This may not be a rush-home-from-work-and-feed-the-family kind of dish, but perfect for entertaining and a different way of eating sweet potatoes. I’ve got to give Emeril the credit for the idea but I’m not a fan of stealing recipes… so this is all a lovely experiment on a low budget.
Start by cooking a sweet potato in the microwave till tender. If you’re anti-microwave, 45-60 minutes in the oven will do just fine. Go ahead and preheat your oven to about 350*.
Remove the skin and set the remains in a bowl.
I’ll tell you what I put in mine, but feel free to use your creativity (or whatever you have in your cabinets). I happened to have a 1/2 of an old banana which worked really well for natural sweetness and texture. I also used cinnamon, a tiny bit of ginger, nutmeg, some salt, honey, and a tablespoon of butter. Feel free to use olive oil if you prefer.
Whip it. Whip it good.
If you want it to be pretty, put it in a pastry bag or Ziploc. If you have neither or don’t care, skip this step.
Now, I used clementines for this recipe because that’s all I had. If you want big servings, use an appropriate size orange. Cut the oranges in half and scoop out the innards, careful not to damage the outside. Put the halved peels in cupcake tins so they don’t tip over in the oven. Squeeze the juices from the oranges into the sweet potato mixture and whip again. If you’re using big oranges, you probably won’t need more than about 2 for each sweet potato you’re using. I used 6 small clementines for one potato.
Then fill each orange cup with the whipped sweet potatoes.
No comments about how this looks like poop, ok? Stick these in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes.
In the meantime, you’re going to make a sauce that goes on top of these little guys. In a pan, bring to a boil either the extra juice from your orange guts or orange juice from the fridge. Use your creativity here too. If you have brandy, stick a shot in there. If you’d like it to be more like syrup, add a bit of sugar or honey. Add some cinnamon, ginger and a little butter if you prefer. Careful, this can get really unhealthy really quick! You don’t need much, just enough for a spoonful on top of each orange.
Now, take the oranges out of the oven and pour a spoonful on top of each one. Try to cover as much of the sweet potato surface as possible. Put it back on the oven on broil until the tops become a little darkened or you start to smell the sugar in the oven. This will only take about 2-5 minutes.
Carefully remove the orange from the tin and with a spoon, get some of that gooey goodness that was cooked with it in the pan. Drizzle over the top. Eat as an appetizer or side dish. I personally recommend letting it cool for a few minutes and eating it with your hands, using the orange sort of like an oyster shell. Yum!
6 Clementines – $.95
Sweet Potato -$1.11
Sugar, spices & oil – ~$.15
12 Baked clementines: $2.21
1 Serving: $.18
Love this. Yum!