Tuesday 19 March 2013

Skinny Dipping

Patate Dolce Piccante al Forno con Salsa di Ricotta alle Agrumi
Spicy Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges & Cream Cheese Citrus Dip


Another lazy, quick and frankly delicious little snack again this evening ;-) These past 2 weeks have been filled with long 11-12 hour workdays and respectively short evenings... ugh! Getting home exhausted is no reason for me to resort to fast food or junk food- on the contrary- making a little something to eat actually helps me to relax after a long stressful day!

I love sweet potatoes and especially so in combination with strong, spicy flavors. So this evening, I decided to make some infused, spicy salt to flavor them with- and a light and tangy cream-cheese dip to compliment them. I kept them healthy by steaming them first and then roasting them in the oven rather than frying them... and in next to no time I had these delicious wedges of goodness hot, tasty and delicious and ready to enjoy!


As I already mentioned, I steamed the sweet potato for 7-8 minutes first and then drizzled it lightly with olive oil, before popping it into a pre-heated oven at 350°F for around 5 minutes... and in the meantime I quickly prepared the salt.

To make the infused salt, I used 1 tablespoon of sugar to 3 tablespoons of coarse sea salt... which will still obviously is very salty- but that element of sweetness really helps to bring out the aromas of the other herbs and spices.  I then added cumin seed, coriander seed, chili flakes, black pepper, Szechuan pepper, a little nutmeg and a little orange and lime zest... and ground everything a little finer using a mortar and pestle. So now I had my flavored salt, all I needed twas to generously sprinkle my potatoes with it and to return them to the oven for a further 10 minutes or so...

For the dip, I used the German cheese curds called "Quark", but you might like to use a low-fact Philadelphia cheese. I added a little salt and sugar to the quark, along with a good pinch of lime zest... and the combination with the spicy sweet potatoes was pretty hard to beat! Yum-ola! Something tells me you are going to love this!
 

No comments:

Post a Comment