Cardamom-Scented Whipped Sweet Potatoes

One day I read an article about Edna Lewis, a woman considered to be the "Grande Dame" of Southern cooking.  To see how she has inspired cooks and brought national attention to the joys of this food genre, click here to read an article by the Smithsonian magazine.  She was impressive, talented, classy, and gracious.  I wanted to know more about her cooking.  To that end, I was given all four of her cookbooks, which I have read in the order of publication.  

There are so many recipes I want to try.  I was fixing a dinner for a guest taster and decided that sweet potatoes would be a good choice to go with the meal.  I turned to The Gift of Southern Cooking, the last of her series, that was written with her dear friend, Scott Peacock.

ISBN 0-375-40035-4

On page 163 is the recipe for Cardamom-Scented Whipped Sweet Potatoes.  Now keep in mind that I love sweet potatoes and I love cardamom, so putting the two together just made the recipe even more tempting.

Cardamom-Scented Whipped Sweet Potatoes

6 medium-sized sweet potatoes (about 2 1/2 pounds)

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/3 - 1 cup heavy cream, heated

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

salt to taste

Let the butter come to room temperature while the potatoes are cooking.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Put the sweet potatoes on a foil-, parchment-, or Silpat-lined baking sheet, and bake in the preheated oven for about 1 1/2 hours, until very soft and tender.  Remove from the oven and cool slightly.  Peel the warm potatoes, and put them in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat the potatoes until mashed, and add the butter, 1/3 cup of the heavy cream, cardamom, nutmeg, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  Whip until smooth and creamy - you may have to add considerably more cream.  Taste carefully for seasoning, and add more salt if needed.  Serve hot.

My Notes

Medium-sized sweet potatoes were not an option at my local store, so I used two large that weighed about 2 1/2 pounds total.  I did not line my baking sheet.  The outcome was sticky goo that leaked out of the sweet potatoes while cooking.

No worries about the puddles of goo you see here.

However, this is not a problem for me.  I've baked sweet potatoes so many times that I know I just need to soak the pan in water, and the goo will dissolve.  

They were still very hot when I peeled them.  I use a fork and a small knife to do this:  the fork acts like my fingers to help pull the peel away from the hot insides.  The knife breaks the skin and cuts the interior up into chunks.

Peeled and chunked but no burned fingers.

Miss Lewis and Mr. Peacock note that sweet potatoes are fibrous and recommend putting them through a food mill if you want "perfectly smooth" whipped potatoes.  I did not do this.  I noticed that some fibers wrapped themselves around the mixer's beater, so I pulled them from the bowl and threw them away.  

Beaten until mashed

I cut the butter into chunks before adding it to the whipped potatoes.  I forgot to warm the cream, but the potatoes were so hot (steaming vigorously when being whipped) that it didn't seem to be a problem.  I used just 1/3 cup cream.  My butter was salted, so I used 1/4 teaspoon salt instead of 1/2 teaspoon.

Whipped until smooth

After the second whipping, I tasted it and deemed it "just right."  It was smooth enough, and the salt was enhancing the sweet without being salty.  The mixture went into a serving bowl, and I used a spoon to smooth and swirl the surface.

Ready to serve

The Verdict

It was lovely.  The sweet potatoes were not too sweet but just enough so to tickle my taste buds.  They were creamy and felt good on the tongue.  The cardamom was more of a sensation in my nose than a taste, which I loved.  I think the nutmeg was a background flavor, as it didn't come through as "nutmeg" but when I focused on it, I could taste it.  It was a good support for the cardamom.

My guest tasters thought what they saw was regular whipped potatoes and were surprised that they were sweet potatoes.  I had purchased the lighter-colored variety instead of the bold, orange type.  They agreed on my assessment of the flavors, describing the result as "fantastic" and "really good."  They particularly liked how creamy it was.

Success!  

I was not surprised that it was good, and appreciated that it was fantastic.  I served it with roasted turkey, stuffing, and a cucumber salad.  And white wine!  It was a good dinner.

Extra:  Reheating the leftovers seemed to taste even better.  

Bath or Bitumen - a Pinedo recipe

I finally had a batch of roscas that I wanted to decorate like it was for Rosca de Reyes.  Not a big ring as is traditional, but a batch of 16 individual rolls or buns.  Click here to see that post.

I wanted to try Miss Pinedo's recipe of Bath or Bitumen -- a sugar and egg white icing.  She offers three recipes on pages 27-8.

My Translation

I was, at first, confused by the word "betum", but then I realized it was probably meant to be "bitún", which translates to "bitumen".  That is a glaze or icing that will bathe the biscuits, which is what these recipes describe.  A "pucha" is a sweet bread from Oaxaca.

