Harmony Valley Farm: October 13, 2022 - This Week's Box Contents Featuring Sweet Potatoes

Ok, here we go with another week of eating out of the box! This week we’re FINALLY ready to send sweet potatoes your way! It’s always hard to choose just one or two recipes for sweet potatoes as there are so many ways to prepare them! This week I’ve featured a recipe for Coconut Milk Braised Black Pepper Chicken with Sweet Potatoes (See Below). This is a recipe I tried last winter and found it to be not only delicious, but also super easy to make. I also included a link to one of my all-time favorite recipes for Sweet Potato Kim Chi Pancakes.

This week’s potato selection is the German Butterball potato. This variety is similar to a Yukon Gold potato. It’s a moist, waxy gold potato with gold skin. I like to use this potato to make Crushed Potatoes with Cream & Garlic. I also came across this recipe for German Butterball Potatoes & Caramelized Onion Tarts, which looks quite tasty.

For some reason I’ve been on a shredding kick this week. I’ve been shredding carrots, broccoli stems, sunchokes, potatoes. Having some shredded vegetables, such as carrots, prepared in advance is really nice for making quick salads, but shredded vegetables cook really quickly too. I’ve been using shredded potatoes and broccoli stems in scrambled eggs and soups, but you could also mix them into meatballs, pasta dishes, etc. Anything to save a little time in the day! On that note, check out this article entitled 14 Shredded Carrot Recipes That Will Have You Craving Seconds. I’ll also be making these Quinoa Carrot Breakfast Cookies with some of the shredded carrots I have in my refrigerator right now!

This week’s box includes a beautiful head of escarole. If you are not familiar with this vegetable or are not sure what to use it for this week, check out our 2021 Vegetable Feature article about Escarole (October 21, 2021). I also included two links to recipes we’ve featured in past newsletters. The first is for White Bean & Escarole Pizza. The second recipe for Italian Wedding Soup is a classic way escarole is prepared.

We’re supposed to see some chilly nights and mornings over the next week with temperatures dipping down into the 20’s. This is great news for the Brussels sprouts still in the field as the cold will only make them sweeter! Just a few more weeks and you’ll see those in your box. We also have some gorgeous tat soi rosettes coming your way later this month or early into November. They are a rich, dark, deep color and just have “that look” of something that is going to make you feel good! Of course, we also have baby ginger to look forward to!

I hope you have a fabulous week!

Chef Andrea

Vegetable Feature: Sweet Potatoes

by Andrea Yoder

This week we are featuring sweet potatoes, which are actually a tropical vegetable. Why would we, in the upper Midwest, attempt to grow a tropical vegetable? Well, we like a good growing challenge, but beyond that sweet potatoes have proven over the years to be a favorite vegetable for many CSA members and are an important part of our fall and winter diets. Sweet potatoes are a member of the Morning Glory family, not the ‘Potato’ family also known as the Solanaceae family. Sweet potatoes are less starchy and more sweet and moist than a regular potato. Although often confused, sweet potatoes and yams are not related.

We have a rule around here that you don’t eat sweet potatoes for at least 10 days to 2 weeks after they are harvested. When first harvested the potatoes are starchy, not very sweet or tasty, and the skins are very tender requiring careful handling. Sweet potatoes aren’t truly sweet potatoes until we “cure them.” Curing is a process by which we hold the sweet potatoes at high heat and high humidity for 7-10 days, basically it’s kind of like a sauna for sweet potatoes! During this time, the starches in the potatoes are converted to sugars and the skins become more stable for long term storage.

Sweet potatoes are very versatile in their use, which is a good thing since they will be a staple vegetable in our diets for the next 4-6 months! You can simply bake sweet potatoes whole until fork tender and eat the flesh right out of the skin. They are also delicious cut into bite-sized pieces and roasted or cut them into wedges or thin slices and make roasted fries or chips. If you’re going to do this, it’s best to put the wedges or slices of sweet potatoes on a rack in a pan. This allows the air and heat from the oven to circulate on all sides of the sweet potato making it more crispy and less soggy. Sweet potatoes also make delicious, hearty soups, stews, and curries. They may be added to chili, shredded, and fried like hash browns, or just simply cook and mash or puree them.

Sweet potatoes can also be incorporated into sweet preparations. Sweet potato pie is a traditional way to incorporate sweet potatoes into dessert. You can also use sweet potatoes to make biscuits, rolls, quick breads, muffins, cookies, bars, cheesecake and more!

Sweet potatoes pair well with a wide variety of ingredients, which is part of what makes them so versatile in their uses. They pair very well with fall fruits such as apples, pears, citrus and pomegranates. They also pair well with other vegetables including a variety of root vegetables; greens such as escarole, radicchio & kale; Brussels sprouts and dried beans. They also go very well with coconut, ginger, chiles, butter, cream, maple, nuts of any kind and Bourbon.

Sweet potatoes are a nutrient dense food that provide an excellent source of vitamin A (in the form of beta-carotene), a very good source of vitamin C and manganese, and a good source of copper, dietary fiber, vitamin B6, potassium and iron. They also contain high amounts of antioxidants that boost immunity and aid with brain function.

If stored properly you can eat sweet potatoes all winter! The ideal storage temperature for sweet potatoes is 55-65°F. They can get chill injury with prolonged storage at temperatures below 55°F, so if you don’t have the perfect location to store them at their ideal temperature, it’s better to store them on the countertop in your kitchen instead of putting them in the refrigerator.

Coconut Milk Braised Black Pepper Chicken with Sweet Potatoes

Yield: 6 servings

2 pounds boneless, skinless, chicken thighs or breasts, cut into 2-inch chunks

Photo from www.halfbakedharvest.com

1 Tbsp ground turmeric

1 Tbsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp black pepper

Kosher salt, to taste

3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2-3 sweet peppers, sliced

2 medium shallots or onions, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

½ tsp chili flakes, or more if desired

2 cups cubed sweet potatoes

2 cans (14-ounce) full-fat coconut milk

2 Tbsp fish sauce or soy sauce

½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Steamed Rice, for serving

½ cup Thai basil leaves (optional)

2 limes

Roasted peanuts, chopped

Toss the chicken with the turmeric, ginger, cumin, pepper, a pinch of salt, and 1 Tbsp oil. Let set 5 minutes or up to overnight in the fridge.
Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a large Dutch oven set over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and sear on both sides until browned, about 2 minutes. Pull the chicken out of the pan.
To the pot, add 1 Tbsp olive oil, the peppers, shallot or onions, garlic, and chili flakes, cook 3 minutes. Then toss in the sweet potatoes and reduce the heat to low. Pour in the coconut milk and fish or soy sauce. Slide the chicken and any juices on the plate into the milk. Cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and the sweet potatoes are tender. If the sauce is too thick, add a splash of water. Stir in the cilantro and season with salt.
Divide rice between bowls, then spoon the chicken and sauce over the rice. Top with basil, peanuts, and lime juice.

Recipe sourced from www.halfbakedharvest.com.

Wednesday, October 12, 2022

October 13, 2022 - This Week's Box Contents Featuring Sweet Potatoes

Cooking With This Week's Box

Vegetable Feature: Sweet Potatoes

Coconut Milk Braised Black Pepper Chicken with Sweet Potatoes

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