Mashed sweet potatoes with vinegar-glazed shallots

I'm really sorry for the lack of blogging on my end for the past month or so. Finals just finished up last week, and life was absolute chaos for a little while. Our fridge was full of quesadilla and PB&J making ingredients. It was a sad sight. I even ate leftover lasagna on my birthday. But now that school is over for a whole 3 weeks, I expect to make up for lost time and cook some wonderful things over the holidays.

I'm posting this amazing recipe for mashed sweet potatoes, that are then mixed with balsamic vinegar glazed shallots. The combination is to die for. The recipe is from 50 Best Mashed Potatoes. You might be thinking, vinegar + sweet potatoes? But the balsamic vinegar reduces down and becomes so sweet, and it blends so well with the vibrant roasted sweet potatoes. That's the other thing, the key to making the best sweet potatoes is not boiling them, but rather roasting them and then mashing. By roasting the potatoes, the flavor and color intensify, and the potatoes adopt this incredibly deep, rich flavor. So, I say spring for the extra 30 minutes and roast the sweet potatoes; you'll see why.

Ingredients:

• 3 large sweet potatoes
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 large shallots, sliced
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• freshly ground pepper, to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prick the sweet potatoes all over with a fork, and place them on a baking sheet. When the oven is ready, place the potatoes in the oven and roast for about 1 hour or until soft.
2. While the potatoes bake, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a medium skillet over medium-low heat. Then add the shallots. Cook, stirring frequently, until the shallots are lightly browned (about 4 minutes). Then cover and cook about 6 minutes longer, or until soft.
3. Stir in the balsamic vinegar and the sugar. Cook, stirring constantly, until the vinegar reduces and the shallots are glazed (about 2 minutes). Remove from heat.
4. Remove the potatoes from the oven and let stand 5 minutes to cool. When they are cool enough to handle, remove the skins and place the potatoes in a bowl or food processor (depending if you want to mash by hand or puree in the food processor). Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter, salt, and pepper, and mash/puree. Stir in half of the vinegar-glazed shallots, spread into a serving dish, and garnish with the remaining shallots.

Sweet potato latkes with chili-lime yogurt sauce

These are sooo good. Made these for dinner tonight with my roommates and we ate so many that our bellies are hurting now. The yogurt sauce really makes this dish. This is based on a recipe from the cookbook Vegetarian Planet, which was the first cookbook I bought when I vowed myself to the vegetarian gods 6 years ago. (This vow has since been withdrawn; poultry has wiggled its way into my diet recently...as evidenced by the stew we made a couple days ago.)

1.  Make the chili-lime sauce first so the flavors have time to mingle. In a small bowl combine the following, then set aside:

• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 3 tablespoons yogurt
• 1 small chili pepper (we used a Thai chili pepper)
• juice of 1 lime
• 1/2 teaspoon lime zest
• salt & pepper to taste

2.  In a large bowl, combine:

• 1 pound sweet potatoes, grated
• 2/3 cup onion, minced
• 2 eggs, beaten
• salt & pepper to taste

3.  Mix  well, then add:

• 5 tablespoons white flour

4.  Mix well. In a large skillet, heat some butter/olive oil over medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, add a very heaping spoonful of the potato mixture to the pan. Flatten out the potato heaps so each pancake is about 3/4 inch thick. Let it cook about 5 minutes, until the fried side is golden brown, then flip and let the other side cook/brown. Continue with the rest of the potato mixture.

5.  Serve hot with the chile-lime yogurt, topped with some minced scallions.

This recipe serves 2. We doubled it and it served 3 starving appetites, although we are now paying the consequences (sad belly).