- [Narrator] This program was funded in part by The Forest at Duke, a retirement community in the heart of Durham, North Carolina.

With more than 350 residents, The Forest at Duke presents residents with ongoing opportunities to keep growing.

[upbeat music] - Coming up on "The Key Ingredient."

Today we are talking delightful sweet potatoes.

From my updated classic casserole to a delicious twice-baked potato, let me show you how sweet potatoes can be the key ingredient in your next recipe.

But first things first, one of my favorite things in the world is a trip to a farmer's market.

And then I cook along with my friend J Chong, as she teaches us the art of making Chinese dumplings by hand.

That's next.

I'm Sheri Castle.

I write cookbooks.

I write for food magazines.

I cook, I teach, and I collect stories.

And my favorite stories are the ones behind our best-loved home recipes.

That smells good.

You think bears are gonna come?

- Probably out here.

- Oh, that's awesome.

I will go out and explore from the ground up the best ingredients that go into some of our most beloved family recipes.

It's all about the food, the flavors, and finding the key ingredient.

[upbeat jazz music] I am at the North Asheville Farmer's Market.

You know, when some people travel, they go to the art museums and the music revues.

I do that.

I also go to all the farmer's markets.

It's one of my favorite places to figure out what's going on in a town.

Hey, hey, I know you're busy.

Just wanna say hope you have a good market today, and I cannot wait to cook with you tomorrow.

- Exactly.

- All right.

- Let's do it.

- All right, all right, see ya.

- Oh, yeah, tomorrow, see you tomorrow.

- You bet.

- Okay, bye.

- Bye.

I love it when I come to a market and see people I know, both customers and vendors.

It's kinda like a little family reunion when you come regularly.

That's where you can find some of the varieties you're just not gonna find anywhere else.

And if you're not sure what something is, ask the farmer, 'cause there is nobody better prepared and more eager to talk about the good things they've grown than the person that grew it.

Hey, how you doing?

- Hi, how's it going?

- I'm doing good.

I'm here for sweet potatoes.

Looks like I got the right spot.

- Yeah.

- I'm gonna guess, I think these are Covingtons.

Are these Covingtons?

- [Vendor] Yes, they are, yeah.

- But what I don't know is what these are, with the purple skin, and it looks like white flesh.

- No, these are purple flesh.

- Are they really?

- Yeah.

- Oh, I gotta have a couple of these.

- They're delicious.

- What is this on the other side?

Is that an Asian variety, or what is that one?

- Yeah, this is a Japanese sweet potato.

Maybe a little less sweet than your traditional orange flesh one.

- That's, to me, they're always a little drier and a little less sweet.

- Yep.

- Okay, let me get one more of these guys.

And shall I put it up here?

- Mhm.

Good luck with them.

- I always find..

Thank you.

- Do you know what you're making?

- I got some notions.

Notions and ideas, but I'm not entirely sure, but, yeah, I know they'll be good.

- All right.

- Thank you.

- Yep, enjoy.

- See ya.

- See ya.

- So look at these.

This is my farmer's market haul.

Look at how many different varieties I got.

When I get a sweet potato I've never had before, that's what I do, I roast one and taste it and see what it's like compared to other sweet potatoes I've had.

Now, this one is probably like what a lot of us are used to, a good standard orange.

It'll work in anything.

But look at this one.

It is going to be the color of like the outside of an eggplant or like a berry.

And you know, it holds this color when you cook it.

You can make a sweet potato pie with this that nobody will believe that that's what it is on the inside.

And here's another one.

One that's kind of new to me is the whole category of white sweet potatoes.

But it's actually one of the oldest kinds of sweet potatoes around.

Inside, it has completely white, creamy flesh.

And I found it's a little bit drier, a little bit sweeter.

I love these things.

Now, what am I gonna do when I get all these home?

Well, I'll tell ya.

