Miso Pork on a Sweet Potato
When I visited Tokyo and Kyoto with my friend Devra a couple years back, I didn’t want to leave. I would say it was the beautiful aesthetic, the attention to design and style, the amazingly efficient trains, but really, of course, it was the food. I was especially excited when I learned how much the Japanese revere the sweet potato, one of my all-time favorite foods. In season (fall and winter), street vendors hawk stone-roasted ones—paler-fleshed and sweeter than ours. Famous cookbook author Harumi Kurihara showed me how she loves to mash miso into roasted sweet potatoes, so when I returned home, I knew that even the orange-fleshed varieties here would take beautifully to Japanese flavors. For a kick of bitterness that nicely offsets the earthy miso, use broccoli rabe instead of the broccolini.
You can roast more than one sweet potato at a time and keep it, wrapped in aluminum foil or plastic, in the refrigerator for up to 1 week before reheating it in a low oven or in the microwave while you make the topping. If you can’t find a sweet potato this small, feel free to roast one twice the size (it will take longer, obviously), and just cut it in half.
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 425°F.
Step 2
Use a fork or sharp knife to prick the sweet potato in several places. Place on a piece of aluminum foil and bake until the sweet potato is tender and can be easily squeezed, 40 to 60 minutes. (Alternatively, to speed up the process, the pricked sweet potato can be microwaved on High for 1 minute, then carefully transferred to the oven on a piece of foil. Bake until the potato is tender, 25 to 35 minutes.)
Step 3
Meanwhile, pour the oil into a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pork and stir-fry until no traces of pink remain and the pork starts to exude juices, about 5 minutes, breaking up any large clumps as you cook. Add the broccolini and stir-fry until the vegetables are barely tender and retain some crunch, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the miso and water; cook, stirring, for 1 minute or so, until a sauce forms. If the mixture seems dry, add up to a few more tablespoons of water, stirring to combine.
Step 4
When the sweet potato has finished baking, place it on a serving plate. Use a knife to slash open the sweet potato, then spoon the miso-pork mixture on top. Sprinkle with the scallion, drizzle with a little Sriracha, and eat while it’s hot.
