Have you ever tried purple sweet potatoes? I never had even heard of them until I visited the Vista, Ca. Farmers Market and saw several varieties of purple potatoes.
I was trying to think of something fun to make with the Blood Orange Marmalade (with whisky!) that The Golden Door sent me to try for a recipe contest they are sponsoring at Eat Write Retreat food bloggers conference. This marmalade is tart and sweet at the same time with a hint of the whisky flavor. I wanted to just eat it on hot biscuits, but that wouldn’t really count for a recipe contest, would it?
I peeled the purple sweet potatoes, boiled them, and mashed them with butter, salt and pepper. They tasted good… like a really mild orange sweet potato. I even mixed a little of the marmalade into a few bites of sweet potato, and that tasted really good too…but the marmalade was hidden. Then I had the idea to make little sweet potato patties and use the marmalade on top, but the patties needed something crunchy on the outside. Then I remembered some beautiful shelled pistachios that I happened to have in my pantry. I toasted the pistachios and crushed them into pieces (not too small). I formed small sweet potato patties with my hands and pressed both sides of the patties into the pistachio pieces. Then I sautéed both sides of the patties in a little butter, and served them with a little marmalade on top.
Those crunchy pistachios are perfect for these purple sweet potato patties…and they look pretty too!
That tart/sweet marmalade reminds me of the orange juice in our favorite sweet potato casserole at Thanksgiving time. A fun and colorful appetizer or side dish for pork chops, chicken or fish.
- 5 purple sweet potatoes, peeled, boiled, and mashed
- 4 tablespoons butter
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- ½ cup shelled pistachios
- ¼ cup Golden Door Blood Orange Marmalade
- Add 2 tablespoons of the butter to the hot mashed purple sweet potatoes and let it melt.
- Stir in the salt and pepper until the sweet potatoes are smooth.
- Let the mashed sweet potatoes cool.
- With your hands, form the sweet potato into small patties.
- Toast the pistachios in the oven at 350 degrees for 5 minutes, then crush into smaller pieces.
- Press the sweet potato patties into the crushed pistachios on each side.
- Melt the remaining butter and sauté the pistachio crusted sweet potato patties until golden brown on each side. (about 2 minutes on each side)
- Top each pattie with a little blood orange marmalade. Serve warm.
