill under the oven. It wasn't my favourite.

However, my favourite Thanksgiving dish is NC Yam Custard.

Custard:

1-1/2 C. Half & Half

1 Tbsp. Butter

3 C. Cooked & Mashed Yams

2 Eggs, slightly beaten

3/4 C. Sugar

1/2 tsp. ea. Salt,Cinnamon, Ginger & Nutmeg

1tsp. Vanilla

1/6 C. Bourbon

Topping Ingredients:

1/2 C. Dk. Brown Sugar

3 Tbsp. melted Butter

1/2 C Pecans, chopped

1/2 C. flaked Coconut

Preheat oven to 400º. Heat 1 cup half & half with butter. Combine warm cream and yams in processor. Add remaining half & half, eggs, sugar, salt, spices, Bourbon and vanilla. Blend until smooth. Pour in a 2-quart casserole. Mix topping ingredients and sprinkle over yams. Bake in Hot Water bath 50 minutes, or until knife comes out clean.

Edited November 28, 2004 by Swisskaese (log)

[fchrisgrimm]

Sweet Potato Soup (inspired by Jimmy Sneed's Delaware white sweet potato soup, with the recipe basically borrowed from James Peterson):

Char a couple of poblano peppers for the purpose of peeling and seeding.

Sautee two diced medioum yellow onions and two minced garlic cloves until soft. Add a quart of chicken stock and two pounds of Delaware white sweet potatoes.

Simmer until the pots are basically done.

Add the poblanos and one or two (to preference) minced jalapenos for about three minutes.

Add the juice of one lime, and puree the whole mess. I just use my immersion blender, right in the pot.

Serve, top with a bit of creme fraiche (a cup of creme fraiche with the juice of another lime added makes for a great garnish).

[Jaymes]

This sweet potato outpouring is all quite interesting.  I am surprised by how many Latin American influences come out with the sweet potato, and frankly how "un-southern" these recipes are.  When you out there eat a sweet potato do you think of it as entering into the southern cooking tradition, like you would if grits were on the plate, or does the  sweet potato have to be prepared in a certain way?

When I think of sweet potatoes/yams, I definitely think 'southern,' as in south of the Mason/Dixon line, and I mean all the way south -- Southern US, Caribbean, Mexican, and on down into Central and the north parts of South America. Often see them on sticks, like shish-ke-bobs, and candied and preserved. You can buy them from vendors in Mexico, preserved and rolled in crystalized sugar.

When I make our traditional sweet potatos for Thanksgiving and Christmas, I take some bourbon and combine it with either some orange marmelade, or frozen OJ concentrate and drizzle that over.

I love sweet potatoes in all their many incarnations.

[lovebenton0]

I've decided that the thing to do with the left over sweet potatoes with plantains and pecans is to pie it. I pureed it this evening -- will add some more brown sugar, some cream and eggs tomorrow and bake in deep dish shell.

[cakewalk]

In another thread, Milagi said:

"... in fact i wish there was a thread on sweet potato recipes..... i LOVE this root and all its savory / sweet and sour recipes ..."

Well I couldn't agree more, and so I thought I'd start the thread (even though I don't have any recipes. )

I've read that sweet potatoes and yams are two completely different things nutrition-wise (although I always get confused which is which.) But are they interchangeable in recipes?

Okay, let's have your best!! (Thank you.)

[carswell]

Here's a cool-season favourite of mine: Eden's Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Caramelized Shallots and Crispy Kale. Very popular with kids, too. Roasting kale gives it a texture a bit like deep-friend spinach.

[phaelon56]

I've read that sweet potatoes and yams are two completely different things nutrition-wise (although I always get confused which is which.) But are they interchangeable in recipes?

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The Texas A & M University (Aggie's) web site says

Several decades ago when orange flesh sweet potatoes were introduced in the southern United States producers and shippers desired to distinguish them from the more traditional white flesh types. The African word "nyami" referring to the starchy, edible root of the Dioscorea genus of plants was adopted in its English form, "yam". Yams in the U.S. are actually sweet potatoes with relatively moist texture and orange flesh. Although the terms are generally used interchangeably, the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires that the label "yam" always be accompanied by "sweet potato."

and proceeds with a lovely table detailing

What is the Difference Between a Yam and a Sweet Potato?

I'd never seen anything but yams in my local grocery until last weekend. I picked up some "sweet potatoes" of the white fleshed type and used them for my take on sweet potato salad. Having made it before with orange fleshed sweet potatoes (aka yams) I think I prefer this dish made with the orange ones just for the sake of color. But it's tasty either way. There are scads of Sweet Potato Salad recipes on the net, many for a Caribbean style, most including mayo and a number of them with pineapple and/or peanuts included.

My variation was based on a recipe I found in local school PTA cookbook but I've changed it to get a lighter feel to the dressing. All measurements are a guess - use your own judgment

* 3 - 4 cups sweet potato in small chunks cooked until still firm then drained and cooled

* Finely chopped sweet red, orange and/or yellow pepper - about a 1/2 to 2/3 cup

* Thinly sliced scallion - mostly from the green end (the tops) but also use the bases and mince that portion

* Finely chopped celery - 1/4 to 1/3 cup

* 1/2 can of niblet corn - use the extra sweet crunchy type (Green Giant makes one labeled this way) or if at all possible use fresh sweet corn cooked and sliced off the ear

Mix the above ingredients and in a separate bowl whisk together

* juice from one or two limes

* a couple tbsp or just a bit more of sweet rice wine vinegar

* a tbsp or so of very finely minced or grated ginger root

* a small bit of 10X sugar or your choice of other sweetener - I use a tsp or so

* fresh ground white pepper if you like

* a tbsp or two of olive oil

Add the dressing just before serving and use sparingly - reserve extra dressing for later.

Sprinkle some chopped pecans on top before serving. Peanuts would be okay but pecans are better. IMHO this dish is distinctly better with the orange sweet potatoes but I suspect that I think that because it's flashier, snazzier and more visually appealing due to greater color contrast.

I do not and will not attempt to make sweet potato pie - my GF has been making it since she was a little girl and bakes at least 100 of them between Thanksgiving and Christmas every year. I just wait for her to give me one