Siddity In The City

Bitch-in-Kitch IV: "Moroccan"* spiced sweet potatoes

Vegetarian goodness Originally uploaded by Siddity.

I was inspired by the "Moroccan-roasted sweet potatoes, with chic peas and walnuts" recipe I found in the Claire's Corner Copia Cookbook, but as usual, I have made a few key changes. Carrots, walnuts, raisins, brown sugar, tofu, out; mushrooms and several additional spices, in. (Aside--I spent four years in New Haven and only went to the Claire's Corner Copia restaurant twice--once for tea--because I never liked the food, which always seemed a tad too bland for my liking. And yet, here I am bastardizing their recipes on a regular basis. Go figure. This cookbook has some truly great deserts though, I must say, so it's worth buying for that reason alone.) 2 large sweet potatoes 1 small onion 5 or 6 oz. package of white mushrooms 1 15.5 oz. can of chickpeas 2-3 tbsp. olive oil 1 tsp. cumin 1/2 tsp. coriander 1/2 tsp. cinnamon 3-5 tbsp. honey 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract 10-15 cloves 5-10 cardamom pods sea salt and pepper to taste Preheat oven to 400F. Wash sweet potatoes. Cut into 1/2 inch thick slices. Quarter the slices. Drain chickpeas. Slice mushrooms and onion. Put sweet potatoes, mushrooms, chickpeas and onion in large mixing bowl, and douse with olive oil. Mix thoroughly with hands until vegetable mixture is coated. Sprinkle with cumin, coriander, cinnamon, and vanilla extract, and mix again with hands. Drizzle honey over vegetable mixture (3-5 tbsp., to taste depending on how sweet you'd like it) and mix again with hands until evenly coated with honey and spice. Stir in 10-15 cloves and 10 cardamom pods. Sprinkle with sea salt and ground pepper to taste. Transfer sweet potato mixture to two baking pans (I used 9" round cake pans) or dishes with about 3-4 tbsp. water in the bottom. Cover pans with foil and bake for 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Bake uncovered an additional 5 minutes. I was thrilled with this dish. I've never made anything like this before and I'm not a huge sweet potato fan, but I still like it enough to do another batch in the very near future, and put it on my mental "food-for-entertaining" list. It's really easy to grow bored with vegetarian fair, but this is a dish that's nicely spiced, very interesting to the palate--not too sweet or spicy. Try not to eat the cloves, though (or cardamom, for that matter). They make your tongue go numb. Then your palate will detect nothing for a good five minutes.

I had this unaccompanied, but it would probably go well with a side of grain--couscous or bulgur with spices, nuts and raisins, for instance. Or it could make a nice side to roasted chicken or lamb. *I used Moroccan loosely, and only because the Claire's cookbook did.

**From now on, all recipes will be cross listed over at Sapidity, without all the hoo-hah and random chatter, so if you'd like to get a recipe without having to read my dumb Loaf jokes and what have you, you can find it here.

posted by Sid @ 3/12/2005 01:51:00 AM