Coffee-baked sweet potatoes with chili spice, crème fraîche, lime & cilantro
Coffee


Baking
I came across this idea for roasting vegetables in coffee beans while reading the January 2012 issue of Food & Wine magazine. The issue featured a recipe for Coffee-Baked Squash with Crème Fraîche by Chef René Redzepi of Noma and Daniel Patterson of Coi (whom the magazine refers to as “two of the world’s best chefs”). I took their technique and applied it to a winter root vegetable with similar characteristics: jewel yam (sweet potato). I filled a baking pan with an inexpensive bag of coffee beans, nestling in the sweet potatoes. After an hour roasting, the sweet potatoes collapsed in their skins, piping hot and tender.Cutting them open released a subtle aroma of earth and spice, with just a hint of freshly brewed coffee essence. I chose to compliment these notes with a sprinkling of smoked paprika, brown sugar, and cayenne pepper. For garnish, crème fraîche contributed a bright tang, lime zest a floral character, and cilantro a fresh, green flavor. Quantities aren’t too important here, so feel free to ad lib based on the spices and herbs in your pantry. My flavor profile was influenced by Mexican and Spanish ingredients, but you could go with curry spice (India), or woodsy rosemary and mascarpone (Italy).
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