Roasted Sweet Potatoes with
Maple Syrup Brown Butter, Bacon, and Sage

November 26, 2008 // No Comments »

I recently cooked up a Faux Thanksgiving Feast, and though only intended to be a peripheral attraction, this dish stole the show. I love sweet potatoes. Love, love them. Earthy and sweet, evocative of the holidays and provocative of the sort of deep-down comfort that settles low in your belly and warms your mind and body from the inside out. Thanksgiving was never celebrated in my un-American home, and as sweet potatoes are not part of French or Brazilian culinary traditions, my infatuation with these rosy tubers is sparkling and new, unmarred by horrific failures. The bacon, sweet potato, and sage trifecta is inspired by Suzanne Goin’s Sunday Suppers at Luques, the freshest addition to my cookbook collection, and a superbly beautiful masterpiece I highly recommend. I would never have thought of it without her, as I’m absolutely not a bacon person, finding it to be the greasiest and most aberrant component of the All American Breakfast (scorned by my famille.) Youthful traumas involving this pork product have made me very wary (approximate rhyme!!!) but when I saw bacon listed on the “Lucques” page, it resonated in that soulful way that lets me know I have thought up or read about a golden combination. It was sensational. I’ve long lusted to cook sweet potatoes with maple syrup, and I found this to be a ripe opportunity; my guests and I were well rewarded.

Ingredients, for 4:

• 5 small sweet potatoes, of the Garnet or Jewel yam varieties (they aren’t actually yams, but distant relatives of the potato. The term yam is applied to sweet potatoes grown in the South, namely Louisiana, to distinguish them. True yams are enormous and are found only in Africa and Asia.)
• 3 T good butter, preferably French butter from Normandy.
• 8 sage leaves.
• 4 T maple syrup. The real stuff, not pancake syrup. This is not IHOP!!!
• 10 slices Applewood smoked bacon. I used Niman Ranch bacon, which is all natural and not preserved with bizarre, unpronounceable chemicals.
• Finely milled sel gris, and freshly ground black pepper.

Procedure:

* The sweet potatoes are intended to be cooked ahead of time. The action of letting them cool to room temperature allows their flavor to mellow, and reheating and caramelizing them with the bacon and sage imparts them with added depth of flavor. Even the bacon can be cooked earlier on, making this a fantastically easy dish to prepare when entertaining large crowds.

For the Sweet Potatoes:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Peel and cube the sweet potatoes. I did this by halving them vertically; incising them twice, still vertically; and then about three times horizontally, to produce medium large, approximately even cubes. This is not a dish, however, in which it is necessary to ensure that the pieces are of exactly the same size. I actually like the textural contrast when the smaller ones melt in your mouth and the larger ones offer pleasing resistance.
3. Place these in an oven-proof dish, either Pyrex or, if you should have the good fortune, a Le Creuset ceramic sauté pan.
4. Heat a small pan over medium high heat. Add the butter and cook until it is nutty, fragrant, and hazelnut brown.
5. Swirl the maple syrup immediately into the butter.
6. Pour over the sweet potatoes. Salt and pepper generously.
7. Toss gently (it should seem that there is more buttery liquid than necessary. If you start fearing for the safety of your waistline at the mere sight of it, you’ve done it right!) and pop into the oven for about 40 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are fully cooked and soft, but still a bit firm.

For the Bacon:

1. If there are expansive stretches of ivory, opalescent fat, remove about 3/4 of it.
2. Heat a nonstick pan over high heat.
3. Stack half the bacon slices and slice horizontally, producing thin lardons (bacon rectangles that are part meat, part fat). Repeat with the other half. I actually cooked mine in two batches, crisping the first more, and leaving the second meatier and softer.
4. Render the lardons until nicely crisped, but keep in mind that they will continue to cook breifly after you remove them from the heat.
5. Strain the contents of the pan, reserving the rendered fat and placing the lardons on a paper towel to drain.

Before Serving:

1. If cooked in a Pyrex dish, transfer the sweet potatoes and all the succulent maple butter to a pan. If prepared in a ceramic dish, keep them in there. Heat over high heat.
2. Tear the sage into small bits and scatter the herb and the bacon over the sweet potatoes.
3. Push around gently every so often to maximize caramelization (making use of the increased surface to mass ratio produced by cubing!)
4. When heated through and golden brown, taste. Add more salt and pepper as needed, and a fresh drizzle of maple syrup if you find the sweetness of the dish needs to be pepped up. If you aren’t already calling up Jenny Craig and feel that the dish you’ve creates can support an additional drop of fat, a minimal amount of the bacon drippings will lend fabulous smokiness to the final product. But do be careful and discerning! If the maple butter wasn’t adequately absorbed into the sweet potatoes, the addition of more fat will render the dish a greasy mess. It’s a fine line.