I'm not gonna wash 'em, because, although you don't want clumps of dirt on 'em, you wanna leave a little bit of dirt on 'em because it's a natural protectant that's gonna make them last longer.

So don't wash 'em until right before you're going to cook them.

All of these are sweet potatoes.

But you know what none of them are?

Yams.

But really, a yam is a completely different vegetable.

We're keeping these on the sweet side of potato, good old sweet taters.

[gentle guitar music] J Chong is an expert when it comes to making Chinese dumplings and sauces.

What started as a family cooking tradition alongside her grandmother has grown into her full-time business.

Today she's going to give me my very first lesson in making wonton dumplings, and sweet potatoes are the star of the show.

Hello, my friend.

- Hi, how are you?

- I'm so happy to be here.

Thanks for having me over today.

- Of course.

- So ever since we started making plans about this, you told me we were making some of your famous dumplings.

- Right.

- Tell me more.

- But today we're gonna add a special ingredient that's local to our region, sweet potatoes.

- Sweet potato dumplings.

Is this something you make a lot?

- When it's in season I like to, so, but we're gonna incorporate a little bit of pork in there just to give a little more umami flavor.

But I really like sweet potatoes 'cause it adds such a natural sweet flavor.

- They don't call 'em sweet potatoes for nothing.

- Exactly, that's right.

- Okay, what do I do first?

- [J] All right, so we're gonna grab these sweet potatoes here, poke it with a fork, wrap 'em in foil, and we're gonna bake 'em off.

- All right.

- All right.

- Into the oven we go.

- All right.

[bright upbeat music] - Let's do the squish test.

- Okay, let's try.

Oh yes, they're ready.

I smell 'em too.

So we're gonna go ahead and start unwrapping the sweet potatoes.

- [Sheri] Okey-doke.

- And start making our mix.

- May I hand you one?

- Thank you.

And then I just like to just peel it.

'cause, you know, that's when you know it's ready.

Just peel it open.

- Oh, look.

- Once we get it off the skin, we're just gonna add the sweet potatoes back to the bowl.

- [Sheri] Okay.

- So right now, I'm gonna, you know, bring the bowl towards us, and we're gonna talk about the ingredients.

So, shiitake mushroom.

So it's pretty important to small dice the ingredients when you're making a dumpling.

So I'm just gonna add.

Next up, we have water chestnuts.

- [Sheri] I love that crunch.

- Yeah.

And we have fresh scallions here.

I like to use the greens and the whites.

I think you use the whole stem, it's great.

I think I'm gonna cut some ginger here.

You know, start with the most flat side and just run your knife through.

And I'm kind of making slices here.

- [Sheri] Right.

- Okay?

And then at some point, I'm going to stack it all up and we're gonna go matchstick.

With everything that goes into the dumpling, you want it to be small enough so it fits into the wrap, so we're gonna go across this one more time.

- The trick is to make it small enough that it's gonna fit in with the texture in here, but not pulverize it to the point that the good stuff runs off on the floor.

- Exactly.

All right, let's go.

So we're gonna go ahead and add the spices.

So right now, we have five-spice.

So I'm just gonna add all of that in there.

Next up, we have white pepper.

Here's some salt.

Tablespoon for me is a big pinch, okay?

Next up, we have sesame oil.

- All right.

- Okay?

So sesame oil, go ahead.

- So I can smell it, so this is that deep, rich, dark flavor ingredient sesame oil, not something you would fry in.

- Never, never ever, okay?

So next up, we have Chinese cooking wine.

Last up, we have soy sauce.

Just add that all in.

Last up, we have some minced pork here, okay?

- Just ground pork.

- Just ground pork, you got it.

So we're gonna go ahead and add that all to the bowl.

[upbeat music] All right, so this is how we're gonna taste the filling when there's raw meat in there.

- Okay.

- Okay?

So I'm gonna go ahead and turn on this induction burner.

And we have just a little bit of oil, so we're just gonna add a little to the pan.

