Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

Here’s a delicious side item that I made them to accompany Peruvian Baked Chicken.
It is said that Peru is an incubator of vegetable genetic diversity, with some 8000 varieties of potato alone (although not so many are sold as produce) and the Sweet Potato being one variety found to have been there for thousands of years.

Ingredients (to serve 4):

• sweet potatoes (4, medium to large, well-shaped)
• scallions (2, whites minced, greens chopped coarsely for topping)
• butter (1/2 stick)
• egg yolk (1)
• queso fresco (6 oz., crumbled, with some reserved for topping)
• paprika
• ground pepper (to taste)
• salt (to taste)

Wash the potatos and scour, but do not remove skin, except were blemished; also remove and root fragments.

To prepare for baking, poke holes in the potatoes with a fork and place them on a foil on baking sheet or jelly roll pan; the foil will prevent burning and mess from the sugary syrup that may drip from them while baking.

Bake the potatoes until tender, 1 hour or perhaps slightly more at 400°F.

Sweet Potatoes, prepared for baking

Once baked, allow the potatoes to cool somewhat, and carefully cut a slit in the top of each potato and use a spoon to scoop out the potato, being careful not to tear the potato skin.

In a bowl or pot (such that you might prepare mashed potato in), combine potato, butter, egg yolk, most of the queso fresco, pepper, and salt, and mash until smooth and well combined.  (Queso fresco is crumbly by nature, so it will not completely mix in with potato.)

Carefully refill the potato skins with the potato filling.  Top the potatoes with a sprinkle of paprika and a bit of crumbled queso fresco, and return to the oven to melt the cheese, and perhaps just slightly brown the potato tops.

Stuffed Sweet Potatoes, preparing to return to the oven

Remove from oven and top with scallion greens to serve these sweet and delicious potatoes, perhaps as I did with Peruvian Baked Chicken!

Twice Baked Sweet Potato accompanying Peruvian Baked Chicken

Here’s a similar recipe that I used as a reference (I prefer using queso fresco or feta rather than cream cheese): Stuffed Sweet Potatoes