I'm back from Portland as I mentioned in my previous post and I was tempted to make some kind of crazy bacon donut, or possibly an elaborate meat platter, if you've ever visited Portland you know what I'm talking about, and if you haven't let me just say the city does in fact have the best ham and bacon you will find. These items were consistently delicious and high quality. It might be that Olympic Provisions is providing all this good bacon. They definitely have the best ham you will ever taste. If you find yourself in Portland I recommend the Sweet Heart Ham. (I wish I had some right now!) If you're not much of a ham eater I would recommend surrendering all resistance and indulge. It's worth it.

Olympic Provisions would have been my #1 brunch place because of that amazing ham (and other delightful goodies), but then… we went to Tasty n Alder. I savored absolutely everything we ordered, right down to the pickled beet garnishing the Bloody Mary! Tasty n Alder serves a lot small plates and "Glazed Yams with Cumin-Maple" was one of the dishes we ordered. They were melt in your mouth perfection. I asked the server how it was prepared and she happily gave a brief explanation of baking the potatoes then sauté them with butter, maple syrup and cumin. I wasn't sure about how much of each but it sounded easy enough, and I'm really happy with how it came out, it's very close to what we had. If you follow my blog you're probably familiar with my love of brunch and there will be more recipes coming soon as I attempt to recreate some more dishes.

I've really come to love cumin, especially with vegetables, it's used in the Vegetable Galettes I made a while back and it compliments the sweet potato so well. Oh, and yam or sweet potato? In the U.S. the names are interchangeable, but a yam is really quite different from a sweet potato, so I'm not really sure about cooking a "yam" as it's a different root vegetable. I'll have to try that one of these days. Until then, here's my recreation with Sweet Potatoes!

Sweet Potato with Cumin Maple
(adapted from Tasty n Alder brunch)

2 small-medium sweet potatoes
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoon maple syrup

Preheat oven to 375°. Wash and dry the sweet potatoes leaving the skins on, wrap in foil and place on baking sheet. Bake for about 1 hour (depending on size), checking at around 45 minutes, potato should be tender but not over cooked. Remove from oven and allow to cool a bit. Slice the potatoes into 1" wedges, or quarter the potato if small in size.

In a large sauté pan heat the butter, cumin and syrup, stirring until well combined and butter is melted. Add potatoes to pan and sauté for about 12-15 minutes over medium heat, rotate them so that each side browns well. Serves 2-4.