Sweet potato obsessions

It's been quite a while since I wrote on this and after a hellish month of exams (filled with much cooking procrastination) I thought it was time to write something new.  In the past few weeks I have rediscovered sweet potatoes; I am not really that into normal potatoes because of their dryness (roast potatoes the obvious exception) so I decided to try out a sweet potato recipe from my new Yotam Ottolenghi cookbook ('Plenty'). The recipe was 'Sweet potato cakes', which when being made look like a weird orange mush but then turn into these amazing crispy fritter things.  The recipe is for 4 (though I ate them all myself over a few days) with the ingredients as follows;

• 1kg sweet potatoes
• 2tspsoy sauce (I added 3)
• 100g plain flour
• tsp salt (a pinch was fine)
• 1/2 tsp caster sugar
• 3 tbsp chopped spring onion 
• 1/2 tsp chopped red chilli (I had to use flakes but it still worked well)
• Butter to fry (might do olive oil next time)

After that there is the sauce which I though was amazing (Ottolenghi says it's optional but it's really not)

• 50g Greek yoghurt (I used plain natural yoghurt which was fine, though maybe a little thin)
• 50g soured cream (I used creme fraiche)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp lemon juice 
• 1 tbsp chopped coriander 
• Season with salt and pepper 

As for the method it's pretty simple; the recipe says to first steam the chopped sweet potatoes (which I did) then leave them to drain for an hour (which I didn't). As there really didn't appear to be much liquid in them, and I was trying to minimise my revision procrastination, I just ignored that step. Whilst draining (or not) the sauce can be made by just mixing all the ingredients together in a bowl. 

The potatoes are then mixed with all the ingredients except the butter. The mix should be smooth though not over-mixed and if too sticky more flour should be added. 

When it comes to frying them, put a tablespoon of mix and flatten it down to approx 1cm thick, and 5cm diameter (I just made them however). The cakes should be cooked for 6 mins each side on a medium heat (until browned) then put in kitchen roll to soak off some of the butter. I just then ate mine with undressed rocket and the sauce. I would definitely recommend making these! For the mix I had left over I ate the patties in a tortilla wrap with the sauce, some tomatoes and a bit of feta crumbled on top. This is the reason I have no money...

I also used sweet potatoes when making fajitas with my flatmates last weekend; again we steamed the potatoes (chopped quite small) and added them to our onion and pepper fajita mix (we have a vegetarian housemate so the potatoes bulked it out well in the absence of chicken). This was eaten with a lot of homemade guacamole, home made tzatziki and home made mexican-style salsa (recipes to follow) and of course cheese (Cathedral cheddar, pretty standard). 

Finally (this has been such a long post) last night I made a sweet potato gratin from a recipe I found online http://mypantryshelf.com/2011/11/21/sweet-potato-and-bacon-gratin/ which was very nice. I did improvise a bit (as usual) but pretty much followed this recipe exactly. I underestimated the quantity of bechamel sauce so had to top the gratin mostly with creme fraiche but this worked out well. The only thing I would maybe change next time would be to reduce the amount of bacon (to maybe half the amount) or even remove it completely. That however is just me probably being weaned off meat by having a vegetarian housemate. 

Right time to get on with my final year project work...