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OxfordPress.com

Sweet Potato Recipes

By Ann Heller

Dayton Daily News

Curry-ginger sweet potato fries

Makes 4 servings

4 large sweet potatoes, scrubbed and unpeeled
 1/4 cup curry-ginger oil, plus 2 tablespoons for drizzling (recipe below)
1 bunch green onions, green and white parts, thinly sliced, optional
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Scrub and trim the potatoes, and cut each lengthwise into 8 wedges. Dry well on paper towels.

In a large plastic bag, combine the curry-ginger oil and all but 2 tablespoons of the scallions. Add the potatoes, season generously with salt and pepper; seal the bag and toss well.

Place a heavy sheet pan in the oven and turn heat to 425 degrees. Leave the pan in the oven while it pre-heats; the pan must be very hot.

Remove the pan from the oven and dump the potatoes onto it (they should sizzle if the pan is hot as it should be). Using a spatula or tongs, separate the potatoes so they don't touch.

Bake the potatoes until golden brown on the bottom, about 20 minutes. Check periodically to make sure the potatoes aren't browning too quickly.

With a thin spatula, turn the potatoes and continue to cook the other cut side until the bottom is golden, about 10 minutes more. Check for doneness with a toothpick; it should penetrate the potatoes easily. Place on a serving platter and sprinkle with the remaining scallions. Correct seasoning with additional salt and pepper if desired. Drizzle with the 2 tablespoons curry oil.

Note:Sprinkling the fresh-from-the-oven fries with minced cilantro is another complimentary option.

This infused oil needs to be made ahead. The recipe makes more than you need; store the remaining in the refrigerator.

CURRY GINGER OIL

Makes 1 cup
1 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons peeled and minced fresh ginger
1/4 cup Madras curry powder

In a heavy saucepan, combine the oil with the ginger and heat over medium heat. Cook until the oil is fragrant and the ginger begins to color, about 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and pour into a heatproof glass jar to cool.

Meanwhile, place a heavy saute pan over medium-low heat. Add the curry powder to the dry skillet and toast, stirring until the curry powder smokes slightly, about 5 minutes. Whisk into the ginger and oil. Allow the mixture to stand until the oil and curry powder have separated completely, at least 4 hours or overnight. The oil is now ready to use.

Recipe from Simply Ming by Ming Tsai (Potter, $32.50).

If you make the sweet potato fries with plain oil, pump up the flavor with a spicy dipping sauce.

SPICY DIPPING SAUCE

Makes  1/2 cup
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons Thai Sriracha sauce
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon minced cilantro

Combine the ingredients. Taste and add more lime juice or hot sauce to taste. Let stand to blend flavors.

Features editor Jana Collier, a born-and-bred Texan, swears by these sweet and hot Texas Sweet Potatoes, originally from The Food of Texas, but adapted over the years.

TEXAS SWEET POTATOES

Makes 4 servings
3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 white potato, peeled and cut into chunks
6 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 tablespoon chile powder
4 tablespoons butter

Put sweet and white potatoes in saucepan, cover with water and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until very tender (about 20 minutes). Drain and add syrup, salt, cayenne, chile powder and butter and blend with a hand-mixer.

Bless the people at Cook's Illustrated. They are the only ones who would go through 23 variations just to produce the perfect baked sweet potato.

But those editors know how worthwhile that can be when the sweet potato is seasoned with nothing more than some butter, salt and pepper.

Their goal was evenly cooked moist flesh and a softened slightly caramelized, delicious skin. They played with different oven temperatures, rack levels and assessed the merits of cooking them directly on the rack or unglazed tiles and beds of rock salt, even precooking one batch in the microwave.

Baking the sweets wrapped in foil "turned out to be just what we suspected, a school cafeteria abomination....."

Here's the Cook's Illustrated formula.

BAKED SWEET POTATOES

Makes 4 servings
4 sweet potatoes, about 2 pounds, scrubbed and lightly pricked with a fork
2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
salt and ground black pepper
unsalted butter

Adjust the oven rack to the center position and heat the oven to 400 degrees. Rub the potatoes with the oil (not butter) and arrange them on a foil-lined baking sheet as far apart from each other as possible.

Bake until a knife tip slips easily into the potato center, about 50 minutes (timing depends on the size of the sweet potatoes). Remove the sweet potatoes from the oven and pierce with a fork to create a dotted X. Press in at the ends of the sweet potatoes to push the flesh up and out. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Dot with butter to taste and serve immediately.

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