I was just given a big pile of sweet potatoes and while I've got recipes like "chop them up into sticks, soak in salt water, and then fry them until I think they're done" and "cube them and boil in curry or other heavily spiced stews for ~15 minutes" that all work very well, that's sort of the limit of what I know for them and I want to actually get use out of them before they can spoil.
So I started wondering about making bread, but every recipe I can find seems to just be "this is literally a cake that's being called bread and it's almost 50% table sugar by volume," but that can't be the extent of options can it? There have to be some savory recipes that just rely on the sugar of the sweet potatoes themselves, right?
Chunks of sweet potato or yam goes really good in a chili or curry
There's this Japanese rice dish I forget the name of where you cook the rice like normal except you use dashi stock instead of water and add a bit of soy sauce and rice wine for seasoning along with chunks of some kind of hard slightly sweet vegetable, usually sweet potato or yam or pumpkin to cook with the rice on top
Also while I haven't tried it yet, I have seen this Chinese potato dish on a menu with a sweet potato version
Also while I haven't tried it yet, I have seen this Chinese potato dish on a menu with a sweet potato version
I've actually made something pretty similar before, less the bell pepper and tien tsin peppers (I think that's what those are, looking at them; I've got a bag of them on hand actually), though at the time I was pretty much just winging it completely off of a vague memory. I'll have to try it again with a proper methodology.
There's this Japanese rice dish I forget the name of where you cook the rice like normal except you use dashi stock instead of water and add a bit of soy sauce and rice wine for seasoning along with chunks of some kind of hard slightly sweet vegetable, usually sweet potato or yam or pumpkin to cook with the rice on top
Can you remember if that has the sweet potato cooking in with the rice or if it's cooked with already cooked and seasoned rice on top?
The sweet potatoes would finish around the same time as the rice if diced to about 1/4" or less! I make mexican rice with potatoes a lot and they are never undercooked.
hashbrowns and fries are my go-to things for sweet potatoes
i like to sprinkle both with flour, paprika and cayenne before i fry them, gives them some nice crunch and a little kickcube them and boil in curry or other heavily spiced stews for ~15 minutes
Im not an expert because i've only been a professional cook for 2 months but imo i'd try roasting or frying them first before adding to a stew because you're not going to get browning (which is the caramelization of surface sugars and proteins via maillard reactions) if you just throw them straight into a boil and you're robbing yourself of Flavor because that's what those maillard products are.
You don't get maillard reactions with water present because it limits the temperature to the boiling point of water (this is also why you can't crowd too much stuff into a pan and see browning, all the water content steams whatever you're cooking until it's boiled off) so fry then add water to boil
That's basically what I started out doing, frying to brown them a little first. The problem is that they soften up too much before they brown, so they practically melt into the curry instead of remaining as a distinct solid ingredient. I started cooking them less after trying massaman curry at a thai restaurant, and looking up recipes for that to learn from the methodology of it (and for that the potatoes or sweet potatoes just get boiled for 15-20 minutes, just long enough to soften up enough to eat without melting or falling apart).
Okay so imo if you want them as solid chunks as a mouthfeel thing the immediate next thing I would try is roasting/frying some, then adding the rest raw to boil, so you get the flavors of roasted, caramelizing sweet potato as well as the inclusion of solid chunks of potato. More flavor variety more good imo, and the dissolving cooked sweet potatoes would help thicken the curry as well
new simple sweet potato recipe video from kenji lopez-alt dropped https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr18WC_BFwI
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Have you tried sweet potatoes as a side dish like the holidays?
boil to remove skins (about 10-15 mins), cut them up, place in casserole dish, put in 2-4 tablespoons of butter (I usually use 2), a cup of mini marshmallows and 1/4 cup of brown sugar sprinkled on top, bake for 20-25 mins serve.
Most sweet potato recipes have a lot of sugar because of the sweetness of them, otherwise they can become bitter, it’s a weird situation.
Have you tried sweet potatoes as a side dish like the holidays?
Yes, I'm who has to do most/all the cooking for my extended family and have been for years, and sweet potato casserole one of the things I have to make for that. While a sweet potato casserole is good as an extremely rare thing it's also like eating frosting.
I agree, there really is only so much you can do with sweet potatoes, you can do mashed with them also but imho that’s an acquired taste
Slice into wedges or dice into cubes, toss in oil (preferably something with a higher smoke point than olive oil), salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, and roast them in the oven ay 425 for like idk 17 minutes and then check on them to see if they're browning well and tender. Take out when they look and feel good, they're almost certainly not done at 17 minutes but it's a good idea to check on shit sooner imo idk how your oven is
I probably should have said "fry or bake until done" because that's another thing I make, though I prefer a spice blend that's vaguely like a curry mix but much heavier on the cayenne and cinnamon which pairs perfectly with sweet potatoes imo.
