Savory Whipped Sweet Potatoes With Crispy Garlic Chips
Silky whipped sweet potatoes with butter, cream, and black pepper, no sugar anywhere, topped with slowly fried garlic chips and finished with the garlic oil they leave behind.
Servings 6 servings
Ingredients
For the Crispy Garlic Chips
- 1 head garlic about 10 to 12 cloves, peeled and sliced paper thin
- ½ cup neutral oil grapeseed or canola
- 1 pinch fine salt for the drained chips
For the Whipped Sweet Potatoes
- 3 lb sweet potatoes peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
- 2 teaspoon kosher salt for the cooking water, plus more to taste
- 4 tablespoon unsalted butter cubed
- ½ cup heavy cream warmed
- ¼ cup sour cream optional
- 1 teaspoon black pepper freshly ground
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
- 2 tablespoon reserved garlic oil from frying the chips
Instructions
Fry the Garlic Chips
- Peel the garlic and slice it paper thin, about 1/16 inch, keeping the slices as even as you can.
- Put the slices and the oil in a small saucepan together while the pan is still cold, then set it over medium-low heat.
- Fry for 6 to 8 minutes. The bubbling will slow and quiet as the moisture cooks off. Remove the slices with a slotted spoon the moment they turn pale straw gold, before they look as dark as you want them, because they keep cooking off the heat.
- Spread the chips in a single layer on paper towel, salt them right away, and leave them uncovered for 2 minutes to crisp.
- Strain the oil and reserve it. You need 2 tablespoons for the puree.
Boil and Dry the Sweet Potatoes
- Put the sweet potato cubes in a large pot, cover with cold water by 1 inch, and add the 2 teaspoons of kosher salt.
- Bring to a boil, then simmer 15 to 20 minutes, until a knife slides through a cube with no resistance.
- Drain well, return the cubes to the dry hot pot over low heat for 1 minute, and shake the pot once or twice to steam off the surface water. Do not skip this.
Whip and Finish
- Whip the hot dried potatoes in a food processor for about 30 seconds, or pass them through a ricer, until completely smooth. Sweet potatoes do not turn gluey in a processor the way regular potatoes do.
- Warm the heavy cream until hot to the touch but not boiling.
- Beat the butter into the hot puree first, then the warm cream in two additions, stopping when the texture is right.
- Stir in the 2 tablespoons of reserved garlic oil, the sour cream if using, the black pepper, and the thyme. Taste and salt, then taste and salt again.
- Scrape into a warm serving bowl, smooth the top, and add the garlic chips in an even layer just before serving.
Notes
- Cold oil start: Garlic dropped into hot oil scorches outside before it dries inside. Starting cold is the difference between chips and bitter flecks.
- Pull the garlic early: It runs from pale gold to bitter in about 15 seconds and carries on browning on the towel.
- Dry the potatoes: One minute in the dry hot pot is what keeps the puree from going watery.
- Warm the cream: Cold cream seizes the butter into flecks and drops the temperature of the bowl.
- Chips at the last second: Steam from the hot puree softens them within minutes. Fry them right before you eat.
- Salt twice: Sweet potatoes absorb salt oddly. Season before the cream and again after.