
Sweet potatoes with chestnuts, lime and cashew cream
This week is clean the fridge and pantry week as we are heading for the Mayan Riviera for a couple of months. My fridge is always full (overfull, perhaps?) so I had plenty to work with. I made all kinds of interesting salad combinations, a couple of rice pilaf with the vegetables that I obsessively buy (can’t resist), roasted the root vegetables and even made some cookies, just for fun. Many didn’t get photographed but some did, which I will post in the next while. I have had a difficult time photographing indoors under artificial light, haven’t got this system quite right yet but no worries, on the Mayan Riviera there will be plenty of daylight and beautiful food to photograph. Ah, all these taco ideas that are dancing in my head. I look forward to blogging from there and sharing my food and travel adventure in Mexico.
Cleaning the fridge was a good opportunity to entertain. Why not? I invited my lovely sister-in-law and her husband and warned them that this is not a real “menu” per se. It’s just foods that I am cooking to close down the kitchen. They had no objections. These sweet potatoes were on the menu and worth sharing hence this recipe.
I love sweet potatoes in any way shape or form. I roast them, mash them, combine with other root vegetables, make them into salad, soups and even desserts. For this dinner I baked them and then cut in half to serve four people, scooped out some of the center and kind of stuffed them with a spoonful of roasted chestnuts in lime flavoured sauce. Another way of doing this is to scoop out the entire flesh, mix it with the chestnuts and spoon it back into the shell. Next time.
Roasting the potatoes is simple, just wrap them in foil and roast at 400℉ until they are soft inside. The stuffing is easy if you use canned chestnuts and a little more work if you use them fresh as I did here. The chestnuts need to be roasted and peeled, which is a labour intensive but not difficult.
I made cashew cream to top the potatoes as I had vegan guests for dinner but suite yourself. I think this vegan cream goes well with the sweetness of the potatoes and is a nice change even if you are not a vegan.
Serves 4:
Ingredients:
2 sweet potatoes
2 cups chopped chestnuts (fresh or from a jar or can). If using fresh see instructions below.
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup water for fat free version (you can use butter if you wish)
Juice of 1 lime
Directions:
Wrap the potatoes in a foil package, add 1/3 cup water and seal the edges.
Place on a baking sheet and bake at 400℉ until they are soft and cooked through. You can inset a sharp knife into the thick part of the potatoes to check for doneness.
Place sugar, water (or butter) and lime juice in a small pot and bring to a boil.
Let cook for about 10 minutes on low heat. Taste and add more lime juice if needed.
Add the chopped chestnuts and remove from heat. Only addd as much of the chestnuts to the sauce as you need for serving. Keep the rest in the freezer for another use.
Assembling:
When the potatoes are done remove from the packet and cu each in half.
Scoop out some of the center to make an indentation and fill with the chestnuts.
Serve with cashew cream and more of the sauce and chestnuts on the side.
Roasting fresh chestnuts:
Cut an X on each chestnut on the flat side.
Place on a baking sheet and roast at 400 until the shell open where cut.
Let cool, then peel off the shells releasing the chestnuts.
Rub them to remove and much of the brown skin as possible.
Chop into medium chucks.
2 Comments
I must say this was such a treat! Not the greatest fan of sweet potatoes, now I’m their groupie?
OMG…these look beautiful and I could just eat them off the screen..I wish! Love sweet potatoes in any form, and stuffing them like this is genius and so simple..
thanks for sharing!