Roasted Spiced Sweet Potatoes and Pears

Can I tell you a secret?  As a warning, you may think I'm strange after I tell you.  People usually don't get it when I tell them.  What is usual is that I get weird stares and people try to convince me otherwise.  Apparently, this secret makes me quite the strange specimen.  Ok, enough build up, let's just get it off my chest.

I'm not a fan of Halloween.

I will pause for gasping, disbelieving stares and that weird laugh that some people do when they don't understand things.  It's cool, I get it a lot.

So, now that that is over, instead of you trying to convince me that I am wrong and that I do in fact like Halloween, let me tell you why I don't.  Once the great years of getting free candy were over,  so was the magic of Halloween.  I'm not the most creative person and having to come up with a new costume ever year is much more stressful then it should be.  Because heaven forbid you repeat a costume once a year!  And then we hit college, and on top of having to think of new costumes every year, now they had to be sexy.  And not just sexy, but if you consider 92% of the female college population, they apparently had to be a little slutty too.  Because, if you couldn't be slutty on Halloween, when could you?  (Um, never?  That's an ok answer, right?)  All in all, it's just too much pressure.

So instead of wondering how low cut my nurse's outfit needs to be next Wednesday, I am taking the less popular route and treating the last week of October as it should be treated: as a preparation of all things fall. The air is crisp, apple cider is every where, squash, sweet potatoes and apples are cheap and plentiful.  This is Thanksgiving season, bread baking season, cinnamon rolls for every Sunday morning breakfast season.  And these roasted sweet potatoes and pears are a good way to start the preparation.  There are only 25 days until the greatest holiday ever...

Roasted Spiced Sweet Potatoes and Pears
From Whole Foods Market

Whole Foods says this will serve 6-8.  As part of a much bigger meal, it probably would.  Ben and I took down a batch between dinner one night and the resulting leftover lunches the next day.  I served them with the spiced honey glazed chicken thighs.  A good weeknight dinner with good leftovers.

2 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled
1/4 c. sherry vinegar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. cloves
2 pears, Bosc (or d'Anjou)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

Cut sweet potatoes into equal 1 inch sized chunks and put in large bowl.  In smaller bowl, whisk together the vinegar and all spices.  Pour vinegar mixture over potatoes and toss to coat.  Using a slotted spoon or tongs, transfer potatoes to prepared baking sheet, reserving the remaining vinegar mixture to use with the pears.  Move baking sheet to oven and roast potatoes 30 minutes, tossing a few times.

While potatoes are roasting, core pears and cut into 1 inch chunks similar in size to the potatoes.  Toss with remaining vinegar and spice mixture.  Add to sweet potatoes and continue to roast 20-25 minutes until both are fork tender and pears have become golden.

Black Sesame Pear Cake

Maybe you are looking at that there picture above and thinking "well, Liz, today are you going to show us how to make cement?", you know, all snarky like. Normally, my answer would be something along the lines of "No, silly! Because cement, you see, does not taste good". However, much to little ole' frowny face me, this cake did not taste good. Really, the only thing that distinguished this loaf cake from a brick sized chunk of cement was the fact that it was not hard, but actually quite moist. So maybe it's more like wet cement.

Ok, I agree, that was a truly terrible analogy. It's just that this little loaf cake here, it really disappointed me. I haven't even had time to read through the entirety of my March Bon Appetit (ok, ok, maybe it's because I can't put this book down. What? Sometimes I am a lemming. And it's good, I will so admit it, it's good).  But even so with the lack of time or whatever you want to call it, I decided this recipe was going to happen.  Which meant trips to 2 different grocery stores looking for black sesame seeds, a few minutes where I almost bought toasted white sesame seeds instead (in my defense, they were black) and an $8 dollar bag of almond meal.  So, it had to be good, right?

And then it wasn't.  It was woodsy.  With basically zero sweetness.  The almond meal, well, I lost it.  And all the pears sank to the bottom, all sad-like.  I almost felt bad that that was how they had to meet their fate.  It was the black sesame seed show all the way.  The cake was as deep brown as a rich chocolate cake.  Had you not known, it would have looked like a delicious chocolate cake.  I was going to bring in leftovers to work, but didn't want to be the person who inflicted non-chocolate things on people expecting a big mouthful of chocolate cake loveliness.  So I didn't.  Because that's just mean.  Instead, the majority of this cake ended up in the trash.  And that makes me sad.

I did learn a few things.  Black sesame seeds should be used sparingly.  Which also means that grinding up half a cup of them and mixing them into a cake is not a good idea.  And I learned... hmm, would you look at that.  Maybe that was the only lesson that I learned here.  But it's still a good one, right?

In defense of BA, this recipe and black sesame seeds everywhere, this recipe got good reviews, by food editors and other random internet personalities alike.  It just didn't by me.  So venture on below, but only at your own risk.  Me?  I'm going back to an oldy, but a goody...

Black Sesame Pear Cake
From March 2012's Bon Appetit

The magazine calls for 1/2 cup of black sesame seeds.  Really for me, it would have to be cut back to at most 1/4 cup.  But at the same time, I don't really see me making it again... so do what you feel.  And let me know your thoughts!  Maybe I'm awfully wrong here (it happens, just not often!)

1/2 c. (1 stick) butter
1 1/2 c. + 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 c. almond meal/flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
2 Tbsp. + 1/4 c. black sesame seeds
1 1/3 c. + 2 Tbsp. sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
3/4 c. buttermilk
2 medium "firm but ripe" Bosc pears

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Line a metal loaf pan with two criss-crossing strips of parchment paper.  Peel, core and dice pears into 1/4 inch pieces, toss with 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour.

In large bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder and soda, salt and 2 tablespoons black sesame seeds.

In spice grinder (or coffee grinder), grind remaining 1/4 cup of sesame seeds into a thick paste.

In large bowl of electric mixture, cream butter and sugar until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.  Add sesame seed paste and continue to beat.  Add egg and egg yolk, beat until well combined and batter is pale and fluffy.  With mixer on low speed, mix in 1/3 of flour mixture.  Before it has all beat in, mix in 1/2 of buttermilk.  Repeat with 1/3 of flour mixture, then remaining buttermilk.  Ending with dry ingredients, mix until just combined.  Fold in pears coated with flour.

Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.  Sprinkle evenly with remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar.  Bake in 325 degree oven for 1 hour - 1 hour 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let cool in pan on wire rack.