So we're just gonna take a little bit of filling.

Add some to the pan.

- So you're, like, cooking, like, a little mini burger or something so that this will be safe for us to taste, to make sure all of our flavors are there.

- Yeah, absolutely.

So we're gonna go ahead, if you wanna go first.

- [Sheri] Okay.

- It's gonna be super, super hot.

What you think?

What you think?

- I think it's wonderful because you can taste the individual things, but there's balance.

But, you know, we probably should make some dumplings rather than just eating the rest of this out of the skillet.

- Absolutely, you ready to make some dumplings?

- I cannot wait.

- All right, let's do it.

[gentle upbeat music] - [Sheri] I see the things.

Is it time to wrap?

- It's time to wrap.

Are you ready?

- I'm ready.

- All right, so we're gonna go ahead and grab a wonton wrapper.

So we're gonna go ahead, and take your spoon, get a little bit of filling.

And it's key to put it in the center of your wrap.

- [Sheri] In the very center.

- [J] You got it.

- [Sheri] All right.

- So you could use a pastry brush to, you know, wet the edges of your wonton wrap.

You can use that.

- And we're just moistening this 'cause this is making what?

The flour and this turn into glue so it'll stick?

- Exactly, yep, this is gonna be our sealant.

So we're gonna go ahead and take it and fold it in half.

And as I am sealing it, I'm kind of pushing the filling towards the center of the wrap.

So once we're at this point, we're gonna go ahead and wet the, say, the right side of the wrapper.

- [Sheri] The right side, okay.

- And we're gonna bring the bottom corners together with your right side underneath the left.

And there we have it.

- I made a dumpling.

- Look at that.

[giggles] Well done, that's great.

That's beautiful for your first time.

And the greatness about dumplings, because you make so many at a time, you could invite your friends over for a little dumpling-making session, or just make a bunch and then freeze it.

- Now, you keep going, 'cause you're gonna have 42 done by the time I get my second one.

I love doing this.

All right, one more here.

- Beautiful, look at that.

All right, so I think we're gonna go ahead and put these in the freezer.

- Okay, so you've got 'em single layer.

- Yep.

- And do these need to be covered?

- Not at all.

Just leave 'em uncovered straight in the freezer.

- Got it.

- All right?

So we're gonna wait a couple of hours, probably about two.

They're gonna be slightly frozen, and then we're gonna just drop 'em in some boiling water.

- [Sheri] Okay, the water's at a boil.

I just got these out of the freezer.

- Beautiful.

So these are nice and frozen already, so we're gonna go ahead and just drop them one by one.

So as I drop them in, I'm just gonna use a spider here and just give it a nice stir.

So I'm pretty confident that they're at a good pace right now, so we're just gonna let them continue dancing together, as you can see.

And a little trick is, once they start floating up to the top, that's when you know they're about ready.

- Don't you love it when food tells you what to do?

- Absolutely.

- I love that.

- So I'm just gonna go ahead and gently scoop it out.

Give it a little tap on the side of the pot.

Place it in.

- So you've got a couple of drops of water, not soupiness, but a couple of drops of water.

And that's fine?

- [J] That is totally fine.

It's gonna kind of add, like, a natural broth to the dish.

- [Sheri] No kidding.

- So this is our delicious dipping sauce or sauce.

Go ahead.

- So you're adding that saltiness, that heat, that sweetness.

- Exactly.

And cilantro, just going ahead and a little garnish.

- [Sheri] Is that not beautiful?

- [J] All right, are we ready to taste?

- I'm so excited.

All right, here we go.

Oh my.

- Mmm.

- Mmm.

- That five-spice really came through.

- It's revealing itself.

I got ginger and the five-spice.

I'm getting the heat and the sauce.

Oh my goodness.

- The sweet potatoes in there really come through.

I really like that.

- And you do.

And we don't forget that this is a sweet potato recipe.

