“In a Southern family, there’s always someone who makes one dish, one thing they’re truly great at,” says Tandy Wilson of City House, in Nashville, Tennessee. “These recipes tend to be ‘talked,’ passed down from cook to cook.” That’s the case with the chef’s favorite sweet potato casserole, a dish inherited from his grandmother. Instead of the standard marshmallow topping, the recipe uses sorghum syrup for a rich, deep sweetness, and chopped roasted peanuts for a pleasing crunchy contrast. “Now every Thanksgiving,” Wilson says, “it’s my job to make Nana’s sweet potato casserole.”
Food & Drink
Sweet Potato Casserole with Sorghum
Nashville chef Tandy Wilson shares his family recipe for a fall favorite
photo: PETER FRANK EDWARDS
Ingredients
For the Sweet Potatoes
7 pounds sweet potatoes (about 12 potatoes)
1/4 cup sorghum syrup
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces while cold, then slightly softened at room temperature, plus 1 tablespoon for buttering the baking dish
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
For the Topping
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, diced
2 cups peanuts, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon kosher salt
2/3 cup sorghum syrup
Preparation
FOR THE SWEET POTATOES: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Put the potatoes on a foil-lined baking sheet and roast until tender throughout, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. When cool enough to handle, peel away the skin and put the pulp in a large mixing bowl. Using a potato masher, blend the sweet potato pulp together with the syrup, butter, and salt until smooth. Lightly butter a large (9-by-12-by-2 1/2 inch) 3-quart baking dish and transfer the sweet potato mixture to a dish.
FOR THE TOPPING: Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a medium mixing bowl, using your hands, mix together the sugar, flour, butter, peanuts, and salt until the butter chunks are pea size. (You are looking for a streusel-like topping here.) Evenly distribute over the top of the sweet potato mixture. Bake until the topping is crisp and golden brown, about 30 minutes.
Transfer the baking dish to a cooling rack, and drizzle the casserole with the syrup, using a crosshatch pattern. Let the syrup sink into the topping for a few minutes before serving.
Recipe from Garden & Gun’s The Southerner’s Cookbook
Related Stories:
Food & Drink
Alphabet Soup for Grownups
Author Joe Yonan shares his recipe for savory roasted tomato and pepper soup with Southern field peas
Food & Drink
How G&G Does Red Beans & Rice
Garden & Gun Club’s Gina Lee shares her recipe for the classic New Orleans dish
Drinks
Southern Whiskey, Scottish Brogue
In the Virginia foothills, Old World and New unite in a bottle of single malt
Trending Stories:
50
Slideshow
Food & Drink
Forgotten Southern Recipes
From pear salad and tomato pudding to vinegar pie and bacon crackers, we’re more than ready for these old-school classics to make a comeback
19
Slideshow
Arts & Culture
Party Like a Vanderbilt
A new exhibition at the Biltmore in Asheville shows Southern hospitality at its finest
14
Slideshow
Food & Drink