Spice up Your Thanksgiving Sweet Potato Dishes
This Thanksgiving a judicious use of red chile will spark up our holiday table. The dark, tangy robust flavor of dried red chile works well to counter the richness of many of the side dishes. It also proves a welcome change to boring salt and pepper seasoning.
Red chile pairs beautifully with sweet potato. Think sweet and savory such as caramel corn mixed with cheese corn. The combo just works. A little sprinkle of dried chile powder stirred into mashed sweets lightened with cream and butter takes this delicious tuber into new territory. Find dried powdered guajillo peppers in stores with a large Mexican section or substitute dried powder ancho pepper or ordinary chili powder.
The second recipe that follows is inspired by a dish we swooned over at Owamni, a Native American restaurant in Minneapolis. There, white-fleshed sweet potatoes, roasted to golden goodness, are served topped with homemade dried red chile oil packed with crunchy bits. Home cooks can employ bottled chile crisp for expediency.
A perusal of the supermarket shelves finds a half dozen brands of this crunchy, savory, spicy condiment made popular by the Lao Gan Ma brand from China. Read the labels by brands such as Fly by Jing to determine if you like all the ingredients. Some contain peanuts, which your guests should know. I'm partial to the condiments that aren't overly piquant and that contain Szechuan pepper for its unique tongue-tingling effect.
White fleshed sweet potatoes, such as the Muraski, have a coarser interior than the standard orange-fleshed Jewel variety. They also sport a chestnut flavor that tastes very holiday. The combination of roasting the potatoes and then topping them with chili crisp also works beautifully with wedges of small pie pumpkins or chunks of Mexican calabaza.
