Post Partly Arty Party Post.
As promised in my last update, here are some recipes from my party last week (which was, as they say, a great success). I’ve already posted my recipe for carrot cake cookies, several platters of which were quickly devoured, and the foccacia recipe that I used is pretty much the same as the one for pizza dough, albeit with a bit of topping variation (olive oil, rosemary, sea salt, olives), but the real standout is my sweet potato something-or-others, which fall somewhere along the lightly-fried samosa/ravioli/pierogie/dumpling axis, and offer a delightfully cross-cultural blend of sweet and savory. These are only a little labor-intensive, but fortunately I had a couple of helpful housemates to assist me in the filling of wonton skins (not “wanton”, as our local chinese restaurant would have us believe (as tempting as that sounds). I make a batch of these every chance I get, but I’ve yet to remember to take a picture to serve as a lasting testament to their glory. Instead, here is a shot of the banana-split pudding brownies (a slightly modified recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance) that I made a couple days ago, which, when served with a scoop of vanilla (soy) ice cream, are a pleasant treat for a 96-degree Somerville summer black-out.
Ingredients:
- Wonton skins (or homemade dough)*
- 3 large sweet potatoes
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
- 1 sweet onion, diced
- 1 tsp. garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup maple syrup**
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 tsp. garam masala
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. chipotle chili powder
Equipment: Pot, pans, spatula.
Music: Max Power and the Damn Straights - Warning!
Instructions:
- Peel and chop the sweet potatoes and boil them in a medium-sized pot over high heat until they become soft.
- Saute the garlic and onion in a frying pan with a little oil. Reduce the heat and add the spices and cranberries.
- Drain the sweet potatoes, mash them slightly, and add them to the frying pan, mixing everything together.
- Add maple syrup and brown sugar. Add salt, pepper, and additional spices as needed.
- Remove the filling mixture from the stovetop and set aside to cool.
- Place a spoonful of the mixture in the center of each of the wonton skins/dough squares. Fold the squares over into triangles and seal the edges with a little water.
- Heat 1/4-1/2″ of vegetable oil in a frying pan on med/high. Cook the triangles in batches until crispy and light brown on both sides. Drain the excess oil and serve.
I like to make these spicy, but you can adjust the amount of pepper downward if you desire. Alternately, the spiciness can be ameliorated somewhat by serving them with a soy yogurt dipping sauce, which can be thrown together quickly by simply combining 1 cup of vanilla soy yogurt, 2 tsp. lime juice, and 1 tsp. chopped mint leaves.
* To make your own dough, just combine flour and water in a bowl at a roughly 2:1 ratio with a little salt for flavor. Mix it with your hands and then roll it out onto a floured surface until it’s about 1/8″ thick, then cut it into squares.
** Don’t let me catch you trying to use any of that “breakfast syrup” garbage.
