Roasted Yams/Sweet Potatoes

The yellow ones are sweet potatoes, and the orange ones
are yams. Yams are just sweet potatoes that have been bred
to be orange.

     Discovering you're allergic to most bread, whether the problem is wheat or yeast, is a good reason for brushing up your skills on cooking alternate carbs such as yams and sweet potatoes. These can be perplexing: they're good baked, but they don't mash as smooth as regular potatoes and they tend not to crisp up as easily as regular potatoes.

     This recipe produces excellent roasted rounds of sweet potato or yam, soft on the inside and browned and crisp on the outside.

     2 yams or sweet potatoes
     1 quart of water
     *1/4 c. rice syrup 
     1 Tb. salt (See Salt in the Glossary)
     1/4 tsp. baking soda
     oil (See Oil in the Glossary)

     Preheat oven to 425 F. Add the rice syrup, salt and baking soda to the water in a medium saucepan and bring it to a boil. Meanwhile, peel the yams and slice them into 1" rounds. Add the yams to the boiling water (which should cover the yams), bring it back up to a boil and simmer until the yams are softened, up to 8 minutes. Drain, and stir the yams gently with a big spoon. At this point they will have a questionable-looking, gooey texture. Do not be alarmed: this means the baking soda and syrup have done their job and the yams are ready to crisp up. Resist any temptation to add spices at this point: they would scorch and leave nasty, bitter flavors.

      Spread out on a thoroughly greased cooky sheet and bake until mostly browned on the bottom, about 20 minutes. Spray the tops with oil. Remove from oven; separate each round from the cooky sheet with a spatula and flip it over. Bake another 15-20 minutes, until browned on both sides.

     Alternatively, once the rounds have been boiled as described above, they can be fried on both sides in a bit of oil at medium high heat.

*Note that some rice syrup is not gluten-free, as the processing involves enzymes which may have been derived from barley. Watch for gluten-free syrup if this is an issue.