Baked Sweet Potato Fries

 

 

I'd never seen these orange sweet potatoes before we moved here. In India, I only saw the ones with the purplish pink skin and yellowish white flesh. Those would have spots that would somehow turn black once I cut them. So, when I saw the orange fleshed ones here, I fell in love with them instantly. They looked just like the stuff I'd seen in my cookbooks, they weren't as sweet as the ones back home, and they didn't get those black spots. I use them quite often in my cooking.

 

I followed the same technique as for baked potato wedges, but I cut the sweet potatoes into fries. (One must at least feel that they are eating fries!) These fries also double up as toddler finger food. Very good for a child who wants to hold his or her own food and act all grown up.

 



 

I followed the same method for the adult and the baby versions, varying only the spices.

 

2 Sweet Potatoes, parboiled, peeled and cut into fries

2 tbsp Oil
1 tbsp Butter
1 tsp Basil
1 tsp Parsley
1 tsp Chilli Flakes
1/2 tsp Garlic PowderSalt and Pepper to taste

For the toddler version, I used paprika, garlic powder and salt.

 

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.

 

Heat the oil and butter in a saucepan. Add the parsley, basil and chilli flakes (or paprika) and fry for a minute. Add the garlic powder and fry another minute. Add the sweet potato, salt and pepper (optional for toddlers). Toss the wedges in the spice mixture. Transfer to a baking sheet. Place it in the oven and bake for 15 minutes.

Enjoy these hot. I tried these again recently with purple fleshed sweet potatoes and we all loved them. Nature has put so much into these sweet potatoes that this cannot even be termed an indulgence. Moderation, of course, is key.

Sweet Potato Pesto Cutlets

The new year is here. And my only wish is that it is a good year for each and everyone of us. We began 2010 with friends at a hill station and hoped that the year would have a lot of travel. I must admit, I felt a little cheated in this regard. Not only did we not travel all that much, the few trips that I did have planned, I had to cancel for different reasons. Yet, even on that front, I did travel to my favourite cities in India: Bangalore, Madras and Hyderabad. And eventually moved to settle down in my second most favourite city in the whole world. So, while I do feel a little cheated, on the whole, the year turned out just fine.

Coming to this post. How do you like to spend your weekends? My ideal weekend would be one where I wake up at leisure and find breakfast ready whenever I do. I like to laze around more during the day and just have different meals magically appear at different times of the day. But we all know that is not how most weekends of mine turn out (or any for that matter).

On days when we wake up closer to lunch time, I try to make a full south Indian meal for the first meal and then like to make something "snacky" for later in the day. The decision about dinner is usually left for later. Here's one such snack idea. It is perfect as a snack and can even double up as a meal.

2 Sweet Potatoes, boiled and peeled

1 Potato, boiled and peeled 

2 slices Bread, crumbled

1/4 cup Soya Granules, prepared according to the instructions on the pack

2 tbsp Parsley Peanut Pesto
1/4 tsp Chilli Powder
Salt to taste

Oil for frying

Mash the sweet potatoes and the potato together. Add the crumbled bread slices and the soya granules and mix well. Add the other ingredients. Make small balls of the mixture and flatten each to form a cutlet.

Heat a frying pan and place the cutlets in the pan. Add a few drops of oil around the cutlets. Cook for 2-3 minutes on one side. Turn over and cook the other side for a couple of minutes, adding a little oil if necessary.

Drain on absorbent paper and serve with some tomato or chilli sauce.

This was the first time I cooked with yellow sweet potatoes. We enjoyed the cutlets and I'm sure I'll be making these babies again.

Happy and Healthy 2011 all of you!

Grilled Sweet Potato Slices

It is a well known fact. I love experimenting. But some experiments turn out to be disasters. And I have no choice but to learn from them. This is one such disaster. Great in taste, but not exactly pretty to look at. This is another adapted recipe from the book "Favorite Vegetarian Dishes" and I was longing to try it. I quite like sweet potatoes. As a side vegetable, in sambar, on the streets of Delhi in the cold, cold winters, the list is endless. But I think I also know now that the sweet potatoes we get in India (Sakkaravalli Kizhangu in Tamil, Shakarkand in Hindi) are very different from the pictures the book showed me. Wiki tells me that "Its flesh ranges from white through yellow, orange, and purple." My sweet potatoes were mostly white. They just had some dark spots. And unless I get nice sweet potatoes, I doubt I'll make this. But as far as taste goes, this one was very good.

2 Sweet Potatoes, parboiled

1 tsp Olive Oil

1 tbsp Red Chilli Sauce

Salt to taste

Peel and slice the sweet potatoes.

Mix the oil, chilli sauce and salt together. Brush this mixture over the sweet potato slices. Grill for 12-15 minutes, turning the slices over halfway.

This recipe wouldn't have made it to this blog (especially after this mini-hiatus) had it not been for Sig and the fact that she is guest hosting the Monthly Mingle. The things one does for friends!