Sweet Potato w/ Butter, Syrup, and a Host of other Goodnesses

If life has something better, in the edible world that is, than a soft, mushy, starchy, sweet potato drowning for help in real maple syrup, real butta' (sorry, just spent some time in Boston), and sage leaves, let me know. Because this is a fall dinner/fall side dish ( I absolutely renounce any claims that sweet potatoes could potentially be a 'dessert'. Bosh!) you will not want to miss out on. Your taste buds will pick out every flavor it senses of how butter really tastes, each sweet little molecule from the syrup, and each speck of sage-flavor sageness from that leafy herb and somewhere in the impeccability of that, you may also have spicy sensations ringing in your cheeks from the crushed red pepper.

And do you know what maple syrup and butter and sage leaves do when they are all combined and compressed between two thick and extremely hot flaps of potato??

Absolutely nothing.

That, is why it is sooooo good.

Sweet Potato with Butter and Maple Syrup and Crushed Red Pepper and Sage Leaves. OH, AND Cumin.

{Inspired by Good Housekeeping October 2011}

2 sweet potatoes-or yams, or whatever the thingies are called that are orange fleshed inside- let’s also not talk about how I much I shun at the word “flesh”.

½ stick of butter (yes it’s a lot of lard for only two people, but worth it my darlings..), softened

½ cup PURE maple syrup (seriously, don’t even bust out the sugar free-wanna-be stuff for this one)

¼ tsp crushed red pepper

Sage leaves, minced (fresh sage leaves, people, fresh)

Cumin

Kosher salt

Pam OLIVE OIL spray

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Wash and scrub the potatoes very well, using all your wrist power. Pat them off with a towel, and lay them on a cookie sheet. Prick them with a fork all over. Spray each one well with PAM spray and then rub salt and cumin all over its surface. Stick in oven and cook baby cook!

Meanwhile… nope, no resting yet.. meanwhile, mix the softened butter, maple syrup, and crushed red pepper together in a bowl until it’s all nicely combined and “whipped”. Refrigerate until the potates are soft.

Once the potatoes are somewhat cool enough to handle (i.e. your fingertips aren’t scorched off)… slice halfway down, and squish some potato flesh up and out. Take the largest butter knife you can possibly find, scoop up at least ½ cup of the butter mixture, and throw it down into the potato. Sprinkle some minced sage leaves over the entire thing and watch everything melt and glisten before your very eyes.