Roasted Sweet Potato Spears with Molasses and Horseradish from @MysteryMacRae

 

My mother made candied yams a few times, when I was growing up, but as far as I remember she never made the sweet potato and marshmallow combo one often sees at holiday meals. I think the marshmallow might have turned her off. I feel certain, though, that Mom and Dad would both have loved this recipe, with its savory twist on candied yams, as much as my family and I do.

I’ve been making Roasted Sweet Potato Spears with Molasses and Horseradish since Thanksgiving 2003. But that Thanksgiving I got caught up talking and laughing on the phone with my sister Jenny and I roasted the potatoes quite a bit longer than the recipe called for. The partially caramelized spears that resulted were a revelation! Darker than the picture in the magazine, but with a terrific, dark flavor. The original recipe called for running the molasses horseradish mixture through the blender and then straining it to make a glaze. I didn’t do that. It seemed like a waste of time (not to mention messy), and a waste of horseradish.

These sweet potato spears will make you stand up and cheer. We certainly do. It wouldn’t be the holiday season without the Molasses Horseradish Sweet Potato Spear cheer.  

Roasted Sweet Potato Spears with Molasses and Horseradish

(adapted from the November 2003 issue of Gourmet)

preheat oven to 450℉ with oven rack in lower third

 

Ingredients

3 lb medium sweet potatoes, peeled

¼ cup vegetable oil

¾ teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons unsalted butter

½ teaspoon salt

⅓ cup molasses

⅓ cup bottled horseradish, including juice (straight horseradish, not creamed)

 

Directions

1.      If potatoes are longer than 6 inches, cut them in half. Cut the halves (or the whole potatoes) lengthwise into spears half an inch to an inch at their wide ends.

2.      Toss potatoes with oil and salt in a large bowl, then spread in a single layer in a large shallow baking pan (1 inch deep.) 

3.      Roast in lower third of oven, turning once or twice, until tender and beginning to caramelize, 30-35 minutes. Leave oven on.

4.      While potatoes roast, bring butter, molasses, horseradish, and salt to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring as the butter melts. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened and reduced to about ¾ cup, 10 or 15 minutes.

5.      Pour molasses horseradish mixture over roasted sweet potatoes and gently toss until coated. 

6.      Just before serving, return sweet potatoes to oven and reheat 5 minutes or so. 

Note:  Sweet potatoes can be roasted 2 hours ahead. Toss with molasses horseradish mixture and reheat before serving.

Something poisonous is coming March 1, 2022!

 

About Argyles and Arsenic – book 5 in the Highland Bookshop Mysteries:

After 93 well-lived years, Violet MacAskill is ready to simplify her life. Her eccentric solution? She’ll throw a decanting and decluttering party at her family home—a Scottish Baronial manor near the seaside town of Inversgail, Scotland. Violet sets aside everything she wants or needs, then she invites her many friends in to sip sherry and help themselves to whatever they want from all that’s left.

But a murder during Violet’s party leads to a poisonous game of cat and mouse – with the women of Yon Bonnie Books playing to win.

Available for pre-order in hardback and e-book from your locally owned independent bookstore, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. Or ask your public library to consider ordering it.

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine since 1990 and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Twitter  or Instagram.

 

 

 

 

Kalpudding or Not Your Mother's Meatloaf

Okay, here’s another weird one. Kalpudding, eh? Yet there it was, front and center in the New York Times magazine. I’ve tried Sam Sifton’s recipes before—some I’ve loved and adopted, others left me puzzled.

Since I’d never heard of this dish, I did some research online. Oh, look, there are lots of recipes for it! It’s Swedish. The word “kal” is supposed to have one of those little circle things over the “a”, so it’s pronounced “coal.” That means cabbage. But the rest of the name—the “pudding” part—is misleading, because it’s really a meat loaf with cabbage on top.

And you must keep an open mind, because the first thing you do is cook the cabbage in butter and molasses. Yes, molasses. Never would have thought of that.

Swedish Kalpudding (inspired by Sam Sifton)

2 Tblsp plus 1 tsp unsalted butter

1 head green cabbage (abt 3 lbs), cored and shredded

3 Tblsp molasses

salt and pepper, to taste

3/4 lb ground beef

3/4 lb ground pork

1 small yellow onion, peeled and chopped

1 cup heavy cream

4 Tblsp bread crumbs

1/3 cup chicken or beef stock

Instructions:

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large pan over medium-high heat, melt the butter. When it starts to foam, add the cabbage and molasses, lower the heat to medium, and sprinkle with salt. Cook slowly, stirring often, until the liquid that the cabbage produces has evaporated and the cabbage is caramelized (20-25 minutes). It should be uniformly brown (but not burnt!)

Pork and beef combined

plus dry ingredients

plus all the rest of the ingredients

 While the cabbage is cooking, mix the meats in a large bowl (do not overmix), then add the onion, cream and bread crumbs and combine loosely. Again, don’t overdo the mixing part, or you’ll end up with a brick.

When the cabbage is done, add about one-third of it to the meat mixture and mix. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan and transfer the meat mixture into it, smoothing the surface. Spread the rest of the cabbage of the top, pour the stock over it, place it in the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes, until the cabbage is very caramelized.

It came out of the pan!

Let sit for 10 minutes before serving. None of the recipes tells you whether to scoop it out or try to slice it. I sliced, but a lot of online pictures show it scooped out with a spoon. This is not a fancy dish!

Some people include rice in the mix. Others throw in spices like chili flakes (really? it’s Swedish!). Garlic is optional. Various sites suggested a traditional Swedish sauce using lingonberries, but I wasn’t ready to face molasses and lingonberries in the same dish (even though I like lingonberries). Serve it with boiled potatoes.

