Do you have a killer recipe for Louisiana Sweet Potatoes?

Louisiana Sweet Potato Commission seeks your winning recipe

Do you have a killer recipe for sweet potatoes? Get inspired to create a unique dish featuring this exceptional root veggie and enter to win the annual Louisiana Sweet Potato Commission Contest.

The sweet potatoes popularity in Louisiana in the past few years has risen and can be found on many restaurant menus. Most commonly consumed as a side dish complimenting a Thanksgiving Feast, the year round consumption boosts many health benefits and let’s face it, they are delicious.

However, the sweet potato is not a potato at all. Or even a distant relative to the potato. Potatoes are tubers and sweet potatoes are actually roots. In Louisiana, they are often referred to as yams and have found their way onto many restaurant menus as side dishes and desserts mainly in recent years.

Now in its 10^th year, the Louisiana Sweet Potato Commission is sponsoring a recipe contest in partnership with Louisiana Cookin’ magazine. More than 1,000 recipes were submitted last year from every state in the nation and more are expected this year. 

Sweet Potato Corn Spoon Bread took the top prize in the
Professional category in 2012.

The Louisiana Restaurant Association is also a sponsor and encourages professional chefs and amateurs foodies to submit their most delicious recipe for an appetizers, side dish, entrée or desserts. An overall grand prize winner will be selected and will win $1,000! To top it off, one winner in the professional category will be awarded an additional $500 each. 

"Culinary competitions are really exciting ways to grow your restaurant's customer base and exposure," said Wendy Waren, LRA VP of Communications. "Winning this contest results in a spot in the October issue of Louisiana Cookin' magazine and hard cold cash. What are you waiting for?"

So if you are thinking you want to try your hand at a root vegetable gratin featuring sweet potatoes, a gulf seafood bisque or your specialty sweet potato dessert, here’s your chance to possibly cash in and earn bragging rights.

This year, chefs and home cooks have the option of using fresh, frozen or canned sweet potatoes in their creations.  Deadline to submit your recipe(s) is May 31, 2013. If you enter more than one recipe, you need to complete a separate entry for each recipe.

Prize winners will be determined based on overall flavor, visual appeal and creativity. Finalists’ recipes will be prepared by culinary students at Delgado Community College of New Orleans and judged by an independent panel of food industry professional whose decisions are final.

Those that are the brightest, prettiest orange color are the richest in beta-carotene, contain vitamin B6, iron, potassium and fiber and contain virtually no fat or sodium.  Studies have consistently shown that a high intake of beta carotene-rich foods like the sweet potato can significantly reduce the risks for certain types of cancer.

With the rich soil conditions in Louisiana, the nutritional benefits and a cash prize, that’s a winning recipe in our books! So enter today!

We love to eat them fried, mashed, baked, in a soup and even as a hash for breakfast. What is your favorite way to eat the beloved sweet potato?

Louisiana produce, fresh to the table

This article was printed in the Louisiana Restaurant Association's Spring A La Carte magazine and writtin by Liz Williams, President and Founder of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum. Part of a four part series, Louisiana produce, fresh to the table, examines Louisiana's cultural connectivity to our unique cuisine and written to commemorate the Bicentennial of our beloved state.

When the Europeans came to Louisiana they found incredible abundance, but they did not find conventional agriculture.  The orderly rows of plants, which marked European agriculture, did not exist here.  The Europeans thought that what the Native Americans did was merely hunting and gathering.  But the Native Americans were great stewards of the land.  They had planted peach trees on the levees - peaches having been brought here by the early Spanish explorers - to encourage good drainage.  They cleared areas to encourage blackberries and dewberries.  They ground file and picked greens.  And they engaged in the practice of growing the 3 sisters:  corn, squash (like cushaw, which provided the fruit and seeds), and beans.  