'Cause if you had put anything else, it wouldn't be there.

- Right.

- And I now know how to fold a wonton.

- You're pretty much a pro.

These are absolutely beautiful.

- Oh my goodness, you're being kind.

Thank you for letting me come over today.

- Yeah, of course.

Thanks for being here.

I appreciate you.

This was fun.

- Let's cook together again, okay?

- Okay.

- Thanks, friend.

- Yay.

- I'm feeling sweet potatoes.

I have a whole tray of them here.

About an hour and a half ago, I popped these guys into a 375 degree oven.

I've let them cool off till I can handle them, and now I'm just gonna take the skins off.

Now, the destiny for these sweet potatoes is a recipe that I have been making for more than 20 years.

I call it sweet potato casserole.

But some people will call this a sweet potato souffle, maybe a sweet potato pudding.

And while they're still slightly warm, I'm gonna mash these, and then we'll go get on with the good stuff that goes in.

And now I'm gonna start adding the good stuff.

I'm gonna be using an electric mixer, but I'm not even gonna turn it on at first.

I'm just gonna use the beaters to crush these potatoes up.

And the first thing is some softened butter and some dark brown sugar.

And that's all the sugar that's going to go into these sweet potatoes.

It is a very gentle sweetness.

Turn this on low and just start a little initial blending.

Once I feel that these potatoes are starting to crush, we'll go up a little bit in speed, because every time I turn this mixer on, I'm adding a little air, a little bit of fluffiness to this entire thing.

That is just right for now.

So let me tell you what else I have here.

This is half-and-half.

Bourbon, good bourbon.

The nuttiness and the wonderful aroma of that is a great pairing with sweet potatoes.

Vanilla extract and one whole egg.

This egg is going to bind the sweet potatoes a little bit.

It's also gonna give a tiny bit of lift and volume.

And some pumpkin pie spice.

Yes, this isn't a pumpkin pie, but pumpkin pie spice is just what we need for these sweet potatoes.

Now, what is in pumpkin pie spice might vary from brand to brand, but generally speaking, it is cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice, all the good stuff.

And then I'm gonna show you my two secret ingredients to this.

We have a lemon.

Now, you'll see I'm taking off the zest, the zest being that shiny outside part of my lemon.

There is a ton of flavor in there, actually more in the zest than there is in the juice.

Not to mention, it smells great.

Making sure none's stuck to the bottom.

And then I am going to juice this lemon and get that juice in there, every delicious drop.

And now I'm gonna add one more thing that is a secret to this great recipe.

This is a jar of peach preserves.

I'm putting in about 1/3 of a cup, and it is going to be that final thing that we need to make these taste great.

And a little salt.

Salt makes everything in the bowl shine a little brighter and taste a little bit more like itself.

Then take my good old mixer again, turn it on, and let this become one.

And that's good to go.

Yeah, there's still a little bit of butter showing, not worried about that.

It's gonna come together in the oven.

So whenever I use a mixer to blend, I still take my handy-dandy spatula and give it a few good turns up from the bottom to make sure that everything is blended in.

So this is all stirred up.

Gonna be ready to go into a baking dish into the oven.

So this bakes in a buttered baking dish.

So I'm just taking some softened butter.

And I'm using my fingers.

Some people use a paper or a pastry brush.

I like to get my fingers in this.

In goes our sweet potato mixture.

And you wanna level the top.

So now I'm gonna make this simple crunch topping to go on top of the sweet potatoes.

I'm gonna start with some all-purpose flour and some more of that delicious, richly flavored dark brown sugar.

And a bit more of that same pumpkin pie spice that we put in the filling.

So I'm just gonna stir that up a little bit.

And then this is melted butter.

I'm just gonna stir this around.

And it's gonna look dry, but it's really not.

Add my pinch of salt.

Salt with the sweet makes all this taste better.

And when it starts looking like some wet sand, that's when I'm going to toss in pecan pieces.

