Spicy Sweet Potato Fries

June 24, 2010 · by · in

Spicy Sweet potato fries

Look at these, I can’t resist them. I’m not a huge fan of sweet potato, perhaps because my first experience of it was in a horribly gloopy mashed sweet potato casserole thing at my first thanksgiving nearly 4 years ago. Since then, my opinion of it has changed slightly for the better, but it’s still not something I ever really think of when planning out our meals for the week.

That may have all changed. I am in love with sweet potato fries. I call them fries, but they’re more like chunky
British chips (as in fish & chips.. not potato chips). These ones weren’t even fried, so I suppose the title is just a little bit of a lie.

Before I get into all that though, I’d like to share some more photos of my vegetable garden. It’s been my first time growing vegetables, so you’ll have to excuse me if I’m a little over excited about it. It’s the first time we’ve lived anywhere long enough to grow our own veggies too, despite the fact that I had to dig out the bed in a shared yard area as we don’t have a yard of our own.

Veggie Garden

On the left in the pot is some trailing rosemary. I have to admit that I bought it as a plant, I didn’t grow it myself.

At the front are my beans, they’re starting to flower now but only one little yellow flower is open. On the far right, out of the picture are my carrots which look as though they’re nearly ready.

My spinach is gone, it used to be behind the beans in all its leafy glory and I harvested the remainder of it last Monday. After giving quite a bit of it away to friends, I still have 4 bags of spinach in the freezer!

At the back on the right are cucumber plants. About half of the plants didn’t make it when they were transferred from their indoor seed trays to the outside, but the ones we still have are doing well and have little yellow-orange flowers.

Now on to the tomatoes.

Baby Tomato

The plants are huge, they have had to be trimmed back twice and are still attempting a hostile takeover of the entire back of the bed as well as reaching out onto the steps up to the stairwell door. I’ve had dreams about harvesting giant tomatoes, having a fridge full of them and eventually drowning in them. I’m not even joking.

You’re here for the Sweet Potato Fries, not my crazy tomato-oriented dreams though right?

They make a great snack, dipped in sour cream, or you can have them as a side dish. We ate ours with rosemary garlic pork chops. I prefer them from the grill (or indoors on the stove top grill pan) as I like the charred parts as a contrast to the sweetness but you can use the same basic recipe and deep fry them or bake them in the oven instead if you like.

Spicy Sweet Potato Fries

Spicy Sweet Potato Fries
adapted from Real Simple Nov 2007 and Food Network Magazine

Heat up the grill or stove top grill pan.

Meanwhile peel and cut 3 sweet potatoes into “chips” or small wedges. In a large bowl, combine 3tbsp olive oil, 1 1/2 tsp brown sugar, 1 tsp coarse sea salt, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Toss the sweet potato wedges in the bowl with the olive oil mixture. Season with freshly ground black pepper and toss again.

When the grill/grill pan is hot enough (the grill pan will hiss and spit when a tiny amount of water is dropped on it) put the Sweet potato on to cook. Cook for about 30 minutes or until lightly charred on the outside and soft on the inside. Make sure to turn several times while cooking. Serve with sour cream and eat immediately.

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