The soil was fertile, and the early Europeans were able to create farms that supported the first settlers.  Around the Cote des Allemandes Alsatian farmers began to grow the food that was needed to support early Louisiana. They were not engaged in monoculture to raise money for France in the early days.  They were trying to feed themselves when shipments from France were infrequent at best. 

Native Americans were great stewards of the land and
they cleared areas to encourage blackberries and dewberries.

By the time that Louisiana became a state things had changed.  The 19^th century brought prosperity to the port of New Orleans and the Mississippi River, which served the entire state as a water highway.  Citrus, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and rice were important crops in the state.  Louisiana strawberries, the state fruit, are among the sweetest in the country, giving rise to the Strawberry Festival in Pontchatoula.  It seems that every product has its festival, because we here in Louisiana do not seem to be able to stop celebrating the bounty of the state, while having a good time.  But less than 400 acres are dedicated to the production of strawberries today, which while locally important, is not a major export to other states. And there is concern that the Louisiana strawberry is giving way to hardier and prettier cultivars from Florida and California.

Today the state is third in the US in the production of rice.  Rice is the daily starch of most of the state.  Whether eaten with gumbo or red beans, an etouffee, a shrimp Creole, or a jambalaya, Louisianians eat a daily portion of rice. It is certainly important enough that there are many recipes that have been created simply to use leftover rice.  Besides the traditional calas, there is also rice pudding.  And on the savory side, many a stuffed tomato, mirliton or pepper began with a bowl of leftover rice.  Besides its great production of rice, the state produces $230 million in soybeans, according to the LSU Ag Center.  And about 350,000 acres of the state are planted in corn.

The Tabasco pepper grown in Avery Island, Louisiana
has gained world-renowned status and can be found on
nearly every restaurant and home tables.

The Tabasco pepper and the famous Tabasco pepper sauce represent the state of Louisiana all over the world.  And other local pepper sauces can be found on the tables of many Cajun, Creole and northern Louisiana cooks, depending on the local tastes.  Restaurant tables often sport several different sauces to allow the customer a bit of choice.

Satsumas are grown in orchards in Southeast Louisiana and
are sweet and have a loose skin, making them easy to peel.

But being high in production for export is not the only important aspect of the state’s agriculture.  Sometimes the food is celebrated for just plain tasting good, even if it never leaves the state.  Creole tomatoes, for example, are a prime example of local terroir.  Those same tomatoes grown in a different environment would not taste quite so good.  While the tomato is a New World fruit, the satsuma, a very popular citrus fruit in Louisiana, is originally from Japan and brought to Louisiana by the Jesuits.  The satsuma has caught on in the backyards and tables of the state even though it is rarely seen in grocery stores outside of the Louisiana drive radius. 

Only the Louisiana yam, which is really an aged sweet potato, has the texture and sweetness to hold up to baking.  This New World tuber is a favorite in Louisiana, not only gracing the Thanksgiving table, but finding its way into pies and casseroles. Most recently sweet potato fries have been a popular alternative to pommes frites. 

Matt Murphy of the Irish House is one of many
Louisiana chefs who use locally-grown produce to
add rich flavor and bright colors to their menus.

Another New World food is the pecan.  This nut is found all over the state.  It is the highest in antioxidants of all of the tree nuts.  They made wonderful desserts like pecan pie and pralines, but also are fine additions to savory dishes and salads. Louisiana orchards produce about 15 million pounds of pecans each year. 

Besides large farms many restaurants are enhancing their own tables with fresh produce from restaurant farms and gardens.  It is a good way to monitor quality and demonstrate a dedication to the freshest ingredients.  Not all restaurants have the land to create their own gardens, and these restaurateurs sometimes have direct contacts with small farmers who sell directly to the restaurants.

Louisiana produce comes from the rich and fertile soil of the state.  Whether it is the product of monoculture like soybeans, rice and corn, which makes enormous contributions to the state’s economy, or is an heirloom fruit like a Louisiana strawberry, Louisiana produce is some of the finest to grace the table.