I chose to use the third recipe, "Ditto", because I could make it with only one egg white.  I felt that would be plenty of icing.  I recognize it as a version of Royal Icing, with the exception of using granulated sugar and not powdered sugar.  It is possible Miss Pinedo intended the reader to use powdered sugar, but since she did not specify it, I used regular granulated sugar.

My Redaction

1 egg white

1 pound sugar

the juice from 1/2 of a lemon

Beat the egg white until stiff, then add in the sugar gradually while still beating.  If (when!) the mixture starts seeming dry because there is so much sugar, add the lemon juice.  I did about half and then waited to see if it needed more later.  It did.

Starting to look dry

Done.  Moist, not dry.

The Verdict

Once the bitumen was done, I put some into a decorator bag while trying out various tips, just for fun.

I expected to decorate a few roscas with dried fruit, nuts, and candied pineapple, but not very many.  So I just played with the bitumen.

The first try.  The icing stuck well.

Play time!

I tasted just the bitumen.  It was sweet but gritty because of the sugar crystals.  I could taste the lemon, and it was an excellent flavor in the mix.  I had no trouble using the various tips, so the bitumen flowed out of them nicely.

The decorations are raisins, dried cranberries, dried apricots (sliced), and glacéed pineapple that I made by simmering chunks of canned pineapple in a syrup made of pineapple juice and some sugar until the chunks were translucent.  

After the roscas were decorated, they dried on the counter for a few hours.  The bitumen firmed and dried, and then I tasted a rosca.

The bitumen was a good addition to the rosca.  It made it a sweet bread, more like a dessert than a dinner roll.  The bitumen was still gritty, but that was not a textural problem.   I could have tried her technique in the first recipe, which required dissolving the sugar into the egg whites and a little water before beating the mix.

One problem I did have was that the bitumen didn't stick to the bread much after it dried.  So taking a bite through the icing and the bread meant that most of the icing fell off.  Perhaps it would have stuck better if I had smeared it on (using a feather or not!) instead of setting it on with the decorating tip.  Oh well, that made it fun to eat -- picking up the pieces of icing with my fingers as I was taking a bite of the bread.  It felt like I was a kid again.

Also, the leftover icing that went into the refrigerator softened even more, almost to the point of being fluffy.  I spread it on some cookies -- thickly! -- which was also very tasty.  The roscas that were stored in a covered container also had their bitumen soften, which was fine as it didn't fall off any more.  It was like having a thin, lemony sprinkling of sugar on top.  

Success!  

This has been an adventure, but I'm so glad it ended with a successful food item.  I would use the dough again (with the addition of the orange) to make a true ring shape for Roscas de Reyes, and I would try this bitumen recipe with powdered sugar for the decoration.  

It was fun to experience what Miss Pinedo might have done 120 years ago!

Another Rosca -- a Pinedo recipe

Miss Pinedo's recipe for Orange Roscas did not work for me -- I failed at making a tasty, fluffy bread.  Click here to see that post.

There were a variety of reasons I suspect made it fail.  I wanted to make roscas that worked, so I tried her third recipe under the Roscas section, titled "Other."  (Page 234)

My Translation

My Redaction & Notes

For the dough:

2 cups of yeast water (see note below)

4 well-beaten eggs

1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled

1 cup scalded milk (heated to about 180 degrees F then cooled to room temperature)

1 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 pounds bread flour, plus extra to use while shaping the dough

For the "smear":

1/4 cup milk

2 tablespoons sugar

And the yeast water

To make the yeast water, mix 2 cups of warm water with 1/2 cup flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, and 2 teaspoons dried yeast.  Let it proof for 1 hour in a warm location.  Stir well before adding to the dough.

Mix all dough ingredients other than the flour together in a big bowl.  Add flour one pound at a time, mixing well, then the last 1/2 pound (or so) to get a dough that is soft and sticky.  (Note that I chose bread flour this time.)

Knead well.  I used a mixer with a kneading hook and worked the dough until it was not as sticky and was holding together well.  It was still "loose" and sticky, just not as much as it was before I kneaded it.

Grease your hands with butter and use a knife or scissors to cut off chunks of dough.  From the wording in Miss Pinedo's recipe, I decided these should be individual rolls instead of a large ring.  Most of the balls of dough weighed about 5 ounces; this made 18 rolls (see "The Verdict" below).  Shape them and place them on greased baking sheets.

Let the rolls rise for about 30 to 45 minutes or until doubled.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. while they are rising.  Mix the sugar and milk well to make the smear, then let stand while the rolls rise.

