In Season - Sweet Potatoes (With Links To Recipes)

Pluff Mudder · 11-01-2008, 04:56 PM

In Season: Sweet Potatoes, For Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, or Dessert

Posted by Allison Hemler, November 1, 2008 at 3:00 PM

Photograph by FotoosVanRobin on Flickr.

Sweet potatoes are not to be mistaken with yams, even though the terms are often used interchangeably. Sweet potatoes are the common red-brownish skinned root vegetables with sweet orange flesh and semi-smooth skin; there is also a variety with yellow flesh, with a taste resembling a mix of potato and apple. Yams usually have a rough dark brown skin, similar in texture to tree bark, with a white, purple, or red flesh. Yams do not have orange flesh. Therefore, most of what you see in the supermarket labeled as a yam is in fact a sweet potato (thanks to the U.S. Department of Agriculture), so keep your eyes peeled, cause you're bound to be confused.

In Season: Sweet Potatoes, For Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, or Dessert | Serious Eats

bakerman · 11-01-2008, 05:35 PM

As a born Yankee, I am just now growing to love sweet potatoes. There is one of my favorite local places that make a mashed sweet potato served with a dollop of real butter and a spoonful of brown sugar, it is almost like dessert, it comes on a dish of grilled thick pork chops topped with fried apples, it is like dinner and dessert in one.

The hiney ginger sweet potatoes that I made recently were excellent, and much less sweet, it was a mixture of cubed sweet potatoes, fresh ginger, honey, cardamom and fresh pepper, baked in a cast iron pan until tender and carmelized, they were great!

Pluff Mudder · 11-01-2008, 05:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bakerman

...a mashed sweet potato served with a dollop of real butter and a spoonful of brown sugar...

I like to roast whole sweet potatoes in the oven, cut them open like a baked potato and serve them with butter, light brown sugar and cinnamon. Like you said... it's a veggie and a dessert all wrapped in one.

BerryBaby · 11-02-2008, 09:58 AM

Just bought a big bag of them. I love them just roasted in the oven as well.

Out here a lot of restaurants and fast food serve sweet potato fries. Are they as popular anywhere else? People seem to love them. I find them to be just ok. I'd rather have mine plain roasted.

ping · 11-02-2008, 12:47 PM

I love sweet potatoes! Wish I had some sweet potato pie this weekend.

Pluff Mudder · 11-02-2008, 03:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BerryBaby

Out here a lot of restaurants and fast food serve sweet potato fries. Are they as popular anywhere else? People seem to love them. I find them to be just ok. I'd rather have mine plain roasted.

You can find them around here - shoestring style and the wedges. I like the wedges the best. Also, lots of restaurants here will offer them as a option instead of a regular baked potato. When I have the choice... I always go for the sweet potato.