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Last updated: August 25. 2006 2:39PM
SOUTHERN MAKEOVERS
Sweet potato passion
The perfect sweet potato recipe is a mix of great ingredients, new ideas and a whole lot of Southern goodness
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Still, every year as fall stirs Thanksgiving thoughts, celebrity chefs bemoan marshmallow-topped candied yams and endorse sweet potato casserole covered with Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs or, heaven forbid, nothing at all. Even the N.C. Sweet Potato Commission tells readers at its Web site, “And just so you know, sweet potatoes and marshmallows are not married.” And well, perhaps they’re not, but they’re a darned good couple. They’ve outlasted lots of other dishes born during America’s mid-20th-century convenience-food craze, when canned yams in syrup and mass-produced marshmallows showed up.
Actually, glazed or candied sweet potatoes have been around for a while, even if their marshmallow crown hasn’t. British Revolutionary War General Charles Cornwallis surely loved them. Lots of old church and junior league cookbooks list recipes for Cornwallis Yams. The Colonial Inn that operated for 250 years in Hillsborough even served a version containing crushed pineapple and grated coconut.
But this is the New South, a place sprinkled with New Yorkers, Jerseyites, Midwesterners and lots of other people who must be slowly weaned onto the pleasures of brown sugar, white sugar, sorghum, honey or molasses at nearly every meal.
Tabor City chef and former restaurateur Jim Smith, a regular winner in his hometown’s N.C. Yam Festival Cookoff, agreed that it’s time to rethink the sweet potato casserole. He once won a ribbon for Sweet Potato Key Lime Chiffon Pie, so he has some definite ideas about sweet potatoes, although he can’t understand why anyone would change candied yams. “It’s something sweet you can eat, but you can eat it during a meal, so it’s a treat,” he says.
Smith won’t alter his recipe, which sometimes includes Marshmallow Fluff mixed into the mashed sweet potatoes, but he suggests several ways to lighten the dish. He likes a streusel rather than marshmallow-topped casserole. He also might add cayenne and tart apples. Nuts help, too, he says, and he has created a twice-baked sweet potato that includes coriander and chopped cooked sausage.
A tour of online recipes and chats provides more ideas to help temper the casserole’s sweetness, such as adding roasted chestnuts, crumbled bacon, chipotle chilies, lemon juice, orange zest, garlic, mushrooms, cranberries or dried apricots. Those sound like good ideas, Smith says, but he’ll settle for plain, old candied yams. “If someone wants to bring me some, come on,” he says. “I’ll eat it.”
Just as long as it’s sweet, these potato creations will satisfy even the sweetest of Southern appetites.
Recipes
Contemporary Candied Yams
3 pounds sweet potatoes
Glaze:
⅓ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
⅓ cup honey
2 tablespoons Canadian whiskey
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon fresh ground ginger
½ can chipotle chili in adobo sauce, mashed to a paste
Streusel topping:
½ cup light brown sugar
½ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup (4 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
¾ cup toasted pecan pieces
To finish:
½ cup fresh cranberries
¼ to ½ cup miniature marshmallows (optional)
Peel then cut sweet potatoes into ½-inch thick slices. Put potatoes in a large pot of lightly salted water. Bring to a boil. Boil 5 minutes. Drain potatoes and cool.
Prepare glaze: Combine brown sugar, honey, whiskey, cinnamon, ginger and chipotle chili in a small, heavy saucepan over moderate heat. Stir mixture until sugar is dissolved.
Prepare streusel topping: In a large bowl, whisk together brown sugar and flour. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Stir in cinnamon, salt and pecans.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 1½- or 2-quart shallow baking dish. Lay rows of slightly overlapping potato slices in baking dish, starting at one end of the dish. Spoon glaze evenly over potatoes. Sprinkle potatoes with streusel topping and fresh cranberries. Bake dish in oven for 50 minutes, or until potatoes are tender and topping has browned.
If using marshmallows, remove casserole from oven after baking dish for 40 minutes.
Sprinkle with marshmallows, return casserole to oven and bake another 10 minutes, until marshmallows are lightly browned. Allow finished casserole to sit 5 minutes before serving.
Makes 6 servings.
Cornwallis Yams
6 medium sweet potatoes
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ cup butter
3 eggs
½ cup crushed pineapple
1 cup sugar
½ cup grated coconut
1½ cups milk
More grated coconut for garnish
Boil sweet potatoes until softened. Peel and mash. Season with cinnamon, nutmeg, and butter. Beat eggs and add to potatoes. Combine with remaining ingredients. Pour into a greased 9-by-13-inch or 3-quart casserole.
Bake in a 350-degree oven until light brown, about 1 hour. Top with a sprinkle of coconut. Serves 10.
– From the former Hillsborough Colonial Inn provided by N.C. Sweet Potato Commission.
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