Monday, September 07, 2009

MUTANTATERS

Last week, I had found an exotic-looking vegetabobble over at Harry’s Farmers Market.

I had gone there in search of a couple of hanger steaks, but on the way through the produce section I saw a sign pimping purple sweet potatoes.

Purple! Sweet! Potatoes!

As an official sucker for Weird Food, how the hell could I resist that? Mutantaters! So I grabbed a few, tossing them into my cart along with a couple of normal-looking sweet potatoes...

...because an image had formed in my head of multicolored chunks of roasted sweet potato, carrots, and onions, all nicely caramelized... a fine accompaniment to those hanger steaks.

It was easy enough to make this hash-like concoction. Get two purple and two regular orange sweet potatoes. Peel the ’taters (you can throw in a Yukon Gold for variety, if you wish), hack ’em into half-inch cubes along with a couple of carrots and yellow onions, add 2-3 cloves of minced garlic, and a generous drizzle of olive oil. A sprinkling of coarse salt and freshly-ground pepper and they’re ready to go into a 350°F oven. While the potatoes are roasting, be sure to stir them up from time to time to ensure even cooking. Roast for about 55 minutes, or until tender and lightly browned - you’ll have a dramatic-looking and delicious side dish.

Roasted Sweet Potato Medley
A medley of multicolored roasted sweet potatoes. Look - they’re sitting there singing “Kumbaya”!

If you want to goose the Flavor Index even more, take about a half-pound of bacon, chop it into little bits, and cook until browned. Drain well, then sprinkle atop the potatoes before you put them in to roast. I tried this with beef bacon, and the results were very good. Next time I may try using some goose schmaltz in place of part of the olive oil... but if the Missus finds out, she’ll debone me.

But even without the bacon and/or goose grease, it’s a fine dish. I know this because it received the Mistress of Sarcasm Seal of Approval. When she got home after an evening presentation and began rooting through the fridge for something that could approximate a Late Dinner, she found the leftovers from our meal a few hours prior.

Her reaction?

“This stuff is fucking delicious!

Even Julia Child can’t argue with a comment like that. (Of course, that may be because she’s dead.)

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