Sweet Potato Sabotage

I had my first cooking failure. Now usually I treat cooking like abstract art—turning mistakes into masterpieces, leaving nothing unsalvageable, but this was pretty unsalvageable. Consisting of pork chops, sauteed spinach, and sweet potato latkes, all drizzled with a sherry and garlic reduction, my envisioned meal sounded delicious. Paired with a bottle of 2008 Eos Estate Private Reserve Chardonnay, my veins pumped with anticipation.

Finding a recipe out of How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman for Sauteed Pork Chops 8 ways (http://www.howtocookeverything.tv/recipe.php%3Fnid=68.html) , I wasn’t really concerned with the pork chops falling flat. This recipe is straight forward and easy to follow. (The link above, does not include the sherry and garlic sauce, but in step three, instead of adding butter, add 1 table spoon of garlic, and a 1/2 cup of not-to-dry sherry—I used cream sherry. Let the sauce reduce until it reaches a syrupy consistency and add the parsley, olive oil, and lemon juice.)

Then came the Sweet Potato Latkes. Now I’ve said multiple times, that when it comes to online recipes, make sure you use the ones that have high ratings, and good reviews. Not taking my own advice, I found this shady website: http://bullets-and-beer.com/recipes/SweetPotato.html. With a simple layout, no room for comments or reviews, and a sweet potato pancake recipe, followed by a sweet potato latke recipe, I really don’t know what I was thinking. But I read over the recipe, and it sounded simple enough, so I didn’t give it a second thought.

Luckily my smoke detector is hiding, because man was I producing a lot of smoke. Browning pork chops on the stove top requires hot oil and a hot pan. Once the chops were down, the kitchen was flooded with sizzling, searing, and smoking. Keeping my cool, I tried to be patient with the chops, allowing them to brown, which keeps all of those valuable juices inside, but in the back of my mind, thoughts of fire trucks zipping to my building looped indefinitely. Living in a high rise, its hard not to feel like big brother is watching some times.

Once the chops were set to simmer, I moved on to the sweet potatoes. Preparing everything ahead of time, all I had to do was take the potato mixture out of the fridge and begin frying. Now here is where things started to go awry. After heating some vegetable oil in a skillet I started with two small latkes. Giving them some time to brown, I went ahead and tried to flip them, but guess what, they fell apart in the pan. So scrapping the first round, I thought about what to do with the rest of the mixture. I asked Michael if adding some more flour, or another egg would help keep the mixture hold together better, and after a bit of research we decided that an egg might do the trick.

While mixing the egg, I turned to the skillet, only to notice yet more smoke, billowing out of the left over bits of sweet potato in the pan. Yanking the pan off the heat, the fire trucks started screaming in my head again, but I took a deep breathe and continued on. After cleaning out the pan, I heated some more oil, and placed one latke in the skillet. Noticing some brown edges I crossed my fingers, and went to flip. Success (although short lived). With the residual oil left in the skillet flaked with darkening bits of sweet potato I was faced with a dilemma. Should I spend time starting with fresh oil for every latke, or should I try to cook the sweet potato mixture into hash browns? With the pork chops almost done, I opted for the hash, only to discover that with out frying, the amount of lemon juice made the potatoes taste like pine-sol. Fed up with the ordeal, I popped a fresh sweet potato in the microwave, and sent the hash to the trash.

With the reduction sauce coming together beautifully, and the spinach perfectly sauteed, I shook off the sabotaging sweet potatoes, and plated as I had envisioned, sans the latkes. Pouring a glass of wine, I was ready to relax and enjoy.

Swirling the greenish-gold Chardonnay, I noticed the legs coat the glass like corn syrup, indicative of the very high alcohol content. Lowering my nose to smell, I was met with light floral aromas with an underlying warmth of caramel and citrus. Coating every crevasse of my mouth, the wine lay heavy on my palate with an oaky presence, but did not lack in acidity. Taking my first swallow, I wasn’t left with a lingering bitterness, but a soft finish with a slight caramel overtone.

Diving into the chop, I stabbed a good hunk of pork coated with the reduction, and some spinach. Presenting my palate with a flavor over load, the reduction was sweet and salty, while the pork provided a base, and the spinach some bitterness. Having the added freshness from the sweet potato provided a contrasting spectrum of flavors, and helped the pork avoid monotony. While it probably would have been better with the latkes, the sweet potato served its purpose, and was healthier than the oil soaked alternative.

Completing the tasting, I took another mouthful of wine. With caramelly features, the wine was able to bring out the layers of flavor in the reduction, while standing up to the fattiness of the meat. Bringing out the lighter floral overtones, the sweet potato enhanced the Chardonnay with its contrasting flavors. Leaving me with an overall warmth and comfort, the kitchen catastrophe was soon just a memory.

I’ll probably try sweet potato laktes again in the future, but the task will not be done without trepidation. But with so many recipes out there, there is bound to be a better one. Any suggestions? All in all, the meal ended with ease, and was yet another perfect pair.