Battle Potato

Hobby of the day: Cooking

Several teacher friends and I have cooking challenges during the year. Ideally they should be monthly, but weekends get so booked up for all of us it's hard sometimes. 
The last challenge we had was the Wing Challenge and a few months ago, my husband won it.  He won for his honey sriracha wings.  Thus winning the wonderful looking tikki head.....that is now wonderfully displayed on our bookshelf for all to see. Since he won, the cook off is now at our house and Gary got to chose so tonight was, "The Potato Off!"

I had no idea what to make, it's kinda of a vague challenge since you could make a dessert, soup, appetizer or hearty meal.  Potatoes are also very filling....so it was quite a starch filled night. Thankfully there are many different types of potatoes, fingerling, baked potatoes, purple, red skinned, white, sweet....apparently there are 16 types of potatoes.

Finally, I decided on sweet potato burgers. Completely vegetarian. They are made with white canolleni beans, wheat flour, spices and panko bread crumbs. I also added in corn for some extra texture because otherwise, on its own the sweet potato burgers have a soft texture. 

 Mash together

Make small patties- may be quite moist so I added a lot more whole wheat flour than the original 1/4 cup. Than roll in panko bread crumbs.

Fry up in oil, browning on each side. You can also bake in the oven too. I actually added some corn to a few of them. I think these tasted better because otherwise they seem quite mushy and the corn added some flavor, as well as, texture.  I think that next time I will add more cayenne for heat and more garlic.  The spices were a little lacking, but it's hard when you are cooking for 7 different people with their different palates. 

Toasted whole wheat buns, made by Martin's Potato Rolls, they make slider size buns!

I've never actually cooked a sweet potato before, but it was extremely easy to peel off the skin. I didn't even have to cut the potato or scoop out the orange goodness. 

 
Top with fresh avocado, lettuce if desired or onion.  I just added avocado and chipotle mayo, my new favorite obsession, gave it some extra flavor and some heat!


Our appetizers: veggies of course

Of course beers since two of the guys are home-brewers- this is the party pig. Note its pig like shape? John is trying to convince Gary that we need one of these.....NOT going to happen, when we have a HOUSE, with an appropriate amount of room, than YES he may have one, maybe even 2, but not now.

Here are the potato contenders:
First up, a roasted red potatoes with garlic, rosemary and kosher salt

 My plate

 Next, mini loaded baked potatoes with mascarpone cheese and panchetta with chives

 

Followed by a sweet potato fritter with a sour cream, lime and cilantro topping

 

 Then, the first of 2 baked potato soups: cheddar beer potato soup with bacon and scallions.  They soup was super think almost reminded me of fondu.

Second baked potato soup, also super thick, but full of chunks of potatoes, bacon, cheddar cheese and scallions.

And the winner is......(drum-roll please) ME!!! I actually won, so now I get to choose the next challenge. 

Suggestions?