Sweet Potato Gratin with Chipotle and Maple

2 cups heavy cream
1 Tbsp chipotle puree
1 Tbsp maple syrup
1 Tbsp cornstarch
3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced thin (use a mandoline or food processor)
3 tsp bread crumbs, separated
Salt and pepper, to taste

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the heavy cream, chipotle puree, maple syrup, and cornstarch in a small bowl. In an 8-inch square baking dish, arrange a quarter of the sweet potatoes. Season to taste with salt and pepper and pour a quarter of the cream over it. Over top of the cream, sprinkle a teaspoon of bread crumbs. Repeat with the remaining potatoes/cream/crumbs, forming 4 layers. Don’t put bread crumbs on the top layer.

Bake for 1 hour or until the cream has been absorbed and the potatoes are browned. Remove from the oven and let sit 10 minutes before serving.

(This recipe still isn’t totally right.)

Well, it’s about that time again (for those of us in the U.S.). Thanksgiving. What are you making?

I am in charge of the terrible, lovely, death-inducing broccoli, rolls, and a chipotle-maple sweet potato gratin that I haven’t really worked all the kinks out of yet. This is the base recipe up on Food Network’s website. It is wrong. My mom had this dish at Bobby Flay’s restaurant in Las Vegas, and it’s rather different than the one here. For starters, there’s no maple syrup in it. Secondly (and this is the big problem), there’s too much liquid in it. It won’t hold its shape.

A couple weeks ago, my parents and I embarked on a journey to fix this. We tried six different methods.

1) bake the sweet potato slices first (the best attempt, although still not right)
2) use evaporated milk instead of cream (this was terrible)
3) use sour cream instead of cream (curdled)
4) use ricotta instead of cream (bad texture)
5) add an egg to thicken the cream (nope)
6) salt the sweet potato slices first to get them to dry out a bit and absorb more cream (nope)

Last December, I tried making it using a bechamel sauce, but it broke in the oven. It was tasty, though- once you poured off the inch of fat floating on top.

Anyone have any ideas on how to make this work? I’ve still got a week to experiment.

I saw this product on the shelf at the store last night. It perplexed me, since a one that is not cold is scarcely a one at all.

(Seriously, individually wrapped prunes? What the hell, Sunsweet. That’s… crumbelievable.)

YAY.

Jerry McNerney wins over Richard Pombo. Take that, 2001 redistricting of California to move Pleasanton into the 11th District! Check us out with our ousting of an incumbent.

GO VOTE.