Cook With Us #26 - Sweet Potato & Butternut Fritters with Salted Caramel Popcorn

Nothing as good as having a bring and share home-cooked meal with old friends; sharing recipes and ideas, chit chatting and just having a good time.

That's exactly how it feels this week after a short break from @cookwithus; great to be back for Season Three made possible by @curie and @sneaky-ninja with their generous sponsorship. Not forgetting the awesome threesome of @cookwithus, and they are @chefsteve, @offoodandart and @pandamama who are challenging us to create something special with Root Vegetables.

During the break I was fortunate to take part in the @docsmith Handcrafted Knife Challenge, and was that tough, but our @foodforsoul proved her brilliance in the kitchen again and wowed us all with her amazing creativity and fabulous photography!

The last two months have been particularly difficult as my very good friend that I told you all about when I made my Apple Roses eventually passed on to another life after much suffering on life support. Spare yourself and your family much heartache and think seriously about getting that Living Will drawn up if you do not want to be kept alive when there's no hope!

But back to cooking and Root Vegetables and especially for those who also like growing their own vegetables, I will briefly tell you about Lunar planting before we start cooking.

Now I see some roll their eyes thinking @lizelle has lost all her marbles or perhaps been touched by the Moon, but this method has been practiced very successfully for centuries in agriculture.
Plants are stronger, therefore have less pests thus producing bountiful crops!
The principle briefly is to plant crops that grow above the ground during the New Moon and second quarter, because of the lunar upward pull of water.
Root crops on the other hand should be planted during Full Moon when the gravitation pull is high and water is being drawn into the roots.
All our keen gardener cooks, do yourself a favour and pop on over to a fascinating site to learn a little more about this.

Now I love the versatile Potato - mash, chips, roast potatoes, hash browns, potato bakes, baked potatoes, and even bread, but when I went shopping I found some lovely Orange Sweet Potatoes and decided to make a twist on the very popular sweet and spicy Pumpkin Fritters that is a typical South African treat served with dinner or as a dessert.

I made a dessert of Sweet Potato & Butternut fritters rolled in Cinnamon Sugar and served with Salted Caramel Popcorn and Salted Butterscotch Sauce, absolutely sinful and delicious! The Sweet Potatoes & Butternut were steamed in my ancient waterless pot - yes they do last a lifetime - with fresh Ginger root and a nice big chunk of Cinnamon Bark.

When my children were little I often made Caramel Popcorn not only as a treat, but also for school market days where they were best sellers! This is surprisingly easy to make and absolutely yummy; I added extra Salt to make Salted Caramel Popcorn and also added Cashew Nuts - the Caramel did not really stick too well to the nuts, but it was actually nice having them pop up between the sweet and saltiness.

Sweet Potatoes comes in various colours, but the orange variant is sweeter. They can be boiled, steamed, baked, roasted or fried, and also used in baking as a substitute for pumpkin.

An ancient gadget my Dad made for cutting Gem Squashes but it's great for slicing all kinds of vegetables

SWEET POTATO & BUTTERNUT FRITTERS
Yields 12 fritters

• 375 ml cooked Sweet Potato mash(steamed with Ginger root and Cinnamon stick)
• 125 ml cooked Butternut mash
• 180 ml Cake Flour
• 10 ml Baking Powder
• 3 ml Salt
• 2 Eggs
• Grapeseed Oil for frying
• Approx 170 ml Sugar & Cinnamon Mixture for coating fritters

SALTED CARAMEL POPCORN

• 125 gram Popcorn
• 125 gram Butter
• 50 ml Syrup or Honey
• 250 ml light Brown Sugar
• 7 ml Salt
• 3 ml Bicarbonate of Soda
• 100 gram Cashew Nuts

SALTED BUTTERSCOTCH SAUCE

• 125 gram Butter
• 50 ml Syrup
• 250 ml Brown Sugar
• 7 ml Salt
• 125 ml Thick Dairy Cream

Ingredients

METHOD
1. Steam Sweet Potato and Butternut cubes together with Ginger Root and Cinnamon bark, drain and mash it once cooked

2. Place into food mixer together with remaining fritter ingredients and blend till smooth

3. Drop spoons full into shallow oil, careful not to burn. Turn over once cooked to cook the other side.

4. Drain on kitchen paper, then roll in cinnamon sugar

5. Place popcorn into a large pot with a shallow layer of oil on base, cover with lid to pop the corn

6. Place Butter, Sugar, Salt and Syrup into a pot over medium heat, stir from time to time until a rich butterscotch colour

7. Add Bicarbonate of Soda and stir - mixture will bubble and froth

8. Place Popcorn and Cashew Nuts in a large oven pan, pour caramel over and stir lightly to mix

9. Place in 100C oven for 30 minutes, stirring after 15 minutes as caramel starts browning on base of pan.
Remove from oven and mix lightly to break up the chunks that stick together

10. Repeat step 6 with Sauce ingredients.
Add cream and stir to melt butterscotch.
Leave to cool before using

11. Stack Fritters on serving plate, top with Popcorn and serve with the thick Butterscotch Sauce

And as always a quick look for all our busybodies :)

Original Content by @lizelle
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