Posted in Portland, The Recipes

Ce Qui C’est Passé In Portland

November 12, 2008 // 2 Comments »

So, now I have just awoken from a delicious nap on the plane from Portland to New York, and I shall take the restant de mon voyage to recount to you the titillating tale of my stay in this somehow permanently moist city.

GROCERY SHOPPING:

On the morning of my first day, I awoke at the crack of dawn from jet lag and the sultry aroma of oatmeal (is that possible?) My chère amie sat and drank Jasmine tea with me and skipped class, and then we went grocery shopping at the organic co-op. It was fantastic. I drugged myself on carob-coated raisins, and gawked unabashedly at the glistening produce. I am a freak, I know. I also had the loveliest and most innocent interaction with an especially doe-eyed, docile grocery store clerk. I told my friend that I was seduced by the selection of potatoes. Once I had pronounced that sentence, I think he fell in love. But c’etait vrai. They had Russian Blue’s and Russian Banana’s, as well as Fingerlings and Golden Nuggets. I swoon, truly I do. Over les patates, though.

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Posted in Airplane, Portland

Rediscovered Tidbit from Paris

November 10, 2008 // No Comments »

On the long and lonely flight to Portland, I was clearing out my email drafts, and I found this! It is rather titillating, if I do say so myself. It made even ME laugh! Possibly the hilarity of my Parisian experience is still very close to home, or possibly I had a moment of legitimate wittiness. Possibly both! Indeed, the very shut-in and solitary life I lived, filled with the constant whirring of my brain, seems to have produced some of my more memorable writing. I present:

The fandangos go on. And on, and on, and on etc; potentially into infinity. God. Can you imagine? I am steeling myself and girding my loins in preparation for a life of ceaseless weirdness.

George now blows me kisses, and makes no effort to keep the oozing sex out of his voice. “Hello, my sweetheart” he intones with scandalous salaciousness and a thick, heavy Ghanaian accent to boot. Oh, how wonderful my life is.

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Posted in Portland

Green Apple, Hazelnut, and
Avocado Salad on Arugula and
Butter Lettuces with Hazelnut Vinaigrette

// No Comments »

This is, quite honesty, one of the most delicious and satisfying salads of the fall. It is thirst quenching, juicy, sweet and savory, and splendidly delicious. It also rather curiously manages to be decadently creamy from the avocado and primitively crunchy from the apple. It came about at a dinner party at a friend’s house when salad materials were scarce. I’ve since expanded on it at home, and though my fridge and counter may abound with ingredients, I find myself making this again and again. It’s difficult only in the respect that the apple shards and avocado slices must be kept from discoloring. Other than that, it’s easy as pie, a piece of cake, and other food related expressions of facility.

*NOTE*: This salad works equally well with a single variety of wither one of these lettuces, too. I lean towards arugula for fruit-containing salads as the peppery bite cuts the sweetness, and because, more importantly, arugula contains less water than other lettuces, making it less prone to sogginess from the liquids expelled by fruits.

For 2, or a substantial salad meal for 1

Ingredients

• Huge handful arugula and butter lettuce, mixed.
• 1 large Granny Smith Apple
• ½ avocado
• 1 large handful hazelnuts
• 4 t apple cider vinegar
• 2 t toasted hazelnut oil, French if you can find it (this isn’t blind cultural superiority- the French really do take their nut oils more seriously than the rest of the world).
• Fleur de Sel
• Black pepper

Procedure

1. Wash and dry lettuces. Remove to a VERY large bowl. Larger than you think.
2. Slice hazelnuts. Reserve.
3. Mix oil, vinegar, and pepper. Reserve.
4. Wash and core apple. On a mandolin, using the 2 cm setting, slice the apple into disks. Cut half these disks into halves, and the other half into quarters, for textural variety. Use for fingers to disengage the apple “shards” from one other, and layer throughout lettuce. Toss with hands.
5. Pour vinaigrette over and toss with hands to coat until leaves are glistening. The acidic action of the vinegar will also prevent the apple from oxidizing.
6. Slice half an avocado into medium thick slices. Scatter over top and toss lightly with hands to distribute, being mindful that that all the goodies don’t sink to the bottom, as they have a tendency to do (especially avocado).
7. Sprinkle hazelnuts, 2 generous pinches fleur de sel, and a bit more freshly ground pepper on top.
8. Using the tips of your fingers, fluff the salad to cause the nuts and salt to permeate the salad a bit. Most should remain on the top to provide crunch and the particularly wonderful sensation of fleur de sel melting on the tongue.
9. Wait five minutes or so for the vinaigrette to soften the arugula, then serve and enjoy.

Posted in Portland, The Recipes