Do you know, I liked it. The sweetness from the molasses doesn’t hit you in the face, and it kind of rounds off the flavor of the two meats. It’s not very fussy to make, as long as you don’t mind stirring a pan of cabbage for a while. It reheats well. I might actually make it again.

Ellie Alexander's Molasses Chocolate Crinkles

We are so happy to welcome Ellie Alexander, whose new book, Caught Bread Handed (the fourth in her Bakeshop Mystery series), has just been released. Since she comes bearing cookies--with chocolate, no less--we're glad to have her here!


Thanks so much for having me on today! I’m excited to share a favorite family recipe for Molasses Chocolate Crinkles. My mom used to make these for after school treats when I was growing up and I love getting to continue the tradition with my family now. Not to mention the heavenly smell of ginger, cinnamon, and cloves filling my kitchen. 

Baking is always a nice respite from my own head, especially when I’m working on a new book. Often I’ll take a break in the afternoon and spend a couple of hours in the kitchen testing recipes. I can totally lose myself in the process of baking, and sometimes I have the best insights on characters or plot points when I’m up to my elbows in dough. However I don’t always have a ton of time between writing, hurrying to pick up my kiddo at school, and trying to get dinner on the table. One of the best things about these cookies is that they are quick and easy to bake. You can whip them out in the same amount of time it takes to make a batch of chocolate chip cookies, but these have a sweet and spicy taste thanks to the molasses and healthy amounts of chocolate chips which make them feel like an extra special treat.

I mean what’s not to love about molasses and chocolate? It’s like combining two of my favorite cookies in one! Plus, I promise that your kitchen will smell divine when you slide a batch of these beauties into the oven.

I hope you’ll give the recipe a try. Post a comment below with your favorite easy bake. Be sure to include your email as one lucky commenter will receive a signed copy of Caught Bread Handed plus an assortment of sweet teas and gourmet lemonade.

Happy reading and baking!

Ellie


Molasses Chocolate Crinkles

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
1 package chocolate chips
1/2 cup granulated sugar in extra bowl


Directions:

Cream butter, sugar and molasses together. Add egg. Then slowly incorporate dry ingredients and spices. 

Once batter is firm add chocolate chips and chill in the refrigerator for one hour. 

Spoon batter into 1-inch balls and bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Immediately roll in granulated sugar when cookies are hot from the oven.

Ellie Alexander is a Pacific Northwest native who spends ample time testing pastry recipes in her home kitchen or at one of the many famed coffeehouses nearby. When she’s not coated in flour, you’ll find her outside exploring hiking trails and trying to burn off calories consumed in the name of research.

You can find her online at:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elliealexanderauthor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BakeshopMystery

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellie_alexander/

Website: http://www.bakeshopmystery.com/

About Caught Bread Handed: 

Welcome to Torte―a friendly, small-town family bake shop where the oven is heating up as high as the body count…

Jules Capshaw is still chewing over her husband Carlos’s return to Ashland, Oregon. Could there be too many cooks in the kitchen? Whatever is stirring between those two will have to wait. Despite the Oregon Shakespeare Festival being dark for the winter, the bakeshop is bustling, the dough is rolling, and there’s no rest for the weary…especially when murder is thrown into the mix.

When Mindy Nolan, the owner of a new restaurant in town, turns up dead, the batter at hand thickens. Jules knows that there was bad blood between Mindy and others in town, and tracking down the killer could prove to be an unwelcome treat. And to top it all off, there’s Carlos, who is pleading―with those delicious dark eyes and sexy Spanish accent―for Jules to take him back. Is home where the heart is or will she make a fresh start…and risk getting burned?

Irish Molasses Bread

by Sheila Connolly

Another gem from the Irish Pub Cookbook (don’t worry—I’ll run out of new ones soon).

A word about the Irish and their bread. I’ve traveled in Ireland a number of times and visited different areas; I’ve attended Irish events in the greater Boston area, most often hosted by native-born Irish. With very few exceptions, any event ends with an cupán tae and some bread. The basic bread is arán donn, or brown bread, which appears at every meal in Ireland and a few times in between. If it’s a fancier event you get arán sióde (soda bread), which has currants or raisins in it and is sweeter. This recipe is kind of a blend between the two: it has raisins and currants, but it’s dark and not too sweet—and it goes well with tea!

In Ireland it’s rude to turn down the offer of tea and bread, so sit back and enjoy it. And don’t forget the butter!

Irish Treacle Bread

3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground ginger

10 Tblsp butter

6 Tblsp molasses

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 cup brown sugar, packed

2/3 cup currants

2/3 cup golden raisins

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and line a 9-inch loaf pan.

Sift the flour, baking soda, and spices into a bowl. Lightly rub in the butter until the mixture forms fine crumbs.

Dry ingredients with butter rubbed in

My vintage sifter--it's big!

Whisk the molasses with the eggs and the buttermilk, then stir in the sugar. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture then pour in the molasses mixture. Mix with a fork, gradually drawing in the flour from around the edges.

Add the currants and the golden raisins and mix to a soft dough. Spoon the dough into the loaf pan, leveling the surface with a wet spatula.

Bake in the preheated oven for 50-55 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and let cool for about two hours.

Serve with plenty of butter!

Coming in June: the next of the Museum Mysteries, Privy to the Dead.

What does Nell Pratt find in the privy (don't you want to know? It's not what you think!), and what does that have to do with the hit-and-run death of a man outside the building?

Available for pre-order at Amazon and Barnes & Noble