Sweet Potato & Chevre Gratin

Cool weather is here and what better way to help heat the house than to bake something! Colder temperatures also mean that the flavor of certain vegetables, such as sweet potatoes and yams. The plant, when faced with dropping temperatures, starts to convert the natural starches into sugars so it can survive. What does that mean? It means fall time is the best time to eat these tubers.

This side dish is perfect for any occasion, especially right around Thanksgiving. Now, sweet potatoes and yams are interchangeable but they do have some differences. Most yams will have a little more water content than their close cousins. Yams are better to mash up but will work in a this sort of application. But “Jeweled” or “”Garnet” sweet potatoes are what are most common, although I’m sure your local farmer could help you decide.

SWEET POTATO & CHEVRE GRATIN

4 Large Sweet Potatoes

1 Pint Heavy Whipping Cream

7 Ounces Goat Cheese

Heat oven to 375. Peel and slice the sweet potatoes using a mandolin, making sure that cuts are uniform. I find it easier to make “coins” rather than trying to cut the veggies lengthwise. Using a 7″ by 10″ baking dish, layer sweet potatoes with cream and crumbled goat cheese. I like to season every other layer with salt and pepper so that the dish is flavorful but not over seasoned. Potatoes should be covered in cream but not swimming, they have water that will cook out during baking.

Bake uncovered until gratin is easily pierced with a knife, about 45 minutes.

Thanksgiving 2015

We had the honor and pleasure of cooking Thanksgiving again this year for a really great family.

I bought a local turkey as I did last year from Long Shadow Farm in Berthoud, CO. Unlike last year when I arrived at the farm to find a woman seated at a desk in the garage near a large refrigerator distributing chilled birds to anyone who had pre-ordered, this year I walked into a slaughtering/de-feathering/cleaning of turkeys small-scale processing line that I was not expecting at all. Our bird hadn’t even been chilled as she had been slaughtered just a few hours prior to pickup. Talk about having a real understanding of where our food comes from! I have that image seared into my memory… and will spare you the few photos I took.

We’re very fortunate to purchase such a quality turkey, so it’s extra important to me to serve it with all made from scratch accompaniments and sides.

I made the caramelized onion gravy base on Tuesday night. I’ve been making this gravy for more than ten years now, and each year I think it tastes better than the last. The butter and onions cooked low and slow for six hours. Six. Hours.

I started with a full pot and snapped a photo every couple of hours…

…until I couldn’t resist spooning it into my mouth.

Wednesday I made my pumpkin pie, but failed to snap a photo. I also made a cranberry sauce with roasted shallots and mandarin zest.

Thursday, Chef and I cooked the rest of the meal on site in their Boulder home. The beautiful bird went into the 325 degree oven after being rubbed with butter and herbs. She amazingly and somewhat surprisingly appeared done after just under two hours. That was a fast cooker!

I put together a wild rice stuffing while Sean made a sweet potato and chevre gratin, which has now become a Thanksgiving tradition for this family.

The ingredients in this dish are simply sinful- The health benefits of sweet potatoes are far outnumbered by the cheese and heavy cream combo. But, that’s what makes it so GOOD too!

While the gratin baked, Sean worked on maple glazed carrots in a cast iron skillet.

Next, he assembled green beans in shallot butter topped with fried shallots.

We added the pan juices to the gravy base, carved the bird,

And set up a small buffet for them.

We can’t wait until next year!

Local Turkey makes for a Bolder Thanksgiving

We LOVE sourcing local ingredients, and are so excited to have reserved a turkey with Long Shadow Farm in Berthoud, CO. We had one last year and it was phenomenal! Serving a fresh bird that had never been frozen was an absolute highlight to the gorgeous meal Sean and I prepared for some clients and their family. We can’t wait to do it again!

There’s a very limited supply of birds, so reserve one now.

Caramelized Onion Gravy

Three pounds of yellow onions really break down to be not too much after 1.5 hours of caramelization. But, all that time spent stirring and checking on them is worth it. Trust me.

Every year for my Thanksgiving gravy base, I hang by the stove, diligently stirring a pot of gold.  The onions will turn into a beautiful pot of gold if done correctly, and it takes so much time, this pot is as valuable, time-wise, as a pot of gold.  I suggest you give it a try.  You can also scale this down for smaller meals and use it as your secret weapon gravy base.

This year I started with 3 pounds of thinly sliced locally grown Colorado sweet yellow onions. I put them in a 4 quart stock pot, knowing they’d end up as a splash in the pan once caramelization took over.  Start with the heat up at medium-high and add two sticks of butter.  Let this start to sizzle. You want to hear it doing something.

Give it a stir every few minutes and let the butter melt. Then, turn down the heat to medium and keep coming back and stirring… and stirring… and stirring.

This is going to take some time, so plan to spend over an hour in the kitchen. Multi-task if you can because it really is a long time to spend looking over one single pot.

There eventually comes a time I call a “crucial moment” in the caramelization process because if you get bored and leave, your onions are going to burn. Trust me. As they turn into golden brown deliciousness, start stirring them more frequently. They’ll eventually be a gorgeous pot of gold. So get them off the heat.

Next, stir in 1/4 cup honey, 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, a couple teaspoons of fresh thyme and a teaspoon of minced fresh rosemary.  Mix everything really well and taste it to be sure the vinegar cuts through the fat from the butter. You might find that it needs a little more vinegar and a dash of salt.  But, remember that this is just the base for your gravy, so all of those flavorful pan drippings are going to add a rich complexity to this somewhat straightforward caramelized onion base. This can be made in advance, refrigerated, and put on the stove with pan drippings when you’re getting ready to serve the bird.

Enjoy in moderation!