Thursday, January 3, 2013

curried sweet potato chowder

remember when i said that not all of the recipes i made were home runs?  time to present you with the big flop - sweet potato chowder!  i so wanted this recipe to work, because mike really likes sweet potatoes, but......no cigar, kids.  it's another one from better homes and gardens cookbook, that unfortunately i played with.  but enough of the chagrin - let's get to the notes!

note 1: the recipe reminded me so much of a potato chowder i made last winter, that i added a step that the recipe did not detail.  i scooped out about 1/4 of the soup into my blender, in hopes of having something like a sweet potato chowder.  the result was something akin to baby food.  oh, how far from my intentions!  should you try this recipe, skip step 5 below.  this recipe should have stayed a soup rather than becoming a chowder.

note 2: i am posting the recipe i made, in part because none of the "fixes" i've since tried worked out perfectly.  i made a large batch, so each time i take some out of the freezer, i try different things to improve it.  adding more milk has been the biggest improvement (which has solidified my thought that i shouldn't have blended to begin with); i've also added more curry and cayenne pepper to help with the bland flavor.  mike often thinks that i overdo the cayenne pepper, but in the case of this soup, he said that the spicy was a good contrast to the sweet potato flavor.

(this soup made me so sad that i wasn't even motivated to take a flattering picture of it! *sad*)

curried sweet potato chowder

6 medium sweet potatoes, cubed
1 large onion, diced
4 c milk
3 t curry powder
1 t cayenne pepper

1.  boil sweet potatoes in a large pot until mostly tender - be careful not to over cook.  drain the water, and set aside.
2.  saute onion in a large pot until clear; drop heat to low.
3.  gently fold sweet potatoes into sauteed onions, then add the milk.
4.  turn heat up to medium, and stir vigilantly.  i found that this mixture was prone to burning, so be careful to scrape your spoon against the entire bottom of the pot.  bring to a boil, then drop heat to medium-low.
5.  scoop 1/4 of soup into a blend; blend until smooth and add back to pot.
6.  add curry and cayenne pepper.

this soup freezes very well, and smells good.  ;-)  i'm sorry to give it such a rough rating here - if you have tried something similar and it worked for you, please leave a comment with your tips!!

2 comments:

  1. So, would you 1) try this recipe again and simply follow the directions? 2) would you compare against other similar recipes to see if you could figure out a way to get rid of the blandness? 3) are you guys still eating it even though you don't care for it? if so...wow!

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    1. 1) probably not - i think following the exact recipe would undoubtedly improve it, but this was such a huge flop for us, that i probably will just move on entirely from it.
      2) and 3) we are still eating it, so i am continuing to look for ways to tweak this one!! the cayenne pepper and milk seem like a good start, but it still needs more. when i defrost my next bag of it, i will probably do some research to find out which vegetables would go well (apart from peas, since we dislike them). i think having something else added would help with the texture and distract from blandness.

      miss you, mindy!!! i wish we were more often in each other's paths!

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