Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes

I'm back, in the nick of time, with one last side dish to grace your Thanksgiving table (because really, can you ever have enough sides?) By now, you're probably squared away with your stuffing, your Turkey, and those pies. So here's an idea for what to do with all those sweet potatoes. I wouldn't call it a traditional dish, but it's certainly a play on tradition.

I've always loved twice-baked potatoes, with their crisp skin and just enough potato inside to cushion the cheesy filling. So why not twice-bake sweet potatoes? Yes, their flesh is less starchy, and their skins are harder to crisp up. But when you succeed -- and you will succeed - you will reap the rewards of hot, sweet, crunchy, soft, sweet 'taters like you've never had'em before.

raw sweet potatoes

Here's the beauty of this dish. Have a favorite filling for twice-baked potatoes? It'll go great here, too. I'm talking sour cream and cheddar and chives, or parmesan and sage, or whatever you usually use. But you could also take these in a totally different direction, as I did last night. Instead of trying to balance the sweet flesh with a more savory filling, I succumbed to the sweetness. Boy did I ever.

sour cream and maple

Here's what we're doing: we're filling 'tater halves with a mix of sour cream, maple syrup, and crunchy demerara sugar. When I made them, I simply mixed the ingredients together - but I'm recommending that you sprinkle the sugar over everything else. That way you'll have a crunchy, burnt-sugary gratinee topping. You'll know they're done when you've had to fight yourself at least 3 times from opening that oven, pulling out the sweet potatoes, and eating every last one, right then and there. Now that's what I call a successful Thanksgiving side.

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Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoesserves 4

4 sweet potatoes, scrubbed very well and left unpeeled 2 tablespoons sour cream 1 tablespoon maple syrup 2 tablespoons demerara sugar pinch flaky salt

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line the bottom of the oven with foil.

Prick sweet potatoes in several places, and set on a rack in the middle of the oven for about 35-40 minutes, until they do not resist when pricked with a knife.

Meanwhile, combine sour cream with maple syrup, and stir until smooth. (It's ok if there are a couple lumps.)

Halve sweet potatoes lengthwise, and use a spoon to scoop out most of the flesh, leaving a 1/4-lining of flesh on each of the skins. Transfer skins to a lined baking sheet.

Spoon the sour cream mixture evenly into each of the skins, and top with a generous sprinkling of demerara sugar and the tiniest pinch of flaky salt.

Return to the oven, and bake about 20 minutes more, until skins are crisp at the edges and sour cream mixture is bubbling. Serve hot.

Beef Stew with Vadouvan

I didn't believe it was possible to make a flavorful beef stew without beef stock, but this recipe proved me wrong. An unassuming combination of cheap stew meat, green beans, tomatoes, and spices come together on the stove and cook low and slow, turning into something distinctly more than the sum of its parts. The green beans melt into lusciousness while, miraculously, maintaining their texture through hours of cooking. And the tomatoes become a complex, silky sauce that coats the beef and does wonders for a bowl of hot rice.

I adapted this stew from a Food52 recipe that, quite frankly, needed no adapting. It calls for coriander and cumin, which I used in moderation, and which are quite lovely. However, I also added plenty of vadouvan, an intriguing blend combining many of the spices in curry - cumin, tumeric, mustard seeds - with more French spices like shallots and nutmeg. It's positively seductive, and it works magic on this stew.

Susan on Food52 uses an interesting method for cooking this stew, skipping the browning process and instead simply covering the beef with water and cooking it just so. I'm not so bold; I insisted on browning the beef in just a tablespoon of olive oil, and I was happy to have browned the beef before making the stew. That said, I can't think of a time when Amanda and Merrill have steered me wrong, so should you want to skip the browning, I have every faith you'd make something delicious. Go forth, friends. It's beef stew season.

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Beef Stew with Vadouvanadapted from Food52 Serves 6-8

1 tablespoon olive oil 1 lb. stew meat, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks salt and pepper 16 oz. crushed tomatoes 1 lb. green beans, ends trimmed, halved 2 cloves of garlic 1 teaspoon coriander 1 teaspoon cumin 1 tablespoon vadouvan (if not using, increase coriander and cumin to 2 teaspoons each)

Drizzle the olive oil into a heavy bottomed dutch oven or covered pot and place over medium heat. Sprinkle beef with salt and pepper on all sides, and add beef to the pot in a single layer. Sear, turning as needed, until lightly browned on all sides.

Add water to cover beef, the green beans, and the crushed tomatoes, garlic cloves, and spices. Stir to combine, cover the pot, and reduce heat to low. Simmer, covered, for about 2 hours, until beef is very tender and green beans are soft but still intact. Check on stew periodically, stirring and adding more water if necessary. By the time the beef is thoroughly cooked, the liquid will have reduced considerably, so you'll probably have to add water at least once while the stew cooks.

