Sweet potatoes
California's sweet potatoes are dug in September and October, most of them in the Central Valley around Merced, then stored through the winter. The new crop is on shelves now. It's the basket's filling one: a starch that keeps for weeks and makes a dinner on its own.
How to choose it
- Firm from end to end, with no soft or wet tips
- Smooth skin, no sprouts or wrinkling
- Medium and evenly shaped, so they cook at one speed
- Orange-fleshed (garnet or jewel) for roasting
Buy this much: 2 for the pork's sheet pan, 4 for the two sweet-potato dinners — only what the dishes you pick call for.
Cheap now, and cheaper loose by the pound than in bags.
During the week
- Baked until the sugar runs, filled with beans and ajvar
- Cubed and roasted beside pork tenderloin
- Leftover, cubed, crisped in a skillet with an egg
- Cold, with a squeeze of lime
On a weekend
Bake two extra while the oven's on for the weekend dish. They're Monday's dinner.
One thing worth learning
A baked sweet potato is done well after it's merely soft. Keep going — an hour at 400°F — until the skin puffs away from the flesh and syrup starts to bead out and caramelize on the pan. That's the starch turning to sugar, and it's the difference between a side and a meal.