So we're gonna put that in there.

And then, with my fingers, I'm just tossing them together to make this little topping.

And it goes on our sweet potatoes.

I use my fingers and kind of sprinkle it around to make sure I'm getting it in the corners, because everyone is gonna want their fair share of this brown sugar topping.

It's just the right amount of topping and sweetness that make our sweet potatoes happy.

And now it goes into the oven just to warm through and get a little bit bubbly, easy-peasy.

Look at how pretty this is.

I love how it looks when it comes out of the oven.

You've got just that perfect little top layer of the crisp topping.

It stays on top, it doesn't sink down in there, and there's just enough of it to enhance the sweet potatoes without overwhelming them.

Another thing I want you to remember is let this rest about 15 minutes before you serve it.

It is so hot when it comes out of the oven, you can't taste all the good things.

When it cools off to a nice warmth, you're going to get every delicious thing we put in there.

And speaking of tasting every delicious thing, that's what I'm gonna do.

Let me get some out here.

You know, I've called this a side dish, which it certainly can be.

And it is so good, you don't want to save it just for holidays.

But I've been known to eat this for breakfast.

And you know what?

At my house, this qualifies as dessert, too.

The crunch of the pecans, that beautiful earthiness of a great sweet potato.

This is a fabulous casserole.

Maybe we won't call it casserole, maybe it needs another name.

But no matter what we call this, it is so good.

You're gonna love this.

It is one of my favorite sweet potato recipes I have ever made.

It's so good.

You know, when I was a kid and we would go to a fancy restaurant, when I would see twice-baked potatoes on the menu, I thought that was about the fanciest potato I could imagine.

And one day I got the idea, I'm gonna do these with sweet potatoes.

And that's what we're gonna make right now.

So all I've done so far is taken four sweet potatoes, more or less the same size, put 'em on a parchment-lined baking sheet and roasted them until they're done.

Now, I didn't wrap 'em in foil.

That was deliberate, because we're gonna eat the skins, and I wanted that beautiful flavor and texture to come through.

So I'm gonna take my sweet potatoes and I'm gonna scoop out the middles, and it's gonna leave me these cute little sweet potato boats that will hold that filling later.

It's so easy.

And then, once I've got that filling in there, I'm gonna take masher and just crush this up a little bit.

And now we have our building blocks.

We're gonna put these aside.

I'm gonna set this aside.

And we'll cook some more stuff, and then this is all gonna meet up a little bit later.

So what I've been doing is cooking some bacon, just two or three pieces.

And I cut it into little rectangles so it will cook evenly all the way around.

And mine is going to go right over here.

And I'm gonna take a slotted spoon.

And I'm gonna take this bacon out.

So I've taken these good drippings still in the pan, and I'm gonna cook some things in it.

The first thing I'm adding is a small onion that has been diced up, along with a little pinch of salt.

And after these onions have started softening up just a little bit, I'm gonna put in one small apple that's been diced in little cubes.

I like a sweet, tart apple for those flavors and that texture.

But I also want an apple that's gonna hold its shape when it cooks, so I have these beautiful little pieces in the filling instead of it collapsing into a sauce.

After these start turning a little bit tender, I'm gonna put in a leafy green.

I am using kale.

I'm gonna add a little bit, stir it in, and let the steam that's coming off my onions and apples start to wilt it just a bit.

Isn't this pretty?

I love little bits of the peel.

That's why I left the peel on this apple.

I love those little bits of color.

So there's enough moisture in this that the kale is going to wilt.

Let me show you what I've got over here on the cutting board.

This is aged Gouda cheese, and I just love it.

Now that this has come back up to temperature, let me add two more delicious things.

This is whole-grain mustard.

It's a kind of Dijon mustard.

And you could use the smooth kind, but I find those little seeds that come in the whole-grain mustard to be irresistible.

I also have a little bit of fresh thyme.

