Sweet Potatoes in the Spring?

I have always associated sweet potatoes with the Fall. They are a Thanksgiving staple at my parents house. So imagine my surprise when they turned up in my CSA share this week. Sweet potatoes in the spring? What am I going to do with sweet potatoes at the end of May? My first inspiration was to make a pie, but that required two cups of mashed sweet potatoes and alas my share only supplied one. I settled on cookies. This left me searching for recipe inspiration. I found a recipe on the internet for pumpkin cookies, made a few adjustments here and there and ta-da.



Honey Sweet Potato Cookies

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 cup honey
1 egg
1 cup mashed sweet potatoes or yams
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
powdered sugar, for dusting

Preparation:

-Cut the sweet potatoes into large chunks, place them in a pot and cover with water. Bring the potatoes to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until they are tender. Drain and set aside to cool.
-Once the sweet potatoes are cool you can easily peel away the skins. Mash them well (using an immersion blender works well but if you don’t have one a regular potato masher will work.
-Sift together the all-purpose flour, baking soda, and cinnamon. Set aside.
-Cream together the butter and the sugars. Beat the egg and honey into the creamed butter and sugar. Stir in the mashed sweet potatoes and the milk.
-Stir in the flour and spices making sure that everything is well combined.
-Chill the batter in the refrigerator for a couple of hours or up to two days.
-Preheat your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Drop or pipe the batter onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment and bake 9-11 minutes. After the cookies have cooled dust with powered sugar.

The texture of the finished cookie is soft and cake like. A nice change on the traditional little cookie.

The Importance of Being Mr. Scrubby

It’s Friday. CSA pickup day. My favorite day of the week and not just because I get to stop by the Tucson CSA pickup location and hang out with all the other environmentally conscious foodies. I get a sense of closure on Fridays. My work week is done and for the next forty-eight hours I get to do what I want. For me that usually means hanging out in my kitchen.

Getting your vegetables directly from the farmer is a great way to ensure that you are getting your produce at its freshest. However there is one minor and easily solved drawback to this. Most vegetables grow in the dirt and the farmer doesn’t always do the best job of washing off the dirt. This is where Mr. Scrubby comes in. When I got my invitation to join the CSA (you have to start on a waiting list!) a friend of mine, who was already a member, gave me Mr. Scrubby. She told me that I would use him every day and she was right. A little bit of cold water, scrub scrub scrub and presto, your veggies are clean. Perhaps it’s not as exciting as the thunderstorm produce showers you can witness at the fancier grocery stores but Mr. Scrubby is cute. How could anyone resist him?

Cottage Pie

I lived in Europe until I was about 15 years old. So when I think of comfort food My cravings are a little different from the typical American. Now granted my mother is from Wisconsin so tuna noodle casserole and macaroni and cheese are on my list of comforts foods. However, also on that list are things like Dampfnudel and Cottage Pie. Recently we’ve been getting a stash of carrots, onions and potatoes from the CSA. When I examined the contents of my fridge and freezer I realized that with very few exceptions I could compose an entire meal from CSA ingredients! I went for it. The recipe follows.

Cottage Pie

Red skinned potatoes, cubed: 1 1/2 pounds
Farm House Cheddar cheese: 2-3 ounces shredded
Yogurt: 1/4 cup
Olive oil: 1 tablespoon
Ground beef*: 1 pound
Carrots, diced: 1/2 cup
Onion, diced: 1/2 cup
Peas: 1/2 cup
Vegetable Stock: 2 cups
Bay leaf: 1
Worcestershire s:auce: 1 tablespoon
All purpose flour 2 tablespoons
Salt and Pepper to taste

-Preheat your oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit.
-Combine the potatoes and 1 cup of the vegetable stock in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover. Simmer 10 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Set aside. Do not drain.
-Heat olive oil in a skillet. Add ground beef. Break the beef into chucks as it cooks. When you don’t see any more pink, pour off any extra fat and add the carrots, onion and peas. Cook 5 minutes more. Add the Worcestershire sauce, bay leaf and salt and pepper to taste.
-Stir the flour into the beef mixture making sure to coat all of the ingredients. Cook 2-3 minutes more.
-Slowly poor the remaining vegetable stock into the beef and bring to a boil. Pour mixture into an 8 or 9 inch casserole.
-Mash the potatoes in their cooking liquid and stir in the shredded cheese and yogurt. Spread the potatoes over the beef and vegetables. You can sprinkle extra cheese on top of the potatoes if you like things extra cheesy.
-Bake 30-45 minutes or until bubbly along the edges.

*Substitute ground lamb and you have a shepherds pie!