Stove Top Sweet Potatoes

If you are like us at thanksgiving, your oven is the most popular appliance in your kitchen and it is like the popular girl at a dance. Everyone wants a dance with her but there might be too many suitors and too little time for everyone to get there dance in. That is why I came up with the following sweet potato recipe that can be cooked in a skillet or a frying pan on your stove top. Before giving you this simple recipe let me tell you some Thanksgiving rules that I hold to be self evident. You may or may not agree with me.

Rules
1. It is good to eat healthy and fresh but during Thanksgiving, health and freshness take a back seat to convenience and a little indulgence.
2. Turkey is the low man on the totem pole for thanksgiving foods. The most important Thanksgiving foods are in the following order; sweet potatoes/yams, stuffing, gravy, pies, potatoes, drinks, salads, veggies, casseroles, turkey.
3. The people you celebrate thanksgiving with are even more important than the food.
4. If you aren't watching the Lions lose a football game, it's not Thanksgiving.
5. Companies (other than retailers) that make people work on the Friday after thanksgiving need to be boycotted.

That being said here is my simple stove top recipe for sweet potatoes.

Ingredients

4-5 medium sweet potatoes/yams
1 15 oz can sliced apricots
1 cup brown sugar
olive oil
Salt
Candied Pecans

Add the can of apricots with juice to a small saucepan with 1 cup brown sugar. Stir until the brown sugar dissolves. Simmer on medium low heat. You will need to let it cook for a while as we want it to reduce and make a sticky glaze for the sweet potatoes. While the apricots are cooking cube the sweet potatoes. Heat skillet to medium high. Add a little olive oil to skillet. Add cubed sweet potatoes to pan and fry turning periodically. The potatoes should start to brown. Add Salt to potatoes. Once they are fork tender transfer them to a serving dish. Once the apricot has reduced to a syrup pour it on top of the sweet potatoes and stir. Add chopped candied pecans and stir them in.

I personally love any type of sweet potato including the mega desserty casseroles that have more sugar and marshmallows than sweet potatoes. I know that this recipe isn't the healthiest but it is a nice compromise between plain sweet potatoes and the marshmallow concoctions that make my eyes hurt because they are so sweet. My wife and kids rave about these every time we have them. The sweet, tangy apricot glaze really goes well with the smoky, salty sweet potatoes. I know this recipe sounds really basic but the flavors are really complex and the best thing is that you don't have to use the oven.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving

Michael