It is a great tasting dish, and very elegant in its appearance, but I am not sure what to serve it with. I was offered it with roasted lamb chops, and I served it with duck breasts – it went ok, but somewhat without mutual compatibility. I served it with moroccan chicken, people were very happy, but i am not sure whether the synergy of the two made a difference or just two exquisite dishes..
The result is sweet, delicate; the pecan finish is superb.
And Wojtek loves it with anything
Quantities below will serves 6 hungry people.
- 1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
- 1/2 cup pecans (enough to loosely cover the surface of the baking dish)
- 2 tbsp of chilled butter, cut into small pieces (option, probably decadent)
- 3 pounds red-skinned sweet potatoes (yams), peeled, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ tbsp pure maple syrup
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tsp salt
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Mix sugar, pecans and butter in small bowl.
- Cover and chill until ready to use. (Can be made up to 2 days ahead. Keep refrigerated.)
- Cook sweet potatoes in large pot of boiling salted water until very tender, about 12 minutes. Drain.
- Let stand in colander 15 minutes. Purée sweet potatoes in processor.
- Butter glass baking dish. Select one that will easily hold the 1 ½ volume of the mashed substance
- Beat eggs, syrup, vanilla, lemon juice and salt in large bowl.
- Mix in puréed sweet potatoes. Transfer sweet potato mixture to prepared dish.
- Sprinkle butter/sugar topping evenly over mixture.
- Place pecans on top, distributing them evenly across the whole surface.
- Bake until sweet potato mixture is set and topping bubbles, about 45 min.
- Let stand 15 minutes and serve.