When the rolls are ready, brush each gently with the smear mixture.

Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the rolls sound hollow when tapped.  At the 10 minute mark, I switched the pans top-to-bottom to help them brown evenly.

Remove from oven, place rolls on racks to cool.

The dough is nearly ready for kneading.

About 4 ounces by weight each

Five ounces by weight each

Risen and smeared 1

Risen and smeared 2

I checked them at 15 minutes by pulling the pans out of the oven then quickly taking one rosca and cutting it down the middle.  The center looked a little moist, so I decided to put the pans back in for another 5 minutes, making it 20 minutes total.

Still a tiny bit moist in the middle.

Here they are at the 20 minute mark.  Beautiful!

No cracks!

The Verdict

I cut a rosca in half and was very happy to see the delicate crumb, the good-sized and well-distributed holes, and how the center's moisture looked just right.  The roll was light, fluffy, and sprang back when lightly pressed.  The crust was even and a golden brown.

Perfectly baked.  I am astonished.

I tasted it and found it to be good.  If anything, it could have had more salt, however my guest taster (who is a salt lover) thought it was just right.  I did wish for the orange flavoring of the previous rosca; perhaps I will add orange juice and zest to this recipe if I do it again.  

One guest taster said it reminded her of brioche, and I think that assessment is spot on.  All the guest tasters enjoyed the flavor of the bread as it was, without butter or any other addition.

Success!  Now I am more convinced that a kettle cup (una taza caldera) is a pint, or 16 ounces in volume.  I've been trying to figure that out for months.  

It is not a sweet bread.  There is no sugar in the dough other than what I included in the yeast water.  Overall, I would call it a very good dinner roll, and it is also good for a sandwich.  With that in mind, I think the 5 ounce weight of dough made dinner rolls that were too big.  Three or four ounces would have been better so as not to overwhelm the eater with so much bread.  However, we felt the 5 ounce size would be good for a hamburger bun.  

I still want it to be iced and decorated, just like a Rosca de Reyes, so I decided to give that a try with a Pinedo recipe for the icing.  Come back tomorrow for that post.

Roscas de Naranjas -- a Pinedo recipe

At Christmas, I was reminded of a Mexican tradition, Día de Los Reyes; in English it is the Three Kings Day or Epiphany.  In my home, it is called Twelfth Night.

In Mexico, it often celebrated by eating a Rosca de Reyes, a King Cake.  This is a sweet bread shaped in a ring and decorated with dried and candied fruit, icing, and sometimes nuts.  

In the Pinedo cookbook on pages 233-4, she has a section labeled as "Roscas" and gives three variations for them.  None are labeled as specifically for de Reyes, and none of the recipes direct us to decorate the bread.  

I wanted to try the first recipe she listed, "Roscas de naranja", for several reasons.  First, the dough is flavored with oranges, while the others are not.  Next, it called for fifteen (15!!!) eggs.  Finally, it contains tequesquite, and I wanted to try it as a leavening agent.  Click here for the previous post with more information on tequesquite.

My Translation

Notice that she specifies using yeast as well as the tequesquite, and that the yeast is not really acting as a leavening agent.  I'm assuming it does a little and that it also adds flavor along with liquid.

I wasn't going to just toss in some dried yeast in powdered form.  Throughout the book, Miss Pinedo appears to be working with yeast in liquid form.  On page 149, she gives directions on how to make a liquid yeast in a crock to be available daily for bread making.  I decided to make a liquid yeast that was proofed before using in the dough.  

I took 1 teaspoon of dried bread yeast and mixed it into 2 cups of warm water, 2 tablespoons sugar, and 1/2 cup flour.  I left it to proof in a warm location for about 2 hours.  I stirred it well before using it in the dough.

Proofed and ready to go

My Redaction

15 eggs

the juice of 2 small oranges (1/4 cup) and the zest of one

1 cup butter, melted

1/2 pound sugar

1 1/2 cups proofed yeast 

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup settled tequesquite water

5 1/2 pounds of all purpose flour, with some extra to dust the counter while kneading

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Put eggs, juice, zest, sugar, salt, and tequesquite water into a large bowl or pan.  (I used a 6 quart kettle.)

Mix well.  Add one pound of flour.  Mix well.

Add the butter, stirring while pouring it in so it does not scramble the eggs.  Add the rest of the flour (I added it one pound at a time, mixing each batch in as I went.) and mix well to form a soft, sticky dough.

Put it onto a floured surface and knead until it forms a body that sticks to itself more than your hands, but still is somewhat sticky.