Stir that in.

So from that, I am going to add back in my sweet potatoes from earlier so that they can warm back up.

And I'm gonna take that cheese, not all of it, I gotta save some for the top, but a small handful.

And stir everything together.

So I'm gonna put a little bit more salt, remembering that there's gonna be some salt from that bacon that will go back on top.

And believe it or not, a little bit of salt from that cheese.

Some good grinds of fresh black pepper.

Stir it back together.

And this is what's going to go in our sweet potato shells to be our beautiful filling.

So now it's time to stuff the shells.

And I'm going to divide that among our sweet potato shells.

You know, I sort of eyeball it, but you can always go back and even them out later if you need to.

So there's my filling.

And then I'm gonna take the rest of that cheese, this aged Gouda.

So it's aged enough to have that great depth of flavor I was talking about, but it's not so old that it won't melt.

A little bit on each one.

And then that delicious bacon, it's gonna go back on top, too.

Your fingers are the way to go about this.

It is almost impossible to pick up one piece of cooked bacon on the end of the spoon.

And there we have it.

That's it, they're all assembled and they're going to go back into a warm oven just until the filling warms up, that cheese melts just a little bit, until they're a little bit bubbly, and they're ready to eat.

Well, these turned out just right.

I am so pleased.

Look how the shells hold their shape.

You can see the green, you can see the pink from the apple, the gorgeous orange of the potato.

My cheese is melty.

And I cannot wait another minute to dig in.

Mmm, that is so good.

You taste everything individually, but then it comes together on the forkful, and you don't lose sight that this is a sweet potato recipe.

Sweet potatoes are the star.

They're what pulled the whole thing together.

I just love these, and I think you're gonna love them, too.

So make 'em real soon, okay?

[bright upbeat music] Let's talk sweet potato puree.

You know, it is the building block of so many recipes, just like the casserole we made.

Wanna give you some tips and hints here.

When I want a light, sweet, floral, more mild sweet potato flavor, I wrap them in foil.

It's more of a steam roast, and they come out really tender.

But if I want a deeper sweet potato flavor, a bit more caramelized, I roast them unwrapped just directly on a tray.

Now, to make puree ahead, which I often do, I take my sweet potatoes, peel them, and puree them in some way.

But once you have your puree, here's what I want you to do next.

This is a great tip.

I want you to transfer it into a fine mesh sieve.

If you don't have a fine mesh one, you can line it with a paper coffee filter, or you can use a white paper towel.

See all this excess liquid that comes out?

Imagine if you were to suddenly add an extra 1/2 cup or more of liquid to your recipe.

You'd wonder, why on earth is this so soggy and drippy?

It's because of that excess liquid.

One last thing I'm so excited to share with you.

See these little leaves?

These are leaves from a sweet potato vine.

They are delicious.

Now, you can't eat 'em raw, but they need just a few seconds of cooking.

Little olive oil, little garlic, something like that.

They're so delicious.

Sweet potato greens.

Who knew there was another delicious thing you can get from a sweet potato plant?

You don't wanna miss it.

Sweet potatoes, from the roots to the leaves, they are one of my favorite ingredients.

[gentle upbeat music] I hope you've enjoyed seeing new ways you can use sweet potatoes.

They are delicious, nutritious.

And I promise, these jewels are going to be perfect in your next recipe.

- These are actually kind of funny because someone gave these to the farmers years ago, and they don't know what variety they are, and they've just been growing 'em for years and years now.

Anne calls 'em Loretta Blue.

Loretta was their old dog, their old farm dog.

- [Sheri] Oh, that's the best.

Visit our website.

It's where you'll find the key ingredient for a perfect time in the kitchen.

[gentle music] - [Narrator] This program was funded in part by The Forest at Duke, a retirement community in the heart of Durham, North Carolina.

With more than 350 residents, The Forest at Duke presents residents with ongoing opportunities to keep growing.