Potato pancakes are pretty common but I've yet to come across sweet potato pancakes. The sweet potato is a distant cousin of the regular spud and is sometimes referred to as a yam. In the commercial food world, it is often served as sweet potato fries, sweet potato pies, baked sweet potato or mashed sweet potato. Here, I am making sweet potato pancakes, a slight twist on the normal potato pancakes. The procedure is almost the same saved for the different ingredients added into the mix.
Here's what you need: (makes 5-6 pancakes)
3 large sweet potatoes (peeled)
2 large eggs
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Pepper to taste
Shred the sweet potato with a hand grater. Be careful not to cut your hand. Next, try to squeeze as much of the liquid out from the sweet potatoes by using a cheese cloth. Add the rest of the other ingredients into a large mixing bowl together with the shredded sweet potatoes. Let it sit for about an hour in the refrigerator in order for the mix to bind and the flavors to come together.
When ready, get a pan hot with some vegetable oil. Roll the sweet potato mix into 3-4oz. balls. Place them onto the pan and press down with a spatula, creating a disc-like shape. Do not turn the heat on too high as the sugar in the sweet potato will burn quickly. Be vigilant of how long you leave each side of the pancake on the hot pan. When both sides are slightly browned, pull them out and lay them on some paper towels to drain the excess oil. And that's it, sweet potato pancakes.
As for the roasted pork chops, I marinade them in chimicurri sauce (to which I added sage, which goes well with poultry and pork), brown them a little on a skillet and roasted them in the oven. To learn how to make chimicurri sauce, read my previous blog post.
Bon Appetit!