Seasonal Eats: Sweet Potatoes

So lets get this out of the way first — Sweet Potatoes are not the same thing as Yams.  In fact, they’re from two entirely different plant families.  And as opposed to sweet potatoes, yams are dry, highly starchy and have white-colored flesh. They’re also usually larger than sweet potatoes, weighing in at three to eight pounds each.  But if you insist on continuing to refer to that classic Thanksgiving dish as “candied yams,” well, who are we to argue?

Believe it or not, sweet potatoes are one of the oldest vegetables known to mankind, domesticated thousands of years ago in Central America.  Nowadays, of course, they’re a staple produce item in the U.S., especially in the South, where they’re used to make everything from breads to side dishes to dessert.  Most of us are familiar with brown-skinned, orange-fleshed sweet potatoes (the two most popular varieties produced in America are the “Beauregard” and the “Jewel”), but they actually come in a surprising number of shades, from the red and orange “Garnet” to the purple and white “White Delight” and even the tan and green “Hayman.”  But no matter the color, they’re beloved the world over for their sweet taste and creamy texture, and come late autumn, they’re duly showcased at restaurants all around New York.

Since Chef Galen Zamarra works in “micro seasons” at his brand new West Village eatery, Almanac, it’s no wonder that sweet potatoes have made his opening menu.  You’ll find the tender tuber transformed into a hearty hash, as a base for pleasantly gamey duck, swiss chard, and nubbins of flavorful date-sage sausage.  At the Italian/Korean-influenced Piora, they’re currently taking a foray through France with Avian Poularde; a young chicken served with sweet potatoes, porcini mushrooms and foie gras foam, but Frankie’s 457 has remained resolutely Italian with their preparation of sweet potatoes — using them as a filling for sage-scented ravioli, swimming in a delicate parmesan broth.

Sweet potatoes also form the base of an intriguing side dish at Arrogant Swine — an all-pork BBQ joint in Bushwick, Brooklyn.  They’re mashed and pressed into waffles, flavored with walnuts, bourbon and maple — the ultimate sweet counterpoint to salty, fatty hunks of long-smoked pig.  And a specialty of Southern cuisine is not pumpkin, but sweet potato pie, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a better version than the one at Harlem’s soul food staple, Amy Ruth’s.  Even if you’ve already stuffed yourself silly on smothered pork chops, chicken n’ dumplings and yes — candied yams — it’s worth making room for a slice.

If you’d like to stock up on sweet potatoes at home, you certainly won’t have a hard time finding them; they’re currently being sold in every supermarket, greenmarket, farmers market and bodega throughout New York.  But how, exactly, do you select them?  Look for tubers that are clean, dry, smooth, firm and blemish and decay-free.  Seriously, one rotten area can transmit a terrible flavor to the whole potato, and cutting it away won’t help.  When it comes to storage, never keep your sweet potatoes in the refrigerator, which will make their natural sugars turn to starch.  Instead, keep them in a cool, dry area, like a basement or pantry, for up to about seven days (they have a considerably shorter shelf life than white potatoes, so sorry; they won’t last the winter).

Now that we’ve established you only have a week to make use of your sweet potatoes, it’s time to get cooking!  They’re tremendously versatile (and not to mention incredibly healthy), so from baking to boiling to frying to grilling to mashing to candying to roasting, the sky is definitely the limit!  Make good-for-you fries by cutting sweet potatoes into sticks or wedges, tossing them in salt and olive oil, and baking them in a 375-degree oven.  Swap mashed sweet potatoes for white potatoes in a slimming take on the holiday side dish, or puree into a warming soup, spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg.  Make a variety of quick breads or breakfast sweets, such as pancakes or muffins, or use as a slightly sweet, starchy dough for gnocchi or papardelle, or as a filling for ravioli, tortellini or pierogi.

Sweet potatoes pair perfectly with just about any protein, so cube and combine with lamb in a rustic potpie, roast alongside chicken, beef or pork, or make a hash to accompany sausage and eggs for a hearty breakfast or brunch.  Use sweet potatoes to thicken mac and cheese (instead of all that fat and dairy), sub them in for chickpeas in hummus, fry into thin, crispy chips, make a bright salad with cilantro, red onion and lime… as opposed to yams, you’ll never run out of uses for delicious, nutritious sweet potatoes!

Almanac
28 7th Ave S., btwn. St. Luke’s Pl. & Morton St.
(212) 255-1795
almanacnyc.com

Piora
430 Hudson St., btwn. Leroy St & St Lukes Pl.
(212) 960-3801
pioranyc.com

Frankie’s 457
457 Court St., btwn. 4th Pl & Luquer St.
(718) 403-0033
frankiesspuntino.com

Arrogant Swine
173 Morgan Ave., btwn. Scholes & Meserole St.
(347) 328-5595
arrogantswine.com

Amy Ruth’s
113 W 116th St., btwn. 7th & St Nicholas Aves.
(212) 280-8779
amyruthsharlem.com