Baked sweet potato and pecan salad

This is a robust and fit for chilly autumn kind of salad; with the slow baked sweet potato and feta. The crunchy toasted pecans, zingy lime dressing and crisp spinach leaves lift it and prevent it from being too stodgy. There is also a real fusion of new flavours in this salad. I used to think pinenuts were the only nuts worth pairing with sweet potato, but since they accidentally shared a moment with toasted pecans here I don't think I'll ever look back.

Having said that, pine nuts probably work better with it as a summer salad dish, when the potatoes have been boiled in honey water and toasted on the BBQ afterwards, where as baking it with crunchy salty, sweet pecans gives it a suprising contrast and depth of flavour. Unique and, most importantly tastes amazing.

Ingredients:
4 medium sized sweet potatoes
150g / 5 oz pecans
200g/ 7 oz feta
250 / 9 oz baby spinach leaves
3 tbsp golden syrup
4 limes
2 garlic cloves
1 thumb sized piece of ginger
100ml of good vegetable stock
5 tbsp olive oil
2 tsps brown sugar
Sea Salt and black pepper for seasoning

Pre-heat the oven to 180 Degrees C, Gas mark 4. Peel and finely chop the garlic and the ginger.

Get a small pan on the hob and squeeze in the 4 limes and golden syrup. Place on a low heat and stir for 2 minutes until they combine. Throw in your ginger and garlic and give it a stir. Add a few pinches of salt and pepper.

Stir for a few minutes more, add the boiled vegetable stock and take off the heat and allow to cool. Whilst this cools, peel the sweet potatoes and cut in half, then in half again length ways and across at 2cm intervals to make nice big chunks.

Get a large baking tray ready and line it with grease proof paper to stop the potato sticking.

Stir the olive oil into your dressing.  Toss half with the chunks of sweet potato and tip on to the tray. Cover tightly in tin foil and place in the pre-heated oven for about 40 minutes or until the potato is soft so you can stick a knife through it.

Whilst these are cooking roughly chop your pecans and get another small pan on the hob on a medium heat. Dry fry the nuts in there then add some more seasoning and the sugar. Keep an eye on these and keep tossing them about as they will burn easily. Once browned nicely set aside.

When the Sweet potato are just about soft and good to eat crumble over your 200g of feta and remove the tin foil and pop back in the oven turning the oven right down to 80 degrees C/gas mark 1. After 5 minutes take this out. The feta will have melted but leave it to cool and it will harden with a nice baked flavour.

Build the salad on a large serving plate with handfuls of the spinach leaves tossed with chunks of sweet potato, scrape in the cooled crumbled feta, toss in handfuls of the pecans, and drizzle a spoonful or the remaining dressing made earlier. Repeat until you have no more left. Serve with some warmed ciabatta or foccacia to make a nice light meal.

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Sweet Potato Curry

We've heard it all before - but there really is no excuse to go about buying ready made curry paste or sauce when you can make curry this good this quickly. Don't be shy on coming forward with the garlic in this one as it really adds to its glory. Boiling the sweet potatoes in water with a spoon of honey stirred in takes away the starchy edge to sweet potato and draws out a beautiful, delicate and sweet flavour of this orange yam type creature. Blending the chilli's, garlic, onion and lime in a paste beforehand is a great way of getting the rich creamy texture within the sauce which will coat the vegetables beautifully. If you haven't already got a hand-held blender go out and get one immediately as it makes life so much easier. This really is a cook-by-colour recipe; the vivid orange and yellowy texture of the vegetables and sauce make it a bit of a common sense composition more than anything else and this usually works as a way of improvising when cooking.

Ingredients:
7 cloves of garlic
1 medium white onion
2 red chillis
1 lime
2 tbsp olive oil
Sea Salt
3 medium sized sweet potato
1 tbsp honey
100g / 3 and half oz Organic Creamed Coconut
300ml of boiling water
3 medium vine tomatoes
1tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp ground coriander
1 can organic chick-peas (400g)
2 tablespoons single cream
Handful of fresh coriander

Prep all the vegetables. Peel and finely chop the garlic and the onion. De-seed and chop the red chillies. Whizz the garlic, chilli, onion, lime juice and olive oil into a fine paste with either a hand held blender or a food processor. Season well and set aside.

Peel the sweet potatoes and roughly chop them in to cube shape pieces about 2cm x 2cm. Get a large pan of boiling water on the hob and stir in your spoon of honey and some sea salt. Then add the sweet potato and let them simmer for about 8 minutes. Drain when the potatoes are tender enough to push a knife through easily.

Get another large, heavy bottomed, pan and add the turmeric, cumin seeds, and coriander and dry fry over a low heat for a few minutes until they become really aromatic. Rub a pestle over the top of them in the pan whilst they are cooking to break up the seeds a little to release the flavours.

Tip in the garlic paste and give it a good stir. Don't rinse out the bowl you need it again. Chop the creamed coconut roughly then add it into the paste jug and add 300ml of boiling water and stir together so the creamed coconut melts through. Now stir this into the curry paste.

Fill a large bowl with boiling water and sit the tomatoes in for a few minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain, their skins should pop off pretty easily now.

Peel and remove any stalks, whizz with a handheld blender to make a tomato puree; add this to the curry sauce. Leave on a low simmer for 10 minutes. After 5 minutes add the drained chickpeas and stir into the sauce to warm through.

Add the cream and the remaining half a lime juice. After about 3 minutes fold in the cooked sweet potatoes. Cook together for a 3-5 minutes more.

Season to taste, sprinkle with the fresh coriander and serve with some plain boiled rice. Serves 4. Read more On 'Sweet Potato Curry'