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Sweet-Potato Puff
2 cups mashed sweet potato 2 tablespoons butter Salt and pepper 1/4 cup milk or cream 1 egg To the mashed potatoes add the melted fat, seasonings and milk. Beat the egg-yolk and white separately, add the yolk to the potato mixture and then fold in the white. Bake in one dish or in individual molds until puffy and brown.
A straightforward souffle-style side dish; the original assumes the cook knows what oven to use and how long to leave it there. The points below fill in what the text leaves out.
- Oven temperatureNone is given. A dish of this type belongs in a moderate oven, 350-375F. Hotter and the surface browns before the egg white has set the interior.
- TimingExpect 25-35 minutes in a single casserole, 15-20 minutes in individual molds or ramekins. It is done when risen and browned on top and the center no longer wobbles as a liquid.
- "Melted fat"The ingredient list says butter and the method says fat; melt the 2 tablespoons and stir it in warm so it disperses rather than seizing into flecks in the cool potato.
- Fold, do not stirMost of the lift comes from the beaten white. The recipe does not say how far to beat it; soft peaks are enough, and it should be cut through the potato in a few broad strokes, since overworking it at this stage is a likely cause of a dense, flat dish.
- Potato consistencyTwo cups of mashed sweet potato means roughly 1 1/2 lb of potatoes, baked or boiled and put through a ricer. Bake rather than boil if you can, since waterlogged potato will slump.
- Milk or creamA quarter cup is a guideline for potato of average moisture. Boiled potato may need none at all; the mixture should be soft enough to fold but thick enough to hold a spoon upright.
- SeasoningSalt and pepper only, as written. Season the potato before the egg goes in, and taste at that stage, since nothing after it can be corrected.
- Yield and servingFour servings as a side dish, or four to six small molds. Serve immediately; like any souffle it begins to settle within a few minutes of leaving the oven.