A simple mashed sweet potato enhanced with brown butter and a touch of bourbon.
*See Kitchen Notes for substitutions and more information.
Melt the butter in the small light colored sauce pan. Cook over medium to medium-low heat until the water evaporates (the foaming stage) and the solids and butter starts to brown. (The solids will sink to the bottom of the pan.)
Once the potatoes are cool, scoop the pulp into a non-metal mixing bowl. Mash the potatoes with a potato masher (not a pastry cutter :) ).
Add 2 tablespoons of the butter-bourbon sauce and the milk. Mix with the potatoes and continue to mash to the desired texture (we like ours more smashed than mashed). If too thick to your liking, add a little more milk or a little more brown butter.
Brown Butter – Brown butter is pretty easy to make. The trick is to keep watch on it so it doesn’t burn and to cook it in a white or light colored skillet or pan. If you use a dark colored pan you won’t be able to watch the color turning as the butter cooks, so it’s easy to under or overcook.
As the butter cooks, the solids in the butter will sink to the bottom of the pan and start to brown. In fact, some of the brown color in the picture above is due to the brown solids on the bottom of the dish. If you do overcook it, not to worry. You could always use it as Beurre noir. To read more about Brown Butter, visit Bay Area Bites.
You can use the leftover Brown Butter Bourbon Sauce with carrots, to sauce a steak, or poured over pasta.
Milk substitute – Soy, rice, or almond milk are all good substitutes.
Bourbon – Use your favorite Bourbon. Because the butter bourbon mixture only gets simmered for 1 minute, the alcohol will not evaporate. Therefore, if you don’t drink or even cook with alcohol, not to worry, just omit it. The nuttiness of the brown butter will still add a deliciousness to the potatoes that you’ll love.
Recipe author: MJ of MJ's Kitchen