Sweet Potato Hash

Justin and I eat a LOT of pasta. So it's awesome when we find a recipe that doesn't involve so much refined wheat, that's actually, you know, good for you. Sweet potatoes (or yams? I never know the difference) are some of the best foods in the world for you — full of vitamins and stuff. Pair it with eggplant and fennel, and you got yourself a side dish.

I mean, look at this stuff. Doesn't that look healthy?

And all chopped up, still looks great:

Ingredients for Sweet Potato Hash
1 small sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 eggplant (we used a "graffiti" eggplant, available at Whole Foods, but a Japanese or Chinese eggplant would work great too)
3 cloves garlic
1 large jalapeno
1 small fennel bulb
2 thick slices of homemade bread - this makes for a stuffing-like hash. I love stuffing, but if you don't, I guess you can skip the bread.
1 cup white wine (we used Chardonnay)
Salt & Pepper
Dash of cayenne

Preparation:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. 

Remove the crusts from your bread, cube up and scatter on a baking sheet:

Chop up all your veg (see above). First you want to sauté your potatoes and fennel; they take the longest.

Don't forget your salt, pepper, and cayenne.

Cook until you get a beautiful caramelization on them:

Then toss in the rest of your veggies (except the garlic, that goes in last minute)

Stir occasionally until your veggies are cooked through. Your eggplant will be a little transluscent. Add more olive oil as you go so that they don't totally dry out.

Your bread is done when it's lightly toasted.

See how the eggplant have softened? This is when you pour in the wine to deglaze.

Let the wine evaporate so all the veggies soak up the flavor.

Chop up your bread.

Toss it in with the garlic. Saute again for a minute.

Yum.

We had ours with seared Artic Char. 

Check back tomorrow to see how Justin got that beautiful sear on it.