Friday, April 15, 2011

Top Chef Sweet Potato Linguine and "Clean Eating" Fries

Did you watch Top Chef All-Stars this season? If you did you will know Richard Blais, the winner of Top Chef All-Stars, and the most talented and modest man in the kitchen! On one of the last episodes Richard made sweet potato noodles/linguine. If you don't watch the show I'll tell you that they do not show every step in the food preparation process (obviously) so when you see a recipe you want to make you sort of have to guess how to make it (or, as I found out after trying to re-create this recipe, you can actually find ALL the recipes online!!! They also sell a Top Chef cookbook).

Richard made sweet potato linguine that the judges loved. The cameras showed him using a mandoline to shave off long pieces of sweet potato and then adding them to boiling water. I thought, "I can do that!" So I got out my mandoline and started shaving....



My "linguine" were completely choppy and looked ridiculous. As I was boiling the "linguine" I was thinking to myself, "I am just taking a once-healthy sweet potato and ruining it by boiling out all the nutrients!".




It would have been one thing if they had turned out like Richard's, but they certainly did not.




But I still found ways to use my "sweet potato shreds"....



If you want the real recipe check it out here. The recipe is actually for sweet potato linguine with conch and spiny lobster. Richard boiled his "linguine" in chicken stock, not water. Brilliant! If you ever try this recipe, let me know, but I think I've personally given up on the idea of sweet potato noodles. However, I found a recipe for sweet potato fries in my Clean Eating magazine, which I made the other day. This recipe called for egg whites and zero oil, so I was intrigued.

SWEET POTATO FRIES

(The Clean Eating Way)

Ingredients

2 sweet potatoes

1 foamy egg white

Salt/pepper/cumin, whatever you want!


Directions


1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees


2. Slice the potatoes (after washing and trimming the ends) into equally thick pieces


3. Soak in water for 30 minutes (to release the starch)




4. Rinse and pat dry, completely


5. Toss with two foamy egg white (beat an egg white for about a minute to make it foamy) and your favorite spices


6. Lay potatoes on a parchment-lined baking sheet and put in preheated oven.


7. Check for doneness every 15 minutes, and flip once. ** They did not give a time, but it took my fries about 40 minutes to get to proper doneness **


8. Reduce heat to 200 degrees to dry potatoes, for about 15-20 more minutes.


EAT!


These were definitely time consuming, but oh so delicious!


QUESTIONS: Have you ever used egg whites to make fries? What other vegetables have you used to make fries, other than potatoes?

Any fun weekend plans?? I'll be at work!

15 comments :

  1. I would think hard to cut the noodles by hand. Love the egg white addition to the sweet potato fries, I make mine with a little olive oil, salt and cayenne- whole family loves but I get carpel tunnel from the chopping. Weekend will be filled with little league, good workouts and some much-needed pantry spring cleaning.

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  2. Richard was my favorite! I was so intrigued by his sweet potato linguine. I'm assuming he sliced them insanely thing somehow. I'm impressed that you gave it a try! I usually assume all the recipes on that show are way too complicated for me to try to replicate

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  3. shred sweet potatoes by hand must be really hard!!! You did a great job!
    use egg white to make fries? never thought that is even possible! What a genius idea!!!
    No plan this weekend other than hanging out with my mom and Star ;)

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  4. My two fave fries are made out of parsnips or carrots. So good!

    I'm impressed that you attempted the linguine...I'm sure it would not have worked for me either!

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  5. I LOVE sweet potatoes. Any way they can be made. We had them for dinner last night! Your fries look delicious, definitely want to try this recipe!

    Have a great weekend!

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  6. You are a saint. I would refuse to work every weekend :(

    Those fries look awesome! We made sweet potato chips last night in the microwave...they were good, but like your fries - TIME CONSUMING! I've never heard of turning down the oven temp to help dry the fries...that's brilliant. And I will certainly try a foamy egg wash vs. oil next time, too!

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  7. wow! that is SO interesting about making sp fries with egg whites! i wonder what it does to them? i guess besides extra protein it's just a add on? hmph! i do love clean eating mag though!

    umm also i LOVED top chef all stars! i'm not so much lovin the masters but i can deal

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  8. I set my DVR up to tape that show and then it didn't! And then I forgot about it...

    haha. I really did enjoy the few shows I caught on it though. I love Food Network!

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  9. That is an interesting idea. I never would have thought of that. Glad you found a use for yours even if they were not the same as on the show.

    I am sorry to say, I still hate the use of the word clean for clean eating. The first thing I think of is kosher food and what is clean and what is not clean, then I jump to wanting to clean my food off if it is so dirty. More importantly, since my grad work is in public health, I think about food safety and food borne illness. That would be unclean food to me. I know what the term is implying, but I can't figure out why people can't just figure out how to eat fruits and vegetables without needing a special term for this (and those other healthy foods that fit this category). It just seems like another fad term to me. of course, you probably could have guessed I would have something to say like that.

    I hope you have a great weekend.

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  10. Oh boy I could never cut those noodles.

    I've never heard of using egg whites on my sweet potato. I just use a little olive oil. I also microwave my sweet potato for a couple of minutes before I cut it- it's easier to cut and cooks in the oven faster :)

    I've also made parsnip fries!

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  11. ABSOLUTE YUM!!! I make sweet potato fries all the time, but they are always on the soggy side & I hate to use excess oil. Using an egg white and 'drying them' at 200 degrees may be the solution. What does releasing the starch do? Thanks for this recipe!

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  12. I adore sweet potatoes. I can't wait to make this!

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  13. Actually the vitamin A is increased when you cook sweet potatoes (haha, I know this from Sagar/Failla lab). :)

    And I LOVE sp fries a lot!

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