Smoky Scalloped Sweet Potatoes

This is a Bobby Flay recipe, that you can find here. It looked so easy (only 3 ingredients) that I had to try it.

This calls for a chipotle pepper. I have quite a few recipes that call for only 1 chipotle pepper, but each can has something like 8-10 peppers. So I found that it's easy to open a can (pictured), and then put leftover individual peppers into ziploc bags and freeze them.

Ingredients:
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon chipotle pepper puree
- 3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced 1/8-inch thick

This calls for "chipotle pepper puree." I just ran a mincer over my chipotle pepper on a cutting board and it disintegrated perfectly and I just scraped it right into some cream. The cream was really powerful enough to erase any of my fears about how hot this might be - it really just ended up having a smoky flavor that I liked. But, obviously, this was really, really filling. Which I kind of like because it's the perfect side dish - you'll only want a bit.

I used yellow sweet potatoes instead of the orange, just because that's all they had at the store. The yellow ones have sort of a lighter, more flowery flavor, but I'd also like to try this recipe with the orange ones. I sliced my sweet potatoes with a mandolin, which was blissfully easy, and I made sure to stop when I had about two inches of potato left and just thew away the nub at the end. It's not worth it getting any closer to the mandolin.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Whisk together cream and chipotle puree until smooth.

In a 9 by 9-inch casserole dish, arrange the potatoes in even layers. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the cream mixture and add a new layer of sweet potatoes and cream. Continue layering, and season every 3rd (or so) layer with salt and pepper. Repeat with the remaining potatoes, cream, and salt and pepper to form 10(ish) layers.

Cover and bake for 30 minutes, remove cover and continue baking for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the cream has been absorbed and the potatoes are cooked through and the top is browned.

When I did this the cream didn't get absorbed all the way but it didn't really matter. It was delicious. It makes about 6 servings.