Sweet Potato Confit With Chorizo and Crème Fraîche Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Is it better to wrap sweet potatoes in foil when baking? ›

Wrapping sweet potatoes in foil helps in a few ways. It prevents the exterior of the tuber from drying out and overheating too quickly, which would minimize enzymatic activity; it also results in a more evenly cooked texture.

Despite the name, sweet potatoes are not a type of potato, they are a root vegetable. Usually orange-fleshed in the UK, they can also be purple or white inside. They can be baked, roasted, fried, barbecued, steamed or boiled, and will mash and purée well too.

Cut into eighths and place in a large pot. Add enough water to just cover the potatoes, and a pinch of salt. Boil sweet potatoes for 15 to 20 minutes, until they are tender when pierced with a fork. It will take less time if you cut the sweet potatoes into smaller pieces.

Pierce the sweet potato skin with a fork 5 to 6 times. Place the sweet potatoes on a microwave-safe plate and microwave for 5-10 minutes—five minutes to cook one sweet potato in the microwave, and add two minutes for each additional potato—rotating them halfway through.

Trapping that spud in aluminum foil where the moisture cannot escape results in a wet potato. Over baking the potato in foil cannot be seen (or easy to smell that it is overcooked) so you can end up with dark brown skin on the bottom, tough to eat and giving off a slightly burnt taste.

Do you have to poke holes in sweet potatoes before baking? Typically holes are poked into a sweet potato to prevent a potato exploding in your oven. However, the chance of that happening is low, and according to Lifehacker, sweet potatoes will retain more flavor if you don't poke them.

Steaming was efficient and hands-off and didn't create a lot of messy pots and pans, and sweet potatoes cooked that way became moist and fluffy and could be easily pureed. (Roasted sweet potatoes might be great as an alt-fry, but they can also become dry and fibrous.)

Boiling may actually retain most of the antioxidant power of sweet potatoes, compared to roasting and steaming. If we compare baking to boiling microscopically, boiling helps thin out the cell walls and gelatinize the starch, which may enhance the bioavailability of nutrients.

Sweet potato contains more carbohydrate, vitamin C and minerals than Irish potato. In the food processing methods employed, it was observed that boiling retains more carbohydrate than frying while frying retains more vitamin C and minerals than boiling.

Whether you're boiling sweet potatoes whole or cubed, it's important that you start with scrubbing and washing the sweet potatoes first. If you're short on time, I recommend cooking them whole. Plus, boiling sweet potatoes whole with skin is the best way to get perfect texture without overcooking them.

Do you add salt to water when boiling sweet potatoes? ›

Step 2: Boil the Sweet Potatoes

Add enough cold water to cover potatoes and sprinkle with salt. Bring to boiling, cover, and cook until tender. How long can you boil sweet potatoes: For one pound of sweet potatoes, cover the pan and cook sweet potatoes in the boiling salted water 20 to 25 minutes or until just tender.

If you're boiling, make sure to cut your sweet potatoes into equally sized pieces so they cook at the same rate. (Another hot tip if you're boiling your sweet potatoes: Don't overcook them! They tend to absorb water, which could make the filling watery.)

Can You Cook Sweet Potatoes in the Microwave? Yes, you can! In fact, the shorter cook time will help the sweet potatoes retain more nutrients that are often lost in the long oven-baking process. It's not all that different than baking a sweet potato in the oven, except it's a whole lot faster.

You'll know the sweet potatoes are done by piercing the center of the sweet potato with the tip of a sharp knife; the flesh should yield easily. Wearing an oven mitt, you can also squeeze the sides to check for doneness; there should be a little bit of give.

No, yams and sweet potatoes are not the same. Yams have rough, dark brown skin that is often compared to tree bark, and their flesh is dry and starchy like a regular potato. Sweet potatoes have smooth reddish skin, softer flesh (when cooked), and a sweet flavor.

"I see a lot of people using foil to wrap their potatoes in but this is a big no-no and causes soggy skins!" he says. Foil holds in moisture and steams the potatoes, resulting in a "boiled" taste and texture. Plus, without the use of foil, the skin will get extra crispy and flavorful.

Some say wrapping baked potatoes in aluminum foil helps them cook faster (aluminum conducts heat, then traps it), and it does keep them hot for longer once they come out of the oven, which is why we think restaurants use this method. Wrapping potatoes will also give you a softer, steamed skin, if that's what you like.

A potato will cook faster if the shiny side of the aluminum foil is touching the potato than if the dull side is touching the potato.

Technically, it could decrease the cook time a little bit, but it's not worth it. Trust us! Wrapping potatoes in foil produces a soggy potato because the foil holds in moisture and steams the potato.