It is ready to shape and bake. 

Nearly enough flour (5 pounds here)

The ball of dough after kneading

My Notes

I wasn't sure what the right temperature was for baking this.  Modern rosca recipes suggest 400 degrees F., so I first set my oven to that.  I took a small piece of dough for a test bake.  I left it in for 13 minutes; that is when it developed a little browning on the outside.

About the size of the small orange

Baked after 13 minutes

Interior needed more time, exterior more browning

The interior looked very moist and I felt it needed more baking time.  The outside should have been browner.  So I lowered the temperature to 375 degrees F for my next test batch.

I took half of the remaining dough and shaped it into a ball.  Once it was on the baking sheet, I poked a hole in the middle with my fingers and started pulling it into a ring shape.

My goal was to get the thickness of the dough reasonably the same all around to help it bake evenly.  The dough had the tendency to pull back to a smaller ring than what I pulled it to.  I got it as best as I could and put it into the oven for 35 minutes.

It was nicely browned and sounded hollow when tapped.  I did not like the cracking on top, which I attribute to how I shaped the ball -- I didn't tuck the dough to make a smooth surface when I prepared to put it on the baking sheet.

I let it cool and then sliced it.  The interior looked damp, almost like it wasn't baked enough, although it had formed a small crumb and there were some bubbles.  The crust was fine; crispy and lightly brown.  The orange flavor came through without being too much.  It might have been better with more salt.  It is not a sweet bread, but considering how much sugar goes on it (icing and/or powdered sugar), I think that is acceptable.  

I wondered if the interior was that moist-looking because of 15 egg yolks and 1 cup of butter.  That seems like a lot of fat for bread.  

I believe the orange juice serves two purposes.  It adds flavor, but probably not as much flavor as the zest, which seemed to be the orange flavor I tasted.  But it is an acid, and I think it would react with the alkaline in the tequesquite water to make bubbles.  Perhaps I needed more tequesquite water or more orange juice to make the bread better.

The other half of the dough was also shaped into a ring.  This time I turned the dough to form a smooth top as I was making the ball.  Then I formed the ring and baked it a 350 degrees F for 45 minutes.

The top didn't crack, so I think I was right about that.  It seemed puffier, too.

But it, too, was disappointing.  The interior was a little more cooked-looking than the previous batch and it had more bubbles.  But it was still dense.  Don't get me wrong; the flavor was good as the orange came through well.  It just didn't seem like bread, or at least not the lighter, fluffy bread I was expecting.

I can't really call this a success.  I will label it as a failure.  We still saved it, though, as it wasn't so bad that I wanted to throw it out.  I sliced it into individual serving pieces and froze most of it.  It was fine to eat when heated or toasted, so I will have a sturdy bread to serve with a soup or stew.  It might do well in a bread pudding some day, too.

So where did it all go wrong?  I don't know for sure, but my sense tells me I didn't have enough tequesquite water (or strong enough water) to make all that dough rise.  I also think I could have kneaded it more.  Or I could have ignored the directions to not let it ferment and let the second batch rise.  And did it really need all those eggs?  One aspect I neglected to consider is that the eggs of yesteryear may have been a lot smaller, so I did not need that many eggs of the large size.  Maybe five would have been better.  That is just a guess.

I was not deterred.  I decided to try another of Miss Pinedo's rosca recipes.  Check back for tomorrow's post to see the results.

Tequesquite as a baking ingredient -- from the Pinedo cookbook

An interesting ingredient that appears in Encarnación Pinedo's cookbook,  El Cocinero Español, is tequesquite.  I had never heard of it when I began translating the book, so I did some reading to learn more.

Here is what she had to say on pages 264-5:

My Translation

Miss Pinedo gives several recipes that require tequesquite, listing it as just tequesquite or as "settled tequesquite water."  It is used as a leavening agent in breads, pastry dough, and a fruit-based bread pudding.  She also uses it to remove the skins of garbanzo beans before they are added to beaten eggs to make a "torta" or omelet.

Searching around the internet, I learned this from a translated article on the history of tequesquite:  https://es-us.noticias.yahoo.com/tequesquite-cu%C3%A1l-uso-cocina-110954296.html

This alkaline salt was sold in rock or ground form.  Among the many uses of tequesquite, the one that stood out was seasoning food, just as it is done with common salt today.

When adding salt to food, pre-Hispanic groups noticed that it helped to soften legumes.  From there, its use began to soften corn and bean kernels, adding the powder to the water during cooking, a use that is still given, as well as to cook herbs or nopales, since it softens them while maintaining their natural color, in addition to help their digestion.

