Sundancer,
They make good fries, but they have to be cut really thin because they burn really easy due to high sugar content. There is a ready made alternative though. Zapps Potato Chips in LaPlace, Louisiana (the place is great, it used to be a chevy dealership on Hwy 90 between Baton Rouge and New Orleans) makes sweet potato chips. They are thin cut and seasoned with just a little salt and cinnamon. They are extremely tasty. You can get them by going to

http://www.zapps.com/

It is a pretty fun web site to boot.[:D]

Mr. Mayor, the Great American has been doing the sweet potato thing for several years.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

[:(] As a result of an explosion in the bunny population in our area, my sweet potato plants have shrunk to 6 out of the recent 25 survivors. Those seem to be doing well…and I am trying to disguise the remaining plants as straw-weeds.
My Mom used to make a sweet-potato and apple casserole that was a highlight of some of our fall Sunday dinners.
I am glad to see that some of the chain steak houses are now offering baked sweets in place of the regular potato’s with their dinner.(Outback, Texas RoadHouse and Logan’s to name a few).

I have always had sweet potatoes served the traditional way of baked and then served with butter and brown sugar.

I have often wondered what they were like french fried with salt and ketchup.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

I learned this down south. They call it Sweet Potato Souffle, but it’s really not a souffle. Anyway, it’s great, and I should make it more often:

one large can of sweet potatoes (sometimes labeled as yams)or 4 big sweet potatoes
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
one stick of butter, melted
1/2 cup half and half or cream, or a small can evaporated milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp lemon or orange extract
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup raisins

miniature marshmellows

Drain the sweet potatoes and place in mixing bowl. If using fresh, boil till tender, cool and peel.

Mash the sweet potatoes. Add all the ingredients except the raisins and marshmellows and beat with an electric mixer until smooth. Add raisins last and stir them in. Put in casserole dish, and cover top with marshmellows. Bake at 350 for 30 to 40 minutes, until heated through and the marshmellows are browned.

I too like them baked. Right out of the oven, open them up, apply a liberal amount of butter, a good sprinkle of cinnamon and a pinch of sugar !! Just scoop it out of the skin with a spoon !!! [:D]

Rumbelly,
Sweet potatoes are easy. Just put them in a hot oven (450 deg.) until they are completely soft (you should see little brown sweat beads on the outside of the jackets). Allow to cool slightly. Peel off the jacket (and discard the fibrous tips). Mash with butter and maple syrup to taste. Add a bit of cream and a touch of salt. Enjoy!!!

quote:

Originally posted by rumbelly

I’m a northen boy and used to making sweet potatoes into soup or fries. I know there are many preparations that use this tuber to the max. Could anyone provide some help with recipes or ideas as we entertain a lot of people from the south. Wishing for comfort food.

I like them baked and served with butter. Candied yams (really sweet potatoes) were a favorite holiday side dish. Mashed sweet potatoes are terrific, too.

THE MOST FABULOUS CASSEROLE EVER is from The Dinner Bell in McComb, MS. http://www.thedinnerbell.net is where you can read all about it and order one of the best cookbooks ever for southern food. I believe the recipe is online at http://www.dixiedining.com

Enjoy!

Dear Al – Surely sorry to hear of the washout of half of your Georgia Jets, but I so hope for everyone’s sake that May’s weather does not carry over into June. My familiarity with Georgia Jets comes from my uncle’s raising them every year in that poor sandy soil of southwest Arkansas. I don’t recall their being that slow in "taking off", but they surely grew prolifically there. He grew enough each year in a relatively small patch to provide the family and all the neighbors there (plus all us interloping kin from elsewhere) with more than could be eaten by all each season. I surely got spoiled by their quality and since his death several years ago I have not had a decent sweet potato from any source. The Georgia Jets are the most delicious of any sweet potato, regardless of how it may be cooked. Also, I’ve never seen one of them with any white, stringy segments whatsoever. Travis always ordered his from Georgia, but I’ve never known anyone else anywhere who raised them. Here is wishing you success with the remainder of your crop.You”ve got some delicious sweet potato eating to look forward to, assuming weather improves and they make it. With that being the case, I may have to head to Louisville for a little midnight potato patch raiding come harvest time. Liketo-

