Recipe: Cider-Roasted Sweet Potatoes

CIDER-ROASTED SWEET POTATOES

sweet potatoes, peeled, cut in 1-inch squares
butter
ground nutmeg
ground cinnamon
Granny Smith apples, peeled, cut in 1/2-inch pieces
molasses
cider
dark rum

The first thing we are going to do is we're going to take our sweet potatoes, and we're going to take the butter and soften it up. We're going to cook it two minutes. Once it has cooked at least two minutes, it starts browning on the outside. The butter is clarified so it's clear, you can start smelling it.

We can go ahead and start adding our seasonings which are nutmeg and cinnamon to that. You're instantaneously going to smell Thanksgiving when you do that. You want to make sure you keep saut ing it up so that way the seasonings themselves don't start burning in that butter. There's a temperature knob there. You can turn it down, turn it up. You've got to get a good nice saut going on, but you don't want to burn the seasonings in there.

Once the seasoning starts adhering at about another two minutes, we're going to go ahead and add our apples. You don't want to add the apples right away because the apples are going to get mushy. We're using a Granny Smith apple that's peeled. We're going to add those apples, then we are going to saut those apples. We're going to cook that for about two minutes again.

While that is cooking, I'm going to take my molasses. I'm going to take my apple cider, and I'm going to take my dark rum, and I'm going to mix that together. It's going to make a nice little slurry. This way nothing sticks to the pan. We're going to go ahead and get that incorporated. That molasses is going to thin out in the apple cider and the rum. Once it thins out, we're going to take this, and we're going to add this to the dish. It's immediately going to de-glaze the pan. The pan is going to come up to a nice sizzle.

Once it starts sizzling in there, it's going to come to a little rolling boil around the edges. We're going to let that cook for about another two minutes. Once that starts forming a nice syrup, a dark syrup around those apples. Once again, if the apples look like they are getting soft, pull them off the heat. The apples should still remain nice and crisp on there. At about two minutes from that, once it forms that nice syrup, we're going to go ahead and pull it off the fire. We are going to put it in an oven-safe dish. It should have a nice coating on it, and we're going to let that bake-off for about 15 minutes. Once that bakes-off for about 15 minutes, it's going to start caramelizing on the outside. You can sprinkle a little bit of cinnamon on top of that, garnish with an apple.

But this right here is one of my favorite sweet potato dishes. And that is a cider-roasted sweet potato for Thanksgiving.

Adapted from source: Alex Richardson, The Neighbors Place

Hi John,

I couldn't get the video to play either, but there's a good chance that quantities weren't given in the video either. I edited the text a little to make it easier to follow. I think this is one of those dishes that you can make according to your taste. I would just be careful when making the slurry to not make too much liquid. If you do, remove the potatoes and apples from the pan while you cook it down to thicken it so they don't overcook.

Happy Cooking!

Betsy