Inside the kitchen, the discovery of the properties of tequesquite continued, as it was noted that whether in powder or mixed with water, if added to corn dough, it worked as a leavening agent, which helped the tamales and other preparations "sponged", a function similar to what baking powder does today, while, in addition to its culinary uses, tequesquite was used as a detergent in the homes of pre-Hispanic Mexico. 

This site, https://gustausted.com/2019/12/el-tequesquite-que-es/, added more information:

Tequesquite serves as yeast.  For this purpose, this decoction is prepared:  ten transparent green tomato peels and a tequesquite stone are boiled in a cup of water.  Once the latter is broken up and the water has come to a boil, it is removed from the heat and allowed to settle.  When it cools, it is strained and that little water is added to any dough to make it fluffy.  In the center of the country it is customary to add it to the dough for tamales.

I was concerned about making the mixture with tomato peels, as Miss Pinedo did not discuss that at all.  I appreciated the reference to allowing it to "settle", as that matched with her words.  

I kept looking, and then I came across video food blogger Max Miller, where he shows how to make tequesquite water here:  https://youtu.be/NPxjQetKPoo?t=298.  To quote from the video:  "Use 1 tablespoon of tequesquite powder and pour over 1/2 cup boiling water.  Let it settle, let it cool, and then skim off the water, leaving the rocks on the bottom behind."

So I was convinced that I did not need the tomato peels.  I was also curious about what, exactly, was in tequesquite, and I found this information from a science article analyzing tequesquite composition:  https://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0188-62662016000500031

From its introduction:

In former Lake Texcoco basin, salinity of natural water outcrops can reach up to 80 g/L to 90 g/L in the dry season, so salt crusts covering extended areas can be observed.  These crusts are called tequesquite (from nahautl tetl: stone, and quixquitl: sprout, sprouting stone), a mineral complex that has been used in Mexico since pre-Columbian times to cook and flavor foods like corn, cactus pads (nopal), and beans.  Nowadays it is still commercialized in some local and regional markets as little stones.  Importance of tequesquite in other parts of ancient Mexico is mentioned by Williams (2010), in Lake Cuitzeo margins, where this mineral was also collected and commerce for human consume [sic].

 Tequesquite is an amorphous and solid material, crystallized or in powder form, that depicts varying colors ranging from white to dark-grey, depending on the degree of purity and clay content.  It is classified in five categories with the following local denominations:  confitillo, cascarilla, espumillo, polvillo, and dark tequesquite, depending on the collecting season and place of origin.

The article presenting a chemical analysis: 

And gave us a discussion of the results:

Traditional use of tequesquite in Mexico is mainly in food cooking, after its solubilization in water to eliminate clays, sand and other impurities that could negatively affect the quality of the processed food.  ... [T]equesquite's solution contributes with sodium and potassium ions, responsible of salt taste otherwise added as NaCl during cooking.  Concentration of bicarbonate and carbonate and high pH value (related to NaOH and KOH content), act as softener of hard seeds and cactus and help to preserve a vivid green color in vegetables.

Presence of NaCl and Na2CO3 in tequesquite samples agrees with incomplete composition reported previously and explains (at least partially) the reason for its culinary use in Mexico.  As is show, no toxic elements were detected that could question culinary use of this saline complex.

I was pleased to see that I didn't have to consider toxic elements.  

One day I found tequesquite for sale in a local Mexican market.

At this point, I had not read much on the ratio of powder to water, but I did try to make some settled tequesquite water.  First I mixed water and powder together (sorry, I didn't really measure the amount of powder).  I used 16 ounces of water and several large spoonfuls of powder.

Once I had stirred it and felt that something had dissolved into the water, I strained the mixture.  My goal was to decant the liquid and leave the chunks behind, which I did with good success.

The floaties that were strained out.

The chunks that were left behind

So now I had tequesquite water, but I needed to let it settle.

Unsettled water

I did not know when I would use it, so I labeled the container and left it, mostly undisturbed, in a cupboard for a long time.

Settled.  See the grey at the bottom?

Of course, I had to taste it.  It was not salty, as I expected, but only mildly so.  Mostly I tasted what I think of as alkaline water.  It was strong but not off-putting.  The taste was not appealing, but it was not awful, either.

I had no idea if it was strong enough to do the job.  What amount would go into a recipe?  I found one recipe on the internet that gave me an idea:  https://www.mexicanrecipes.me/SantaRitaEmpanadas.htm

I suspect my mixture was not considered strong enough, but there was only one way to find out.  I needed to make something!  See the next post for that experiment.