Dear Like2-
We just returned from a week on the road and see that about 50% of our hills washed out in last weeks thunderboomers here. That still leaves us with 25 hills or so…These plants sure are slow starters. I planted them once many years ago and don’t recall it taking this long to see growth that is visible!! But it has been a cool wet Spring here in the Louisville area.
AL

Al-The-Mayor-Bowen surely knows his sweet potatoes. No matter how it’s going to be cooked, there is no sweet potato on earth anywhere nearly as good as a "Georgia Jet". I do hope that those 50 hills of your Georgia Jets are progressing smartly and haven’t been hit by the horrible, crazy weather so much of the country has suffered the past month or so.

Sweet potatos sever several different things for me.

1: I like pretty plants and I like to use them in hanging baskets. I plant them in late spring and a huge basket and sprinkle the soil liberally with Osmacote. This gives them great fertilizer throughout their growing season and creates beautiful trailing vines.

2: At the end of the season, I harvest the potatoes from my basket and utilize them in several ways.

3: I candy them
4: I fry them like chips
5: I bake them and use liberal amounts of real slightly salted butter.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Al "Mr. Mayor"; Dearfolk,
Now that this thread has returned to the menu board and it is in sight and in mind, I find your kind comments regards my writings herein, and must – in kind – reply.
Colonel Sanders (an honorary Kentucky Colonel, by the way!) was adept at running a decent roadside restaurant. My family stopped there on U. S. 25 in Corbin, Ky. when I was little-bitty: I still remember the place clearly! It was a landmark to them as far back as roughly 1935, or whenever they first stopped there.
As for literary references to my prattle, the writer most people seem to compare me to – at least locally – is either Jack Kerouac or Richard Brautigan. While I appreciate the thought, I remember that both of them drank themselves to death: I truly, truly enjoy good drink, but my doctor tells me that my liver is in fine shape – because I drink good drink, not cheap stuff. For example, Icehouse may be "micro-brewed" by Plank Road Brewery, but it is actually made by Miller in vast quantities and does not appeal to me as anything but something wet if I am desperately thirsty and water is not an option. Give me an India Brown Ale at Copper Creek Brewing anytime!
I always try to write something useful and/or meaningful when I saunter by here, but by now I am getting lightyears away from the topic at hand… sweet potatoes. Beam me home, Scotty.
The best sweet potato I ever had in a restaurant was at Country’s Barbecue on Broadway (in the converted Greyhound bus depot) downtown in Columbus, Georgia. With a plate there, one sidedish option is a baked potato; another is a baked yam! I chose the yam, and the waitress stood there and watched me with great interest as I s-l-o-w-l-y ate it, purring all the while. This yam option in and of itself is enough for me to give Country’s downtown location a glowing recommendation; the ‘cue is excellent and the sauce is the Columbus standard: mustard-based(!), as the town was settled en masse in 1828 by displaced South Carolineans! Obviously mustard sauce in S. C. predates that!!
Elsewhere I’ll mention another Colusmbus specialty, The Scrambled Dog… but not here. I’ve rambled enough.
Al, Mr. Mayor, thank you for your reassurance. I’ll keep trying to contribute worthwhile ramblings and mutterings and musings as the roads – and meals – unwind.
Unhungrily (At The Moment; But Subject To Change!), Ort. Carlton in Athens, Georgia.

quote:

Originally posted by vinelady

My favorite use is Sweetpotato Pecan Pie. Not as sickly sweet as more Pecan pies and a nice crunchy topping to the sweet potatoes.

Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen has the best recipe for this I’ve ever made. It’s made in a deep dish–a cake pan, actually. By making a few twists on the recipe, I won the only cooking prize I ever won with this one: second place in a pie contest. (No money, but the ribbon suuure looks nice with my cookbook collection.