Vanilla Mashed Sweet Potato

I found this recipe from Barefeet in the Kitchen. I loved the colour and the flavours seemed to be just perfect. I read the awesome reviews by the people who have already tried it and I just had to make it. I have no like or dislike towards sweet potato but had never cooked it before. This seemed to be the perfect recipe to start with.

I always prefer following the original recipe as close as possible, to experience the taste of the dish from the authors perspective. I do not enjoy the idea of tweaking the recipes to suit my taste, as it hinders the process of discovering new flavours. I love to surprise myself and then doing my experiments on the original recipe.

This time I followed the recipe very loosely as I did not have the exact ingredients, it's all substitutions, steaming instead of baking, regular salt instead of koshers, black pepper instead of white, salted butter in place of unsalted, vanilla essence instead of vanilla bean. Despite of all the substitutions it tasted awesome, and I can't help but wonder how great it would taste if I'd used Vanilla bean.

The colour did not come out as shown in the author's pictures but we loved the taste. I'm guessing the sweet potatoes here in Kerala, are pale in colour. :(

Recipe source: Artisanal Cooking by Terrance Brennan
References: Barefeet in the Kitchen 101Cookbooks

Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 10-15 minutes
Serves: 4-5

Ingredients I used:

• 800gms Sweet Potato
• 1/2 cup Amul cream
• 1tsp Grated zest of Orange
• 2tbsp Butter (room temperature)
• Salt to taste
• Freshly crushed Pepper to taste
• 1tsp Vanilla Essence

Procedure:

1. Wash and cut the sweet potatoes, and steam them. I used the microwave and steamed it for 15minutes. Remove from oven and let it cool.

2. Add the orange zest to the cream and microwave for 2minutes. Keep it aside.

3. Peel the sweet potatoes and put it in the food processor with the steel blade and run it once. Add the orange zest infused cream, vanilla essence and butter. Puree the potato mixture and add salt and pepper to season.

4. Serve warm with a generous drizzle of spiced oil.

Notes:

1. You can bake the sweet potato instead of steaming.
2. Please use Vanilla bean; if available instead of vanilla essence or extract, it makes a great difference.

Health and Nutrition:

• Sweet Potatoes are low in Calories and are low in Sodium, and very low in Saturated Fat and Cholesterol. 
• They are also a good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin B6 and Potassium, and a very good source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C and Manganese.

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