Carrot & Sweet Potato Puree

I was working on a dinner entree for a group dinner and wanted the perfect base to put some braised country-style pork ribs on. Inspired by the amazing flavor and texture of a smoked sweet potato puree I had at Knox Mason restaurant with a braised pork shoulder blade steak and mostarda, I decided that a puree should be my direction forward as well.





Since the dinner was on Good Friday and desiring to relive the amazing dish I had at Thanksgiving, a carrot puree seemed perfect! Delicious flavor and what vegetable is more Easter-y than carrots? Thinking about how the dish would be received by friends, I was afraid carrot on it's own would be considered a bit baby food and wanted to pair it with a more traditional starch so sweet potatoes came to mind - the hope was they would provide a smooth (less fibrous) base as well since I don't have an uber-powerful blender or tamis (or that kinda time and desire to clean yet another dish) to really pulverize the carrot.

So I roughly chopped a 2:1 ratio of carrot to sweet potato, added 2 Tbsp butter, 1 Tbsp sugar, and a healthy pinch of salt to each pound of vegetables, bagged them up and threw them in the sous vide at 183°F for a few hours while I was prepping the rest of the meal.

When it got closer to time to serve, I put 1 1/2 cup or so of heavy cream on low heat with some aromatics - a lot of grated ginger, turmeric, thyme, my "custom" spice blend (literally a jar of whatever is left in my mortar and pestle after grinding spices for other dishes - a lot of toasted cumin, some crushed red pepper, coriander, etc.), and some bay leaf. This "hint of herb" cream is a trick I got from Vivian Howard's Deep Run Roots cookbook - highly recommended, especially for a southern cook, and extra especially for a North Carolinian.

When it got much closer to time to serve, I emptied the sous vide bags into a blender and strained in the cream. Ran that thing for a good long while until I was happy with the results and just served it straight from blender to plate.

In my opinion, the best part of the meal.The sweetness played well off the sour apricot mostarda that topped the pork and the smoothness added a luscious quality as well as contrasting texture to the rest of the plate. The extreme ORANGE of it also looked lovely.

Also, did I mention how stupid easy it was?

RECIPE:
2:1 Carrot to Sweet Potatoes
2 Tbsp butter per pound of vegetables
1 Tbsp sugar per pound of vegetables
1 Tsp salt per pound of vegetables

Herb-hinted Cream:
1/2 cup cream per pound
1 Tbsp grated ginger per pound
1/2 Tsp turmeric per pound
A few sprigs of thyme
1/8 Tsp freshly ground cumin per pound
Bay leaf

Heat sous vide to 183°F
Roughly (but consistently) chop vegetables and place into sous-vide bags.
Put bags in sous vide
Wait at least an hour (until vegetables feel tender to touch)

While vegetables cook, add all the cream ingredients to a saucepan on medium-low heat and keep just below boil.

When you're ready to create the dish, add the vegetables to the blender and strain in the cream (feel free to reserve as much as you like as you can add in more in stages to achieve desired consistency) to remove all solids.

Blend until smooth.

Easy Peasy.