Might try this next time. Wait, is that a sweet potato?!
Have you ever had one of those times where you try hard to do things correctly but you’re so stubborn you do it your way regardless?
Thug Kitchen (Rodale, 2014) is an irreverent, f-bomb dropping cookbook. It’s not for everyone. And my tale is not about a recipe from their book. I’m sure they’d thank me for that disclaimer.
I like their cookbook. Under a section titled “Venturing into the unknown of unknowns” there’s this (paraphrased for G rating):
Read the recipe and collect the ingredients before you start. If you don’t have or like the main ingredients don’t make it. If you decide to substitute bananas for bell peppers and are disappointed by how it tastes don’t email us and complain. Own your f-ups and wins. I consider these words each time I make a recipe and head off in my own direction. Like I did last night.
I decided to make twice baked stuffed sweet potatoes for a dinner party. A good friend makes this all the time and I felt confident I could whip it up with no problem using her recipe. I realized at the grocery that I forgot to write down the necessary ingredients. However, I’d read the recipe and figured I had a good grasp on what I needed. This was not so.
I baked the sweet potatoes. So far so good. The recipe called for mincing the shallots and sautéing them in 1 ½ tablespoons of butter until tender. Did I buy shallots? No. I minced a yellow onion instead. There was no way I was using that much butter either. I figured a scant 1 tablespoon would be fine.
Next step was to add 1 teaspoon of fresh thyme leaves to the onions. WELL HELL. I’d bought fresh rosemary. I minced about 2 teaspoons of that and without thinking dumped the whole amount into the skillet and stirred it into the onion. RATS. Twice as much as called for. There was no picking it out. C’est la vie.
Next I hollowed out the cooked sweet potato halves. After I removed every bit of the sweet potato and salted and peppered the shells, I realized I was supposed to leave the shells about ½ inch thick so they’d hold together. REALLY? Now it was time for mixing the sweet potato with an egg, 4 tablespoons of butter, the onion mixture, the cheese, salt, and pepper. There was no way I was using 4 tablespoons of butter or that extra salt. I love my clear arteries and none of us need that much salt. Two tablespoons of butter and no additional salt seemed more reasonable.
Anyway, there would be plenty of fat and salt from the goat brie I was using in place of the cheese they listed. Next I was instructed to lightly beat the egg before adding it to the rest of the mixture. GOSH DARN IT. I read this just after I’d cracked the egg into the bowl. I beat the egg against the side of the bowl, called it good, dumped in the goat brie and mixed it all together.
I spooned the mixture into the sadly limp shells pushing them into messy canoe forms before shoving them into the oven. As I reread the recipe I discovered I was supposed to top each shell with a sprig of fresh herb before baking. OH, FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE! I decided to add the sprigs of rosemary in the last 10 minutes of baking since we’d be warming up the potatoes once we arrived at the host’s house.
I’m happy to report my twice baked sweet potatoes were delicate and delicious in spite of the cook. Whew. Lucky me it all worked out and I could happily own my f-ups and my wins.
You might think I’m a space head after reading this post. Not so. I make a point of being a good listener and carefully considering all the points you might bring to me when we work together. If you need someone with a sense of humor and a track record for helping people find the best path to their goal, give me a shout. Better yet, click here Work With Me
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