Serve hot over rice, with plenty of sauce ladled overtop.

Amaretti

As I've said many times on this site, my philosophy of Passover eating is to steer clear of matza meal and potato starch, and keep things as normal as possible. Meringues, mousses, fruit curd of any flavor: these are the ideal Passover desserts. But cookie cravings call, and can't be ignored, even on Passover. So I'm making good on my promise to share one more Passover cookie recipe before the holiday. Those chocolate cookies sort of can't be beat -- unless you use margarine in place of butter, which I hear can cause problems! -- but these amaretti are chewy, flavorful, and pretty addictive in their own rite. They've got the golden touch of Passover cookies, which is to say, they weren't designed with Passover in mind.

The recipe is very lightly adapted from Garrett McCord, who writes his own blog, Vanilla Garlic, and guest posts occasionally for Elise at Simply Recipes. They can be made chewy or crunchy just by fiddling with the baking time. They're redolent with almond flavor and some vanilla, too. They're highly scarfable, which on Passover isn't something to scoff at.

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If you're celebrating, happy holiday! If you're not, make these anyway: they really are quite tasty.

Amarettiadapted from Garrett McCord, via Elise Bauer

Note: I found this recipe really near-perfect in terms of flavor and consistency. The only ingredient changes I made were to reflect that fact that kosher for Passover almond flour and bakers' sugar are hard to find. If those aren't concerns, feel free to substitute 2 1/2 cups almond flour for the 3 1/4 cups whole almonds I call for. I also used a tablespoon instead of a teaspoon to measure out the cookies, and liked the texture of these slightly larger bites. The baking time increases slightly for tablespoon-sized cookies: I baked mine 25 minutes for very chewy, 30-35 minutes for crunchy. Oddly, my dough made about 30 tablespoon-sized cookies, which is the same yield in the original recipe.

3 1/4 cups almonds 1 1/4 cups of sugar 3 egg whites 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract (if you can find it) Extra sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 300 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a food processor, grind the almonds until fine. Add sugar, and continue grinding another 30 seconds, until well blended and very fine. Add the vanilla and almond extract (if using) and pulse for a few seconds. Add the egg whites, one at a time, and continue to process until smooth.

Place tablespoons of the dough on the parchment paper and dust with sugar. For chewy cookies, bake for about 25 minutes, when tops are golden brown but cookies are still soft to the touch. For crunchy cookies, bake about 30-35 minutes. Note that cookies will still feel somewhat soft when coming out of the oven - even if you've baked them for the full 35 minutes -- but they will firm up within a day.

Cool completely before serving. Store in a cool, dry place. Makes about 30 cookies.

Best Chocolate Passover Cookies

Friends, listen up. This weekend, I went undercover. For you. In search of a perfect Passover cookie that could fool even the most discerning dessert connoisseur, I brought a batch of Passover cookies to the pre-wedding festivities of one of my oldest friends. Now surely you're wondering why I'd subject some of my favorite people to those little bricks that taste like chalky potatoes and twice-cooked crackers. The answer, of course, is that I'd never do that. Friends don't make friends eat Passover cookies. Nope. What I did do was treat my near-and-dear to a big tupperware container full of soft, chewy, chocolatey cookies. Also on the menu: muffins, bagels, croissants, and all sorts of other leavened things. And you know what? My chocolate cookies went first.

These are the real deal. Unlike other Passover cookies, these are neither flimsy nor flavorless. In fact, they taste like pure chocolate and they're addictively chewy in that way that good chocolate chip cookies are. They're something you can really sink your teeth into. Oh, and they're also gluten-free. And one more thing: if you're like me and have about 3 Passover dishes, these are your cookies; they require nothing more than a metal bowl, a pot, and an appetite. Best-ever? I think so.

This is the first of two Passover cookie recipes I'll be posting, so stay tuned for round 2.

Best Chocolate Passover Cookiesadapted from a The Pioneer Woman

8 oz. good quality bittersweet or semisweet chocolate 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder, optional 3 tablespoons butter 2 eggs 1/3 cup sugar 3/4 cup almond flour (or finely ground almonds, which you can make in a food processor)

Melt chocolate in a double boiler (metal bowl over pot with some water in it). When chocolate has fully melted, stir in butter and espresso powder (if using). Let cool 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk eggs and sugar until light, about 60 seconds. (I used a fork for this, just to make sure you didn't need a whisk. A-ok.) Add to cooled chocolate mixture and stir until combined. Add ground almonds and stir just until combined. Cover mixture and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, the texture should be like fudge.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Scoop dough into tablespoon-sized pieces and roll into balls. Place on a lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake for 8-9 minutes.

Makes about 35 cookies.