Friday, 14 October 2011

Sluttishly Vegetarian: Sweet Potato Rosti

This is a nice wintery side dish and feels a little bit more sophisticated than chips. Don't let it fool you though, it's just as crisp and salty and delicious, it just has a fancy name. Of course you can use ordinary potatoes if you like, but I'd probably skip the cinnamon in that case.


For your rostis to be golden and crunchy, they're best made one at a time and scoffed straight away. But I also sometimes crisp them in the pan and then put them on a baking sheet ready to reheat for 10 mins at 180c / gas 4.

This recipe involves a lot of grating. If you have a food processor, save yourself the effort and use the grating plate. If you don't, watch your fingers! No-one likes a bloody rosti (especially not a vegetarian).

Sweet Potato Rosti (serves 2 as a side)

You'll need:

  • 1 large sweet potato
  • Vegetable oil
  • Salt & pepper
  • Pinch of cinnamon (optional)
Make it!
  • Peel and grate the sweet potato. Try to get nice long strands of potato rather than little stubby bits.
  • Toss the potato shreds together with a good dose of salt and pepper, plus the cinnamon if you're using it.
  • Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan until it shimmers.
  • Put heaped dessertspoonfuls of potato in the pan and squash them down firmly. You can use those fancy chef rings or a (metal) cookie cutter to help them keep their shape, but I did mine freeform. 
  • When they're starting to brown at the edges, flip them over very carefully and brown the other side.
  • Scoff or remove to a baking tray for reheating, whichever you prefer.

4 comments:

  1. If you are not vegertarian I think these would go really well with some pork. Like knuckle of pork (is that a cut?) all falling of the bone. I am going to try these soon as they may convert my mister to sweet potato.

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  2. Do these go all watery like normal potatoes do? I always have trouble with them being too wet.

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  3. I made some similar potato pancakes the other day, the recipe I used said to squeeze the grated potato and collect the water in a bowl. Loads of water came out! After a few minutes, the starch separates from the water. Por the water away then re-add the starch to the grated potato. This makes the potato cakes really crispy! I'm not sure sweet potato would be as starcy though, but squeezinbg out the water would probably make the cakes nice and crispy.

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  4. How much oil did you fry these in? I used just a little in the bottom of a pan but they fell apart - still delicious though, the sweet potato/cinnamon combo is one I never would have thought of on my own. I had them on the side of a sausage casserole :-)

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