Roasted sweet potatoes
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Pierce each potato a few times with a fork or the tip of a knife.
- Place on a rimmed baking sheet lined with foil to catch the inevitable drips. Roast until tender, about 40 minutes. If it matters to you, you can rotate them a quarter turn every 15 minutes so they don’t get that scorched wet spot on the bottom.
- Note: Here are some quick ways to season a hot, split, roasted sweet potato:
- salt, butter, and sour cream
- brown sugar and cinnamon
- a praline (just let it melt)
- Fresh Pineapple Salsa or other fruit salsa
- a squeeze of fresh lime juice and sprinkling of ground chiles
- a spoonful of orange marmalade, apple butter, or Sassy Pepper Jam
- Spiced Stone Fruit Sauce
- To make puree to use in recipes, set the potatoes aside until they are cool enough to handle and then pull off the skins. Force the potato flesh through a food mill fitted with the medium disc or push through a mesh sieve into a medium bowl. You can use any color or variety of sweet potato for puree, but avoid the potatoes that are huge and look like footballs because they will be watery and stringy when cooked. To be suitable for recipes, the finished puree must have the smooth, thick consistency of canned pumpkin. If the puree needs to be drained, transfer into a large sieve lined with a double thickness of white paper towels or overlapping paper coffee filters set over a large bowl. Press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the puree to keep it from drying out and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Discard the accumulated liquid. Cover and refrigerate the puree and use within 3 days or freeze in airtight containers for up to 3 months. One 8- to 10-ounce sweet potato should yield about 1 cup of puree.