"sweet potato" news and stories

Not everyone looks forward to the cooler weather of fall, and I'm one of them. I really prefer warmer temperatures, but I do look forward to fall food. All of the different squash dishes, puddings, and citrus flavors are so welcome that I can almost forgive the chill in the air. I've been searching for different fall influenced bread recipes and I think I've found some good ones. Check them out and you be the judge.

1. This fig and anise bread sounds so amazing, I'm planning on making this one soon!
2. What could be more fall than a pumpkin bread pudding?
3. It seems more difficult to find a pumpkin yeast bread, but I found one amid all the quick breads.
4. Chestnut rye is a little more unusual of a flavor, but that's what makes it special.
5. Sweet potato rolls deserve a place on everyone's fall table.
6. This cornbread from the Homesick Texan may not be strictly fall, but the cornbread dressing you can make with it sure is.
7. Orange yeast bread is also more rare than its quick bread cousin.
8. Sure cranberry is usually paired with orange, but why not let it shine on its own?

All the comments I've gotten on the Autumnal Casserole post have led me to believe that there are a lot of you out there looking for alternatives to the traditional Thanksgiving side dishes. So I thought I'd post another one of my favorites. This one originally came to me via 101 Cookbooks. Heidi found it in Artisanal Cooking by Terrance Brennan. It is a sweet potato puree that is flecked with vanilla and orange zest and it so good that you might think it belongs in a pie instead of along side your turkey.

I first made it two years ago to take along to my family's Thanksgiving buffet. I put the bowl down on the table and got hijacked into a conversation with my aunt. When I finally got back to the table half an hour later, the bowl was nearly empty. Last year I made it for Christmas dinner. While we were waiting for my dad to carve the turkey, my mom and I stood in the kitchen together and scraped the bowl of the food processor clean with our fingers, just so as not to let any of this puree go to waste.

Give up your sweet potato casseroles and try this puree. It will convert even the most devoted of the mini-marshmallow fans.

Source

I must have sweet potatoes on the brain, because is the second post I'm writing this week that involves them. This time I haven't actually done the cooking, I'm simply salivating over the Sweet Potato Gnocchi that Brys made over at Cookthink this weekend.

I've never made gnocchi on my own. I've thought about it more than once, but always talked myself out of the idea because I'd heard from so many folks that it's really hard to get it right. This is why I'm doubly intrigued by this post, because Brys didn't even use a recipe, he just headed out and did it by feel (documenting each step as he went with some really lovely pictures). There are lots of things that I can cook by feel, but homemade pasta is not one of them. However, he makes it look so easy that I think I'm going to have to give it a go sometime soon.

I often clip recipes out of the newspaper, but frequently they just get heaped onto the big pile that represents my To-Do list and forgotten. However, a couple of days ago I found myself standing in my kitchen, looking a three-pound bag of sweet potatoes and lemongrass that I had bought on a whim and realized that I had clipped the perfect recipe for those items not two weeks before.

The Philadelphia Inquirer recently ran an article about Ellen Yin, the owner of Fork, a restaurant that helped revitalize the Old City neighborhood of Philly. She's publishing a cookbook/memoir in honor of the restaurant's 10th anniversary. They ran several of her recipes along side the article, including one for Sweet-Potato Lemongrass Soup, perfect for my random ingredients. It turned out a really silky soup (although I think I would reduce the amount of water just slightly, as I like my pureed veggie soups a little thicker) that starts out tasty and gets better over time. It's a terrific recipe for fall, when you want something warm and soft, colored with the hues of fall (the recipe is after the jump).

The quesadilla is perhaps the sturdiest of staples in my roster of go-to meals. Lately, my favorite combination is the one you see here: flour tortillas with Monterrey Jack cheese, spinach, black beans, chicken and sweet potatoes. Really, all you need for a satisfying quesadilla is tortillas and cheese, but taking the time to get a few quality components together yields something far more satisfying. As a bonus, the following recipes for black beans, sauteed spinach and mashed sweet potatoes are all great side dishes on their own. I usually wind up using leftover roasted chicken, but grilled or sauteed shrimp are also a great substitution. The assembly is pretty simple, regardless of the fillings you choose, but we'll get back to that later. The following proportions should be enough for two large quesadillas. All of the ingredients can easily be multiplied.