First in a series of Thanksgiving posts. I know it’s way too late for this year, but in case you want to really, really plan ahead…

As I was looking for a new way to make sweet potatoes this year, I found this recipe from 101 Cookbooks, and I’m so glad I decided to try it. The coconut milk and ginger are a nice departure from the usual brown sugar and pecans or marshmallows, and they are just sweet enough but not overly so. I adapted the recipe slightly from the original, using hazelnuts instead of macadamias, and adding a bit of brown sugar. The leftovers were great in pancakes, which I’ll share sometime soon.

You might also like:

Sweet Potatoes with Coconut and Hazelnuts

adapted from 101 Cookbooks

As pictured above, enough to feed a crowd (at least 10), so you might want to halve it

4-5 medium to large sweet potatoes (about 5 lb)
2/3 c coconut milk
2 T grated fresh ginger
2 T maple syrup
1/2 t salt
2-3 T butter
1/4 c brown sugar
1/2 c shredded coconut
1/2 c chopped hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 350 F. Poke sweet potatoes with a fork and wrap in foil, or place on a cookie sheet (otherwise they may drip sugar and make a mess in your oven – yes I learned this the hard way). Bake for about an hour, until the “meat” of the potato is completely tender to a fork.

Let the potatoes cool a bit, and peel. Mash with coconut milk, ginger, maple syrup, and salt. Adjust the amount of coconut milk until desired texture is reached. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Place in a large casserole dish. (Can be done up to a few days ahead up to this point.)

Dot with butter, and sprinkle with brown sugar. Then top with coconut and hazelnuts. Bake at 350 F until potatoes are hot and top is browned, about 30 minutes.

Tags: Holiday, Side Dish, Thanksgiving, Vegetable

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 10:32 pm and is filed under Holiday, Recipes, Side Dish, Thanksgiving. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.