Warm, sweet and delicious. These sweet potatoes are the best version of this side dish I have ever eaten. I mean that! French Onion Style Sweet Potatoes.
Ingredients
- 3 pound sweet potatoes, (whole and unpeeled)
- 2 pound onions (peeled and sliced)
- 8 tablespoon butter (divided) or more to taste
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- fresh ground pepper
- 1 cup marsala wine (or more to taste)
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1 cup grated parmesan cheese, grated (plus more as garnish)
Directions
Pre heat the oven to 400 degrees F. and put the potatoes into the oven on a foil-lined tray. They can be messy.
Roughly chop the onions. Melt the 3 tablespoons butter in a large skillet and add the onions to the pan along with 1 tbsp salt and some pepper. Cook the onions over low heat. This needs to be a long, slow process. Two pounds will take more than an hour to caramelize properly, depending on the onions. The moisture in onions can vary greatly.
Once the onions have caramelized and given up most of their liquid, they will begin to break down and get a bit pasty in texture. This is the time to add about ½ cup sweet Marsala wine to the pan. Use a wooden spoon scrape the bottom of the pan and break loose all the little bits that might be stuck down there. Keep stirring until the pan is nearly dry again and the onions are quite sticky.
Add another ½ cup of Marsala and repeat the whole process. I call this a “French onion” process and it will yield a mass (about 2 cups) of brilliantly flavorful onions.
When the potatoes are quite soft all the way through place them on a rack to cool. Put the rack over the baking dish because the potatoes tend to drip sweet, sticky, syrup that is a bear to clean off counters once it has dried.
As soon as the potatoes are almost cool enough to handle peel the skins off of them. If you do this while they are still quite hot it is an easy job.
Put the peeled potato into a mixing bowl along with 1‑cup chicken stock, 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese, remaining 5 tablespoons butter, about 3/4 of your “French Onion” onions, and some black pepper.
Mix these all together very well. You may use a wooden spoon to get a rustic texture with bits of onions mingled throughout the potatoes. Or you may use a food processor for a more whipped texture.
If you have worked quickly the potatoes should still be hot and ready to serve. But they also make ahead nicely and may be re-warmed in the oven. Either way, adjust your seasoning before serving. Use the last of the onions as garnish and some more Parmesan if you like.
This is a fantastic recipe. I love scallops and that sauce is amazing. I must look for these peppers.
This would probably work just as well with seared prawns.
In my fridge. By sheer coincidence, I bought my first at Whole Foods last week, at the olive bar, thought they were pretty. But it stopped there, wasn’t sure what to do with them or what they were and here you are, not only explaining, but sharing Sarah’s lovely recipe.
I suggest you make red rubber wristbands that have the initials WWPD on it to remind all of us cooks, when we doubt our moral compass, to ask ourselves.…“What Would Peppadew?”
ha ha ha ha, Sorry;)
The sauce is such a gorgeous color! I’ll have to look for those Peppadew peppers!
This is absolutely gorgeous Greg. I live in the culinary wilderness where there isn’t a peppadew in probably a hundred miles. They will go on my list of “must haves” the next time we go to a big city. Thank you and Sarah for this. I’ll also look for the peppadews stuffed with goat and cream cheese that Sarah mentioned in her comments. This will impress my fancy brother-in-law, which should be fun.
Sam
That’s not to say I won’t try this. Kudos to Sarah for a wonderful recipe and to you for your equally fantastic execution. The scope of my experience with food is really still quite narrow — the name Peppadew is vaguely familiar but I had no idea what it was. Hopefully this won’t be too hard to find …
I’m craving for scallops all of the sudden. Mmmmm…
Yah, I’m glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for the lovely compliments. I’m thrilled my recipe had an ingredient you were unfamiliar with, it seems as though you have tried it all 😉
P.s. I have found peppadews stuffed with a goat and cream cheese mixture then packed in oil at fine cheese counters, they are absolutely delicious to add to a cheese plate for parties.