For Jay : Melanie's African Sweet Potatoes

This is a dish which we've made several times, to rave reviews. All of the ingredients are pictured here. This dish is actually a good example of playfulness and experimentation.

When doing some cooking lessons with Melanie and Jay, Mel and I came up with this absolutely fabulous baked sweet potato dish. It's like a French potato gratin, with African inspirations of fruit and coconut, and some cinnamon.

Peeled and sliced sweet potatoes are layered into a pan. In a sautee pan pour a can of coconut milk, some finely chopped onions, a finely chopped chili pepper, some sea salt, a quarter cup of peanut butter, and some dried fruit, chopped. Turn to a medium heat and stir for about 4 or 5 minutes.

When the coconut milk forms a sauce and mixes with the other ingredients, add some apple cider or water or vegetable stock to thin it out. The pour it over the potatoes, which you should layer in a pan in a spiral. The sauce will swim all around the sweets. Cover the dish with tin foil (or bake in a pan with a lid). This gorgeous copper tarte tatin pan is from my trip to Paris and was heavy as heck to carry back in my luggage, but well worth it for its even heat and nostalgic memories of Dehillerin.

Bake at 350 until you can smell this delicious dish wafting through your home, begging you to dive in.

I owe a huge thanks to both Melanie and Jay for letting me prepare their Christmas dinner this year for Jay's family. We did beautiful brined roast turkey breasts, roasted red, yellow and purple baby potatoes, stuffing, steamed broccoli with toasted squash seeds, this sweet potato bake and a delicious mushroom caesar salad with parmesan and proscuitto.

While I don't cook with meat at the house anymore, it was great to get back to some culinary roots and put a traditional turkey dinner together. Brining a turkey makes all the difference in the world in keeping it moist. You will need to do this overnight in a large "vessel" - I used my massive slow cooker. For every litre of water, add a half a cup of kosher salt, and a quarter cup of something sweet - either sugar, honey, agave. For Mel and Jay's I used Apple Cider. Add some fresh herbs (Rosemary / Thyme / Bay work wonders) and let it soak overnight. Use enough brine to cover the meat.

Of course, the best way to keep turkey breasts moist and tender is to serve stuffed portobello mushrooms and save a life.

Come on! You knew I was going to say that - didn't you? ;)