Sweet potatoes are one of my favorite foods, but over in France, they’re just not that popular.
Whenever I go to buy them, the greengrocer sort of laughs at me. When I bought eight for Thanksgiving, I caused a stir:
Greengrocer: “Ohh! It’s your holiday?”
Me: “Yes.”
Greengrocer: “Hey! It’s their holiday!”
Weird Teenage Assistant: “Whose holiday?”
Greengrocer: “The Americans! They’re having a holiday. Look at all the sweet potatoes!”
To which the weird teenage assistant replied a string of French sounds that mean incredulity but don’t actually form words. I’m used to it. I had to smile and accept the fact that the two of them were going to pretend to invite themselves to my party, just like all French men seem to do. I used to find it uncomfortable, but now I think it’s hilarious.
The point of this long-winded speech is that French people, in general, don’t eat sweet potatoes.
David, a fellow American ex-pat in Paris, was just talking about the same thing. The funny thing that both David and I have figured out is that as long as you trick people into not knowing what they’re eating, they eventually come around to the sweet spud.
When I made sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving (not with marshmallows, but still, with a brown sugar crust), the French people I served seemed to think it was a more appropriate dessert dish, and I have to agree: I’m used to eating sweet potatoes for dinner, but when you actually consider the ingredients in most sweet potato dishes, they sound a lot more like dessert.
This recipe, however, which I developed from this recipe for savory sweet potatoes that I posted awhile back, makes sweet potatoes into something savory. Like carrots or winter squash, they add just the right amount of sweetness.
There isn’t a real recipe for this: I just baked some sweet potatoes until they were tender, fried up some onions with salt, cayenne pepper, garlic and curry powder, and then scattered chunks of sweet potatoes topped with this mixture and some gouda cheese in a baking pan. Bake until the whole thing is bubbly and melty, and you have a sweet potato dish that even a French person could enjoy.
Note: I thought of this after, but I bet this would be good with a little bit of crumbled bacon and scallions, like potato skins back in the States. Just a thought… let me know how it comes out if you decide to try it!
