GobbleFest 2016: Mashed Sweet Potatoes
25 Dec 2016

GobbleFest 2016: Mashed Sweet Potatoes

25 Dec 2016

December 24th, 7 p.m. Malaysian time.  I can’t believe a year went by so fast.  Once again it’s GobbleFest, and Rudy and I decided to have the Round Knights over for dinner.  We bought our turkey early this year, and managed to get a 6-kilogram turkey for RM29.99/kg from Cold Storage.  Yay! Then we saw them selling at RM24.99/kg in Tesco…

Aaanyway, our menu for this year:

Roast Turkey (updated) | Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup | Emerilized Green Bean Casserole (updated) | Mashed Sweet Potatoes | Pull-apart Stuffing Rolls

I’ve made mashed sweet potatoes before, as an accompaniment to my Honey-butter Baked Chicken.  This version by Serious Eats uses minimal ingredients in comparison, and is intended to let the sweet potatoes speak for themselves.  This, however, means that the sweet potatoes you use must be top grade stuff, and I’m not sure how good mine were.  Substituting golden syrup for the maple syrup probably didn’t help either.  I also couldn’t get the potatoes to be as fluffy, and I wonder if it was due to the dryness of the potatoes, or I just didn’t beat them enough.  In the end the potatoes were still quite nice, but not exactly spectacular in my opinion.  I’ll make this again if I don’t want to use too many ingredients.

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients

  • 1.8 kilograms orange sweet potatoes (about 3 large potatoes)
  • 8 sprigs thyme, divided
  • 6 tablespoons butter
  • 1/4 cup golden or maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

Adjust oven rack to center position.  Preheat the oven to 170 degrees (150 degrees C fan).

Place 3 large sheets of heavy-duty aluminum foil on a work surface. Working with 1 sheet at a time, place each potato in the center along with 2 sprigs of thyme.  Fold up the foil and crimp the edges to seal tightly.  Repeat with the remaining potatoes.  If you have 4 potatoes or more, simply split the potatoes between two large aluminium sheets with 3 sprigs of thyme each.  Transfer the pouches to a rimmed baking sheet and place in the oven.  Roast until a thin skewer inserted into potatoes meets no resistance, about 2 hours 30 minutes.  Remove potatoes from the oven, and set aside until cool enough to handle.

Meanwhile, melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, swirling gently, until particles are pale golden brown and smell nutty.  Immediately transfer to a large bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a beater attachment.  Add the golden syrup.  Pick the leaves off of the remaining 2 thyme sprigs, roughly chop, and add to the bowl.

Peel the sweet potatoes and discard the skins.  Add the flesh to the mixer bowl containing the butter and syrup.  Beat with the beater attachment or a handheld mixer until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Season to taste with salt.  Garnish with fresh thyme leaves and serve warm.  These mashed sweet potatoes can be made ahead and refrigerated for up to 5 days.

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