Sweet Potato

The first time I made Coal-Fired Sweet Potatoes was at the Middleton Place plantation near Charleston, South Carolina, when Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q catered a food conference sponsored by Johnson & Wales University called “Cuisines of the Lowcountry and the Caribbean.” On the day of the dinner, every member of the Big Bob Gibson team was enlisted to do a cooking demonstration of the Caribbean fare. I am not sure whether my father-in-law, Don McLemore, drew the short straw or got the last pick, but somehow he was assigned the sweet potato ground pit. Imagine working at ground level in the dark over hot coals generating temperatures close to 1,000°F, all to cook an edible offering that looks like a smoldering meteorite. Under the sweat that dripped from his chin, Don wore a scowl all day—right up until dinner, when his sweet potatoes were the talk of the party. He was happy in the end, but I don’t know if he’ll ever let me live that one down. For that event we served the potatoes with a Caribbean butter sauce, but here I suggest subbing a maple pecan butter. This is my favorite way to eat sweet potatoes, whether they are cooked in coals or baked in the oven. It is also a fantastic topping for sweet potato pancakes—but that is a different cookbook.

Roasting intensifies the natural sugars in sweet potatoes. These sweeter sweet potatoes come out of the oven soft in the center and crisp around the edges.

Let your oven do the work on this juicy, piquant fish and the succulent red and orange roasted vegetables.

A hearty soup inspired by Indonesian gado gado sauce, fragrant and spicy with ginger and cayenne, rich with peanut butter and sweet potatoes.

Roasting intensifies the flavors in this fragrant dish, which is easily prepared and requires little attention while it’s in the oven. If you like the flavor of garam masala or commercial curry powder and it’s in your cupboard, use it.

For a nice balance of color and flavor, use white potatoes and sweet potatoes in roughly equal amounts.

Inspired by a Southwestern Native American dish, this is a sunny, colorful stew of roasted vegetables in a hot and smoky mole-type sauce.

Lobster and sweet potato: a seemingly odd couple, we know, but they have in common great textures, beautiful color, and a certain sweetness. Knowing that tarragon and lobster is a classic combination, we dress the sweet potato with a tarragon vinaigrette; the fennel adds a complementary fresh taste.

I go apple picking every year, and I’m always amazed by how easily you can taste the difference between varieties right off the tree. So when I work with apples, I try to capture those flavors. This soup reminds me of mulled cider but lighter and fresher.

Here, I’ve created my version of sweet potato pie, but it’s not as heavy and not as sweet. The cranberry foam gives a nice added pop of acidity.

Root vegetables are particularly forgiving when it comes to roasting times: Slightly undercooked and they have a little extra firmness, while on the other hand it takes quite a while to overcook them to the mushiness point. So this recipe is one of my main choices when I’m preparing an entrée that’s going to require stovetop attention at the end of cooking. While I’m reducing a sauce or sautéing some veal, I don’t want to worry that I’ll need to remove the veggies from the oven at precisely 7:15. And with this recipe, I don’t.

Note that the ingredients here are something of a hodgepodge: potato and sweet potato, zucchini and carrot, onion and bell pepper. That’s because this is a pretty loose recipe, and you should feel free to substitute whatever you prefer. Just be sure to cut any vegetables to roughly the same size, to ensure that they’re all fully cooked—but not overcooked—at the same time.

I happen to love sweet potatoes and think they are great fried. One thing that you have to keep in mind when making this recipe is that sweet potato fries will never, ever be as crispy as fries made with regular potatoes; blanching them in oil or extending the soaking time won’t change that. Sweet potatoes are very high in sugar and this keeps them from getting crisp. Their sugar content also makes them darken faster than standard potatoes, so don’t walk away from the pot when making them! I prefer my sweet potato fries with the skin on, but if that’s not to your liking feel free to peel them. For an extra hit of flavor, try seasoning the hot fries with a few tablespoons of either the Barbecue Seasoning (page 117) or the Mediterranean Seasoning (page 118).

While this meat-and-potatoes combo cooks, prepare a green vegetable and one of our speedy desserts.

Serve this attractive side dish with your holiday meal or with roast beef for Sunday dinner. Baking at a high temperature slightly caramelizes the bottom of the squash for a delightful taste.

If you can’t find 6-ounce potatoes or don’t have them on hand, you can simply use one 12-ounce potato. Add 1 minute to the microwave cook time if the potato isn’t tender after the 5 to 6 minutes, or an additional 10 to 15 minutes in the oven, and use all of the butter and brown sugar for the one large potato. A 12-ounce potato will make two servings, so the recommendation is to eat only half.