Weekly Dish

(Oscar Night Dish #2: more cheesy humor)

When I planned our Oscar-night menu, little did I know that each of my dishes would end up representing a category winner! The Crash martini, of course, is a nod to the best picture. David and I both thought the film was really excellent, but we were surprised that it beat out the other nominees. How I love an underdog.
These sweet potatoes are named for the other big suprise of the evening: Three-6-Mafia’s “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” which won best original song. (Maybe it wasn’t such a surprise to other people? We just had a hard time visualizing the Academy members voting for gansta rappers. I guess we were wrong!)

Actually, the other thing I was thinking about when I named these was that MTV show, Pimp My Ride. I’ve never seen a whole episode, but some of my students are big fans, so I hear about it. The metaphor is apt, anyway: for this dish, you take plain-jane roasted potatoes, dress them in a glistening, garlic-tinged orange-scented glaze, and they go from tuber-next-door to ghetto fabulous side dish in no time flat. (And now is the time that I refrain from using the phrase bling-bling because I fear that I am getting way too into this whole thing. If only you could see me in my tiara.)

Here’s the recipe:

Pimp’d Out Sweet Potatoes
(or Orange Glazed Sweet Potatoes, if you prefer. Can you imagine ordering these at a restaurant? Ha!)

4 small or 2 large sweet potatoes, diced
Olive oil to coat
Kosher salt
1 clove garlic
1 T. butter
Zest of half an orange
1 T. orange marmalade
1 T. cider vinegar
1 1/2 T. cane syrup or molasses
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Toss the potatoes with enough olive oil to coat, and lay them in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle liberally with Kosher salt. Roast for about 30-35 minutes, stirring once about halfway through. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small skillet. Fry the garlic and orange zest until very fragrant and golden brown. Add the marmalade, vinegar, and syrup; cook over medium-low until very thick and syrupy. Take the potatoes out of the oven and pour the glaze over them, turning to coat as many as you can. Put them back into the oven and cook for another 5 minutes. This last step can be done at the last minute, when everything else you’re making is ready.

These potatoes are my contribution to this weeks ARF/5-a-Day Tuesdays over at Sweetnicks.

Posted: Tuesday, March 7th, 2006 at 2:13 pm Filed under: On the Side, Party Food, Vegetables. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.