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| Along the Carolina Coast, the fries on your plate might be sweet potato fries. |
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Kissed by the Carolinas
By Becky Billingsley
Originally published in Coastal Carolina Dining magazine, Fall 2004
Whether they’re in a soufflé, pudding, pie, biscuits or even tiramisu, when you’re talking sweet potatoes in the Carolinas, the best experts can be found in Tabor City, N.C. The sandy soil around the town, population 2,500, is just right for producing spuds worth celebrating.
Avie Lee Huggins has about 30 blue-ribbon reasons to celebrate tubers. Her cooking is legendary across the geography between Loris and Tabor City, but her sweet potato dishes consistently win prizes at the culinary competition at the annual Tabor City Yam Festival.
“You can take any kind of a recipe and add sweet potatoes,” the 81-year-old said. “Like I took my Butterscotch Brownie recipe and added a cup a sweet potatoes.”
While technically yams are not sweet potatoes, time has tempered the terms and made them interchangeable around Tabor City. The festival started back in 1947, when more sweet potatoes were sold there than anywhere in the world – about a million bushels.
Always held the fourth weekend in October, this year marks the 34th festival (there was a hiatus from 1961-1986). Anna C. Long, who is now 71, remembers riding on a railroad car in the 1950 Tabor City Yam Festival Parade. She never entered the culinary competition, but she has cooked many a sweet potato in her time.
Long has old cookbooks compiled from the competition recipes of 1950 and 1953, and says she likes “old timey” recipes, such as sweet potato pudding, plain without raisins or cinnamon.
Jim Smith, a chef who owns The Four Sisters Restaurant just outside Tabor City, has won his share of sweet potato prizes at the festival. Diners at Four Sisters look forward to his Sweet Potato Soufflé, Sweet Potato Rolls and Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes.
“I think they react well to both salt and sugar,” he said. “If you make it a vegetable type of dish, you think salt and pepper. If you make it a sweet, you go with cinnamon and sugar. Sweet potatoes just react well to everything.”
Sweet potatoes also react well in your body: They are extremely rich in essential nutrition.
“They’ve got about all the nutrients for your body,” Long said. “You could take pecans and potatoes and live off them.”
Avie Lee Huggins agrees.
“I could eat sweet potatoes all day long,” she says. “Can’t you?”
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If you would like to have dozens of Avie Lee Huggins’ recipes, she has a self-published spiral bound collection called “The Special Occasion Cookbook.” It contains recipes for sweet potato dishes and a lot more. You can call Avie Lee at (910) 653-3794 to place your order; it costs $12.50.
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Area chefs know the value of sweet potatoes and use them often. Sometimes the dishes are traditional; other times they’re dressed up as gourmet cuisine. Diners just know they’re delicious.
Perrone’s, Litchfield: Owner/chef Steve Perrone makes a richly flavored side dish called Caribbean Baked Yams with bananas, brown sugar, dark rum and fresh lime juice.
Rice Paddy Restaurant, Georgetown: Executive Chef Priestly Myers takes sweet potatoes to new heights with luxurious dishes such as Sweet Potato Soufflé with lump crabmeat and lime cream. The combination of sweet crab, whipped potatoes and citrus is sublime.
Rivertown Bistro, Conway: Yam Chips served with Smoked Tomato Ranch dipping sauce are a favorite of fans of Executive Chef/Owner Darren Smith.
Side-Wheeler Restaurant, Conway: Owner/chef Mike McLaurin loves using this traditional Southern vegetable in dishes like Grilled Salmon on a bed of sautéed apples and sweet potatoes rings with praline brandy sauce.
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Sweet Potato Soufflé
Orobosa Uwagbai, Orobosa’s Lowcountry Café, Pawleys Island
Ingredients: (Side dish, serves 4)
Base:
3 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1/2 cup milk
1/3 stick butter, melted
2 egg whites, beaten slightly
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
Topping:
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 cup chopped nuts
1/3 stick butter, melted
Mix base ingredients and pour into greased, single-serve baking dishes, approximately 6 inches in diameter. Mix topping ingredients and sprinkle on top of soufflé base. Bake 35 minutes at 350 degrees.
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Sweet Potato Salad
The late Bill Sawyer, Sawgrass Room at Pawleys Plantation Golf & Country Club
Ingredients: (Side dish, serves 6-8)
12 ounces Duke’s Mayonnaise
1 level teaspoon ground cinnamon
2-3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 large cans sweet potatoes (such as Glory brand), cut into bite-size cubes
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and chopped
12 ounces pineapple pieces, drained
30-40 seedless grapes, halved
1/2 cup grated coconut
1 cup toasted granola, or toasted pecans
1/2 cup miniature marshmallows (optional)
2 stalks celery, thin slice
Preparation:
Combine first 4 ingredients in large bowl. Add remaining ingredients and toss softly, being careful to not break sweet potato cubes. Refrigerate, covered, until ready to serve.
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Sweet Potato Soufflé with lump crabmeat and lime cream
Priestly Myers, Rice Paddy Restaurant
Ingredients: (Appetizer, serves 4-6)
2 pounds sweet potatoes, boiled, skinned and drained
1/4 pound butter, softened
1 egg
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 pound lump crabmeat
2 tablespoons butter
Black pepper, freshly ground
1 shallot, minced
1/2 cup white wine
1 cup chicken stock (preferably homemade)
1 cup heavy cream
Juice from 1 lime
Salt and pepper
Chives, chopped
Preparation:
Mash sweet potatoes with fork or potato masher and place in bowl of electric mixer. Add butter, egg, cream, sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and baking powder. Beat on low speed until smooth and well blended. Press mixture through fine strainer to remove fibers.
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in sauté pan. Add crabmeat and toss gently until warmed. Season with black pepper. Place shallots, wine and stock in small saucepan. Bring to boil and reduce by half. Add cream and reduce again by half. Stir in lime juice and season with salt and pepper.
Divide sweet potato mixture among individual soufflé dishes. Place in preheated 400-degree oven and bake until puffed and golden brown, about 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven, top with warm crabmeat, drizzle with lime cream and sprinkle with chopped chives.
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Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes
Jim Smith, The Four Sisters Restaurant, Tabor City, N.C.
Ingredients: (Side dish, serves 5)
5 medium-size sweet potatoes
1/2 pound sausage
1/2 onion, diced
2 cups sour cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
Dash pepper
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 teaspoon coriander
White of 1 egg
Preparation:
Bake sweet potatoes until tender. While potatoes are baking, fry the sausage with onions; chop sausage into small pieces as it cooks. Cut off top, of baked potatoes then scoop out pulp, preserving skins. Mash the sweet potatoes and combine with sour cream. Add sausage, onions and remaining ingredients to sweet potato mixture and mix well. Scoop mixture back into sweet potato skins, reserving some to pipe a little on top with a star tip. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes, or until done.
Optional: You may also cut the baked sweet potatoes in half lengthwise and have 10 half-potato servings.
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