Sweet Potato Wedges

One of my favorite things about cooking is getting to experiment.  In the kitchen, there are so many different mechanisms with which to experiment and try something new.  You can play with the type of ingredients and their amount.  You can alter the cooking time and the cooking temperature.  Or you can change the medium in which you cook – be it a grill, an oven, or a stove top.

Today I got to test something new.

One of my favorite side dishes to make is sweet potato wedges.  The recipe I liked to use called for placing them in a baking pan.  But the wedges often stuck to the pan, making it difficult to flip them midway through their cooking time.  Another problem was that the flat pan did not allow the heat to circulate around the wedges, producing soft or soggy wedges.

Cooling racks, I realized from baking cookies, are ideal for uniform air flow.  After ensuring that my cooking rack could go in the oven, I had my experiment: sweet potato wedges baked on a cooling rack.

Sweet Potato Wedges

WHAT TO GRAB:
2 large sweet potatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

HOW YOU DO IT:

1.  Preheat the oven to 420 degrees.

2.  Skin the sweet potatoes, and cut them in half, vertically.  Lying them flat, make vertical cuts at half-inch intervals.

3.  In a large mixing bowl, combine the wedges with the olive oil, paprika, salt, and pepper.  Mix well.

4.  Place the cooling rack in a baking pan, then neatly place the wedges on the cooling rack.  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.  Flip the wedges and reduce the heat to 400 degrees.  Bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, or until crisp.

5.  Allow the wedges to cool slightly, then serve!