Sweet potatoes are a ho-hum vegetable most of the time; dry, boring, and needing a ton of sugar to add flavor. However, the sweet potatoes our farmers have been bringing are just bursting with flavor – they are fresh, juicy, healthy and tasty. Here are a few easy ways to prepare them that are sure to please. The first recipe is for mashed sweet potatoes with pears, and I’ve included it because it’s a great reminder that we can mash most root vegetables with a variety of other vegetables and fruits with delicious results. Use the recipe as a starting point to experiment with mashing sweet potatoes with everything from cauliflower and romanesco to apples and pears….
Mashed Sweet Potatoes and Pears
Ingredients
5 pounds red-skinned sweet potatoes (yams)
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
4 large firm but ripe Bartlett pears, peeled, cored, cut into 1/3 inch-thick slices
3/4 cup (or more) pear nectar or cider
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon (generous) ground cardamom
Preparation
Preheat oven to 400°F. Butter 13 x 9 x 2 – inch glass baking dish. Pierce potatoes in several places with fork. Place on baking sheet; bake until very tender when pierced with knife, about 1 hour. Remove from oven. Reduce temperature to 350°F.
Meanwhile, melt 2 tablespoons butter in heavy large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add pears; sauté until beginning to soften, about 5 minutes. Add 3/4 cup nectar; bring to simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer until pears are very tender, adding more nectar if mixture sticks to skillet and stirring often, about 4 minutes. Transfer to processor and puree.
Peel sweet potatoes; place in large bowl of electric mixer. Add 4 tablespoons butter; beat until smooth. Mix in pear puree, sugar, cinnamon and cardamom. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to prepared dish (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.)
Bake potatoes uncovered until just heated through, about 20 minutes (Bon Appétit, November 1994; serves 8). Epicurious.com © CondéNet, Inc. All rights reserved.
Oven Baked Sweet Potato Chips
Ingredients
1 large sweet potato
Salt and pepper and other spices to mix with the salt and pepper (see below)
Heat oven to 200°F with two racks and line two baking pans with parchment paper. Slice potato crosswise, as thin as possible. Arrange the slices on the prepared sheets, and keep them from touching as much as possible. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper or another spice mix. Cook for 50 minutes; slices will dehydrate and shrink – turn chips over, and rotate baking sheets if needed for even cooking. Cook until slices are crisped and fluted around the edges and the centers are still orange, not brown, 30 to 40 more minutes. Transfer to cooling racks, and cool chips on baking sheets. (Chips will be soft when removed from oven and will crisp as they cool.) You can store the chips in an airtight container, at room temperature, for up to 3 days. (From RecipeZaar: http://www.recipezaar.com/77009)
Additional spices: a great way to augment the flavor of sweet potato chips is with lime and salt (kinda like a non-alcoholic and healthy margarita!). Grate the zest from a lime and mix with a good quality sea salt or kosher salt. Sprinkle on the chips before you bake them. You might also want to try other spices such as cumin, cinnamon, thyme, oregano, etc. Use your imagination!