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Mashed Irish Breakfast Sweet Potatoes

Submitted by: Carissa Hobson

This dish would be great as a substitute for candied yams at Thanksgiving or Christmas, for those who don't like the extreme sweetness of candied yams or are looking for something a little healthier.

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Serving Size: 2

Ingredients

1 to 2 tsp. Irish Breakfast tea
1 15oz. can of sweet potatoes (also called yams)
1/2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1/2 Tbsp. butter
Salt
Cinnamon (optional)
Water

Directions
1. Boil water in tea kettle and prepare a cup of Irish Breakfast tea as you normally would (I use 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of tea for a 14 oz. cup and brew for 4 and 1/2 minutes). An 8oz. cup of tea should suffice, but I also like to drink tea while I cook.
2. Drain the sweet potatoes, place them into a bowl, and rinse them lightly. This gets rid of the excess syrup. I just use the fork to keep them in the bowl while I'm pouring out the water.
3. Using a fork, cut the sweet potato chunks into smaller pieces - about 1/2' cubes.
3. Pour enough tea into the bowl to mostly cover the sweet potatoes (about 2/3 the depth of the sweet potatoes) - this shouldn't require more than 6 oz. of tea.
4. Soak the sweet potatoes for 10 minutes, occasionally stirring the sweet potatoes (gently!) to make sure all of them are soaked in the tea.
5. Drain the sweet potatoes. Don't worry about draining them thouroughly - a tablespoon or less of liquid still with the sweet potatoes is just fine.
6. Heat the sweet potatoes in a saucepan on low to medium heat, stirring frequently. The potatoes will begin to soften and get mushy. This is what you want.
7. Add a little more Irish Breakfast tea, the amount is to your taste and dependent on how much liquid was left in the sweet potatoes when they were placed in the pot. I like softer, moister mashed sweet potatoes, and I had about a tablespoon of liquid in the saucepan from soaking the yams, and I added an additional teaspoon and a half of tea.
8. Mash the sweet potatoes with a fork as you continue heating and stirring them. They will mash easily, as they are warm and moist and soft.
9. Continue heating and stirring the sweet potatoes until you can't see any excess liquid - it's all absorbed into the sweet potato mash.
11. Add a dash of salt - no more than about 1/8 tsp.
10. Add 1/2 Tbsp. butter and 2 teaspoons of brown sugar. Continue heating and stirring the sweet potatoes until the butter and brown sugar are dissolved and thoroughly mixed in.
11. Continue heating and stirring the sweet potatoes for another minute or two (this would also be the time to add a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon, if you want to), then remove from heat, scoop into a serving dish or onto a plate, and serve.