Baked Sweet Potatoes With Poblano Butter

Well, cilantro was the big winner at the big Weekend Herb Blogging bash.  I suspected  it would come down to cilantro and basil, but expected the latter to win.  I always have several bunches of cilantro in my fridge and one of them came to my rescue today. I was too tired (and my throat hurt) to do anything that required much effort.   A basic meal was in order--baked potato and pan broiled fish.  But, a sweet potato filled with bright green poblano butter made it more interesting and gave the (false) impression that more thought and effort had gone into fixing the meal.   And the green chile butter looked lovely against the orange flesh of the sweet potato. It was mild, but loaded with garlic and cilantro, so that each bite of the potato was savory and sweet.  Very nice.

Poblanos are often called pasilla chilies in this country. I'm not sure why that is.  They're mild, and when dried they become the wonderful ancho chili that adds so much color and flavor to mole sauce.  You can also add some jalapanos, but I didn't this time.

The butter is a pale green color when you're finished making it. But, don't be fooled. It will bloom into a dark green when exposed to heat.

As a test, I put some of the butter on a  small corn tortilla that I toasted over my gas burner.  You can see how it becomes a dark green.

The remaining butter can be used on fish, chicken or in shrimp  or fish tacos--or just smeared on good bread.  It freezes nicely. 




Baked Sweet Potatoes With Poblano Butter  (Williams Sonoma)

2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 large poblano chilies (may be labeled as pasilla chilies)
1 cup (1 oz./30 g) tightly packed fresh cilantro leaves
2 large green onion, green and white part, chopped
3 large cloves of garlic
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded, veined, chopped  (optional)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
salt/pepper
1/2 cup butter (4 oz/125 g), diced, room temperature
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice

Cilantro Butter

Heat the olive oil over high heat and add the chopped poblanos and saute until tender crisp, but still bright green (about 3-5 minutes). Transfer to bowl and set aside.  In a food processor, combine cilantro, green onions, garlic, jalapenos, oregano, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.  Blend until finely chopped, about 30 seconds.  Add butter and lime juice and blend.  Add the poblano chilies and blend until they are finely chopped.

Potatoes

6 large sweet potatoes

Preheat oven to 400 F (200 C). Prick each sweet potato with a fork in several places. Place on a cookie sheet or other pan and place in oven, baking until tender, about 45 minutes.  Split potatoes down the middle, squeeze to force them open.  Spoon a large dollop into potato.

Comments

[Jeff]

I love ancho chili's so much!

[Julie]

That looks delicious and the colors are beautifully vivid.

[aria]

beautiful dish! that looks so good. i'm glad you teated it on a tortilla to make sure its safe :) feel better soon. rubs to miss upsi ;)

[aria]

teated, tasted. tomato, tomahto hahha

[kalyn]

Sounds perfect! Yum.

[gattina]

Sher,
hope you feel better now... please take more rest if you can :)
What a gorgeous sweet potato you picked/baked! And how can I resist this problano butter?! I'll see myself try it out very soon. But what do you think if I only use jalapeno (since I can take the heat)?

[Shannon]

I have two large sweet potatoes that I didn't know what to do with. Now I know! This is t'mrow's dinner, with the jalapenos I just picked out of the garden. Yum!

[Shannon]

I have two large sweet potatoes that I didn't know what to do with. Now I know! This is t'mrow's dinner, with the jalapenos I just picked out of the garden. Yum!

[eqj (the chocolate lady)]

Very nice. I like sweet potato recipes that bring in herbal or peppery contrasts to the potato's sweetness rather than going the other way. I was thinking the same thing about your earlier post about cinnamon abuse. There are too many recipes telling us to slog cinnamon where it doesn't belong.

[Lisa]

Oh, those wonderful colors. What a great idea, sounds luscious. Hope your throat is done being sore!

[Christine]

Hi Sher, I finally made it to a source of high speed Internet access and can check out my favorite bloggers. Your dish looks sooooo delicious. Beautiful too. Even though we're loving visiting New England, the thought of sweet potatoes and poblano butter makes me homesick!

[Brilynn]

Great colour! Sweet potatoes are sooo good.

[Yui]

I need to say the picture is so mouth-watering. But I need to say that I am not a big fan of cilantro, esp when I found them chopped like that. However, if someone have this food on hand I would love to take a small bite :)
http://howtomakesweetpotatofries.org/