Cookbook Club: Baked Sweet Potatoes with Garlic Fermented Shrimp Butter

To catch up on this month’s Cookbook Club, read about The Rise cookbook here!

One of the things I love about cookbooks is how they teach me new methods of cooking. Because of this, I try very hard to make recipes exactly as written the first time around. Sure, I have an Instant Pot, a microwave, a slow cooker…but sometimes you just have to do something the old fashioned way because it helps me appreciate what those before me have discovered about making delicious food.

These baked sweet potatoes with garlic-fermented shrimp butter are a perfect example. Sure, there are several ways of baking potatoes that are more hands off or take less time, but this recipe is the only way to achieve skin with a bit of salty crispness and a fluffy interior. My other gadgets cannot replicate these textures.

With that said, I could not locate fermented shrimp paste, no matter how hard I tried, so I researched alternatives and was directed to fish sauce. MUCH easier to come by. If you decide to use your microwave to bake your potatoes, I won’t judge! We all have to make decisions that feel right to us, am I right?

The beauty of this recipe is that it is familiar but made more delicious with a condiment unlike anything I’ve ever made or tasted. Avocado, butter, garlic, and thyme come together with the help of fish sauce and soy sauce. It is salty-umami-creamy goodness and, paired with a perfectly baked sweet potato, brings new life to something basic and simple.

“The fermented notes in this dish tie together with sweetness of the potato and the plump savory profile of the shrimp. Take a bite and remember that great Prince song, “Black Sweat.” I do.” -Marcus Samuelsson

If you’re looking for a first recipe to cook from The Rise, I’d recommend this one. It will have you hooked and excited to cook more dishes as soon as possible.

Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be highlighting a couple dishes from The Rise here on the blog over the course of the month, but you’ll have to purchase or check out the book from your library if you want the recipes. Trust me: this one is well worth owning.

In the meantime, you can go here to find a copy of The Rise.

Be well. Eat well. Learn and grow.