by Gordon Hamilton

Created on: December 29, 2008

There are two principal reasons why I love sweet potatoes so much as a cooking ingredient. As someone who is very conscious of eating in the healthiest fashion possible, I love them for their nutritious value. Sweet potatoes are high in Vitamins A and C, carbohydrates, iron and calcium. This makes them a fantastic addition to the diet of anyone who is looking to eat in a more healthy way. I also love them, however, for their incredible versatility. While I generally only cook them in savoury dishes, I have read of them being prepared with everything from beef or lamb to marshmallows!

Sweet potatoes are very popular in North African and Arabian cooking, particularly along with that other staple ingredient in said parts of the world, lamb. The two ingredients appear to complement one another perfectly and I myself have at least half a dozen different ways in which I regularly combine and prepare them together. What follows, however, is my tried, tested and developed recipe for lamb and sweet potato casserole. There are but a few ingredients in the casserole itself - but that is the perfect way to ensure we enjoy the principal ones at their very, mouth-watering best!

Ingredients (for two people)

1lb diced leg of lamb

4 small shallots (halved)

2 large sweet potatoes (peeled and chopped in to one to one and a half inch chunks)

1 pint of fresh chicken stock

1 clove of garlic (crushed or very finely chopped)

2 tbsp low fat soured cream

1 tsp of freshly chopped mint

Method

Mix the soured cream, garlic and chopped mint thoroughly together in a small dish. Cover with clingfilm and refrigerate. This part of the recipe can actually be performed the night before and the flavours will be given extra time to deliciously infuse.

Brown the lamb pieces in one pan and heat the stock in another then add both to a casserole dish and put in to a medium oven 350F/180C for one and a half hours. After this time, remove from the oven, add the sweet potato and shallots and cook for a further twenty-five minutes.

Put some crusty French bread on to a baking sheet and place it in the oven for the last two minutes of cooking time to heat through and become almost like newly made bread again.

Serve the lamb and sweet potato casserole in bowls, with a spoonful of the soured cream mixture on top as a garnish, along with the warm bread. This is a slightly rustic, extremely simple and totally delicious meal for two.

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