A Healthy Thanksgiving Part Doux

As Dawn mentioned earlier, our goal for Thanksgiving was to make some food that some of the new mothers who are dealing with food allergy issues would be able to eat as well. My responsibility was to make the Sweet Potato Mash, or for those of you who need someone to explain the obvious, mashed sweet potatoes. Not generally the most difficult dish to make, but Dawn kept my ego in tack by convincing me that it was the key to a successful Thanksgiving. It took her a while, but she was able to convince me telling the truth by using the Pythagorean theory and a bunch of big words.

Dawn found the recipe in her vast Williams-Sonoma files. The only thing we did differently was avoid the pecans since some of the potential consumers have a few allergy concerns regarding nuts. We loved this recipe. Dawn and I both commented on how good this dish was, and how we can work it into another meal. I hope some of you will try is and enjoy it as much as we do. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! (And I apologize for the following picture, it looks more like sweet potato ice cream than it looks like the Mash)

Ingredients:
3 ½ Lbs. Sweet Potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
6 Tbs. (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
1 Tbs. thinly sliced fresh sage
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
3 Tbs. firmly packed light brown sugar
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
½ cup maple syrup
½ cup toasted chopped pecans

Directions:
Place the sweet potatoes in a large pot, add water to cover by 3 inches and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and gently cook the potatoes until they are tender when pierced with a fork, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain well in a colander. 



Fit a food mill with the disk with the smallest holes, set over the pot and pass the sweet potatoes through in batches.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the sage, cinnamon, nutmeg and brown sugar and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Pour the butter mixture over the sweet potatoes, season with salt and pepper, and stir until incorporated. Transfer the sweet potatoes to a serving bowl and cover loosely with aluminum foil.

In another small saucepan over medium heat, combine the maple syrup and pecans and heat until just warmed through. Transfer to a small serving bowl. Serve the mashed sweet potatoes immediately and pass the maple-pecan drizzle alongside. Serves 6 to 8.

Here's what our Thanksgiving meal looked like!