Sweet potatoes and yams come in a variety of colors and sweetness. They are very healthy, loaded with antioxidents and many are so sweet when baked, there is very little to add.

Sweet Potatoe Puree   

This is a wonderful recipe I developed while preparing for the CMC exam. It's great to serve with duck, goose or poultry and can be piped into shapes with cookie cutters to build a beautiful platter. The brown butter & reduced poached pear juice is especially delicious.

I serve this for Thanksgiving every year... it's so good.

Prep Time: 45 min

Cooking Time: 15 min  

Ingredients

Yield: 10 portions                                                                                                                     

6 ea.           Sweet potatoes, skin on, washed well                                                                   

3 ea.           Pears, peeled and diced                                                               

1 pt.            Apple cider                                                                                                 

2 Tbsp      Honey       

4 oz           Butter, browned                                                                          

1/4 tsp.    Chinese Five Spice                           

1 Tbsp.    Cognac                                                                                         

t.t.            Salt & Pepper                                             

How to prepare Sweet Potato Puree

Step 1

Simmer the diced pears in cider until tender, cool and strain; reduce the cider to 1/2 cup & reserve.                     

Step 2

While the pears are cooking, bake the sweet potatoes until tender, peel and discard the skin, pass the sweet potato through a sieve, fold in the remaining ingredients and taste, adjust seasoning to your test.

If you prefer, simply split the baked, sweet potato and enjoy as is or with butter melted on top.                             

Step 3      

Place the sweet potato puree into a casserole and heat in the oven. Can be made a day ahead.

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