Scientist and inventor Dr. George Washington Carver, the child of a Mississippi slave, believed peanuts, sweet potatoes, and science could free Southern farmers from poverty. Cotton had exhausted the soil of the Deep South, and at Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now Tuskegee University) in southeastern Alabama in the early twentieth century, he showed farmers the benefits of planting sweet potatoes. They were well suited to Alabama, and he worked to grow demand by developing 118 products made from them, including flour, vinegar, molasses, ink, rubber, and even postage stamp glue.
And, of course, he cooked with them, slicing them into this tantalizing pie where, with spices, molasses, and cream, they cook down inside the flaky pastry. When you fork into a bite, it’s a bit like pie and a bit like your favorite sweet potato casserole. This recipe is adapted from The Historical Cookbook of the American Negro (1958).
Spatchcock chicken—also known as butterflied chicken—is the easiest way to roast a whole bird, full stop. Removing the backbone and flatteningout the bird allows the breast meat and leg meat to reach their target temperatures—around 150°F for the breast and 165°F for the legs—at the same time, which is a challenge whenever roasting a whole chicken (unless you truss it, which is another lesson for another cookbook). Another trick for roast chicken excellence is rubbing the meat with an intensely flavored spice paste, and the North Afri- can-inspired one I use in this recipe is a delicious blend that will give the chicken’s skin a beautiful brown hue, and works equally well on pork, fish, and slow-roasted meats.
If you like hash browns but want something healthier, the sweet potato hash that follows is a dish I make a lot for my sons when I want to work some extra nutrients into their supper (which is always).
Hot or cold, for breakfast, lunch, or dinner—things don’t get much more versatile than this fiber-filled frittata. Mix up the veggies to keep it seasonal and interesting for endless weekday options. It’s earned a regular spot on my menu.
As I’ve mentioned, Bacon-Miso Sauce was the first menu element I personally developed for Le Bernardin. We often served it with Japanese sweet potatoes, since I loved the sweetness and tenderness of potato paired with the salty and umami-filled sauce. Basically, it’s amazing with potatoes of any sort, of any color, and from any country. So if you don’t feel like making gnocchi, go on and roast up some sweet potato wedges to serve with this luscious sauce instead. Think of it as a fancy answer to french fries and ketchup!
Nyesha is an expert at fusing food and place and then building narratives around that fusion. Most of her stories are about Los Angeles, which meant that I tried to pick an LA story also. That sparked a memory of the first time I visited California, back in the mid-eighties, and specifically a memory of Toddy Tee’s “Batterram,” an early hip-hop song about the LAPD’s use of a modified Army tank to break down doors in search of crack dealers. That’s a completely different kind of cooking, but that’s not why I picked it. To me, it was one of the first true signs that there was distinct a West Coast culture that wasn’t making its way back east unless people brought it.
After my mom passed away, my aunt used to make us tons of tacos de papa dorados—basically mashed potatoes inside a tortilla either folded or rolled up like a flauta and fried—and leave them in big bags in the fridge. My friends and I would grab a few, microwave them, smother them in tart, fresh, bright-green tomatillo salsa, and wolf them down while watching episodes of Richard Bey. It’s a casero-style (homemade) snack, sort of like a Hot Pocket. You wouldn’t really see these on a menu anywhere. So when I first got the cart, I figured why not make this taco with a few modifications.
You'll love the combination of nutty sweet potato with the fragrant heat of green chile.
If you're looking for syrup-sweet, marshmallow-crowned yams, this is not the recipe for you. If you’re interested in sweet potatoes that taste like sweet potatoes with a little extra, then consider Grandma Hill’s approach.
Kebabs
Grate 2 sweet potatoes (I don't bother peeling).