San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Orange & date butter dresses up sweet potatoes
A hint of heat and the caramelly goodness of date bites take a reliable side dish to the next level
This might or might not be a very nice side vegetable for a certain holiday coming up, but it also just might be my new favorite way to eat a sweet potato. Regardless of the reason, I’m sharing it with you.
The idea for this spicy date butter came from an old book I have on California cookery that’s literally just called “California.” There’s a section on sauces and relishes that’s a mix of flamboyant recipe titles like Flaming Raisin Sauce and Miracle Mushroom Sauce to some classic French sauces to some tasty sounding ones like Spicy Date Butter, which is essentially butter with flavorings — a compound butter.
The recipe in the book calls for mostly dates in the mixture, which would be very sweet but inspiring nonetheless. The direction I go in for this week’s recipe is mostly savory butter, which is chewy sweet date bites that melt into the potato and are contrasted by crunchy pecans, spice and shallot.
It all starts with the sweet potatoes. I take the sweet potatoes, make small slits in them so they cook a little faster but mostly so they don’t explode while roasting, which can actually happen from the buildup of sweet steamy potato pressure inside. I find that it’s always nice to maximize your roasting while using the oven, so I cook a few orange slices along with the potatoes. It’s not really about adding their perfume to potatoes, but rather as the orange roasts, its thin edges char and caramelize, making a really fruity and slightly crunchy addition to the spicy date butter.
By the way, that spicy date butter isn’t that spicy. It’s not going to scorch. Besides some chile flakes and smoked paprika, its warming spices of cinnamon and nutmeg remind me a teeny-tiny bit of sweet potato casserole. At the end of the day, it’s a baked sweet potato and this is a good thing.
That sweet potato, often incorrectly called a yam (the disrespect to yams!) is like an Uber XL and comfort combined for flavor here. It’s more than just a “vehicle for flavor” but rather a roomy and plush ride for the spicy date butter.
Besides oranges, spices and actual butter, there are chopped dates, which are in their peak harvest time right now in Southern California. They give a caramel-like chewy sweetness that works really well with the spices. Some shallots tossed and lightly pickled in Sherry vinegar make me think of Spain and how most likely it was the Spanish through their California Missions that brought dates to California.
When the potatoes are finally done cooking and the spicy date butter is ready, I slice the still-warm potatoes open, fluff up the soft, almost flaky orange flesh with a fork, and then slather that butter pretty much everywhere so it melts into all the nooks, crannies and every bite.