When you are doing a Kentucky cooking blog, you naturally ask yourself the question, "What tastes good with bourbon?" Various desserts are the obvious answers, and then you have meats covered with a bourbon glaze, but what about a side dish or vegetable? Since bourbon marries well with all things sugar, it works best with vegetables that sweeten up as they cook...and what sweeter vegetable than sweet potatoes? We all know how some people are "sweet" people and others are "salty", myself being the former and my mother being the latter. My sweet tooth has always made me a great fan of sweet potatoes. I have had many different versions of the dish, from simply baked with butter, to mashed and topped off with a pecan crumble (yummmm).
Most sweet potato recipies just suggest baking the potato. I think that roasting vegetables always brings out the best flavor though, so I stuck these in the oven for about 20 minutes before baking them in the sauce.
The sweet potato dish I have chosen here could, I believe, hold a candle to any sweet potato dish out there. The bourbon sauce is so delicious that I could honestly just eat it with a spoon. Ok, not very healthy. But hey, since I'm soaking a vegetable with it, it becomes healthy right? right?
5 medium sweet potatoes
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup bourbon (I used Maker's Mark)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper
whipped cream (optional)
Peel and slice sweet potatoes and cut into cubes. Spread on a baking sheet and douse with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes. After finished baking, move sweet potatoes to a baking dish. In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, bourbon, butter and vanilla and heat to a boil. Once boiling, immediately pour sauce over sweet potatoes. Put covered baking dish in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove lid and continue to cook for 10 minutes. Serve with whipped cream (optional)
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