Endive with Sweet Potatoes, Bacon, Chives, and Sour Cream

One of the sponsors at the Eat, Write, Retreat conference I attended last month in Washington, DC, was the Discover Endive! folks.  At the reception that opened this weekend event, they served tasty bites of Endive with Sweet Potatoes, Bacon, Chives, and Sour Cream.  These were a delicious balance of crunchy, chewy, sweet, salty, meaty, and creamy.  With the hand-held leaf serving as an edible platter, they were a perfectly sized nibble and easy-to-serve appetizer.

I was interested in possibly trying to make these at home, as I thought they would be a great snack with cocktails or, as we’re coming into that season, a rooftop drinks gathering.  There are a few pluses to this recipe, as it takes minimal time to prepare and would be easy to pull together on-site.  I decided to do a mash-up of a few both recipes plus added my own little twist to come up with this version.

Endive with Sweet Potatoes, Bacon, Chives, and Sour Cream

Serving size: 12 spears, allowing 2-3 per person

Prep time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

2-3 Endive, Yellow or Red, whole separated into spears (individual leaves)

1 Sweet Potato, medium

2-3 pieces of Bacon

1-2 tsp Bacon Fat (from cooked bacon)

1/2 tsp. Olive Oil, if needed (optional)

1/8 tsp. Cayenne Pepper

1/4 tsp. pinch Salt

1/8 tsp. Black Pepper

2 Tbsp. Sour Cream

1 Tbsp. Chives, fresh, cut into small pieces

Assembly:

To prepare the endive, take a whole one, wash it, and break off the outer brown leaves (if any).  Break off 12 fresh leaves and arrange in a circle on a large plate or platter.  Set aside the smaller leaves to use in a salad.

Steam sweet potato in microwave oven on baked potato setting*.  Turn potato halfway through the cycle to cook evenly.  Put potato to one side to cool until you can peel it.  Once it has cooled, cut into 1/4-inch cubes.

In the meantime, cut bacon into 1/2-inch pieces.  Cook until crisp.  Remove bacon from pan and place on paper towel to cool.  Pour off all the bacon fat except for about 1 tsp. and return the pan to the stove with the heat on low.

Put cubed sweet potatoes into the same pan and cook them gently in the bacon fat (add a bit of olive oil for extra fat, if needed) for 1-2 minutes until the pieces start to brown slightly.  Add the bacon back into the pan and toss together.  Put in the cayenne pepper, salt, and black pepper and stir to combine.

Place one large spoonful of the sweet potato-bacon mixture on each of the spears, spreading most of it towards the stem end (aka not the pointed one).  Put one dollop of sour cream in the center of each spear and sprinkle with the chives.  

Buon appetito!

*Optional Prep Method:

If you prefer, you can also cook the sweet potatoes in the oven instead of in the microwave.  Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit/ 177 degrees Centigrade / Gas Mark 4.  Peel the sweet potato.  Cut it up into 1/4-inch dice.  Toss the sweet potatoes in a bit of olive oil and place on a baking sheet.  Cook for 10-15 minutes – checking after 10 minutes to make sure that the potatoes aren’t already finished cooking.  [You could also cook the bacon in the oven, too, just on a separate tray from the sweet potatoes.]

Remove the tray with the sweet potatoes from the oven.  Add the cooked bacon, cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper to the potatoes on the tray and mix together thoroughly.  Proceed with assembling the dish according to the recipe.