Absent minded me - forgot to put a title for yesterdays blog, but not today! I know you're wondering about the name of curried karma preserves, what is he thinking? Well let me explain . . .
October 31st, 2011
Gohonzon (ご本尊 or 御本尊), is the object of devotion in many forms of Japanese Buddhism. In Japanese, go is an honorific prefix indicating respect and honzon means object of fundamental respect, veneration, or devotion. Generically used, gohonzon can refer to any such object of devotion, whether a statue or set of statues, a painted scroll of some sort, or some other object; or the word—then usually capitalized when romanized—may be used specifically to refer to the moji-mandala (文字曼荼羅 "script," or "written with characters" mandala) that is the object of veneration in various Nichiren schools.
Fastrack blogging this morning, as I have yet to rinse off yesterdays sins and make like an Olympic bolt for my Monday morning SGI district gathering here in West Hollywood. Coffee first ...
Holly mother of mold!!! These beans have a slightly frosted crust formation, perhaps the title of "Starbucks Aged Sulawesi" is beyond authentic? Let's give her a try, cause this sleepytime Chef needs caffeine in a bad way ... kapukayuckeynitwaywopologetic (ie: flipping awful!) An experience summarized only by opening your grandma's 1920's cedar chest and popping one of those "gobstopper" mothballs into your mouth. We're gonna have to fallback to the predictability of jasmine green tea on this ghost, goblin & dragqueen day of dead.
Today is something special as I will be taking the "test" to receive my Gohonzon "object of devotion" or perhaps better known as "that little scroll of paper that Tina Turner (aka: Angel Bassett) & her friend were chanting to in the movie "What's Love got to do with it!" (definition above)
Just returned from the chanting, gym, Zico coconut water consumption and now ... finishing the contents of my blog. So yesterday, I visited the Melrose Pl/Av farmers market and to my delight I managed to find a new chocolate purveyor (Chox Chocolates), a raw sugarcane vendor (drinking some gingerized elixir as we speak), fresh fuyu persimmons, fuji apples, free-range eggs, pineapple guava, organic veggies and ... some fantastic purple sweet potatoes!
This last little jewel of a tuber inspired me to create a "purple people eater" sweet potato pie whilst incorporating the disastrous lemon verbena shortbread into a magnificent crust!
Many of my ChileCo catering patrons & Eden employees/guests have tasted the delight of my Southern meets Mexican Sweet Potato Pie with Cayenne candied Pecan Crust! Honestly, it whoops the orange right out of it's more popularly spiced sister, "pumpkin pie" Now, the Chef Scotty original recipe is really quite sacred to my culinary heart . . I offer something of a relevant comparison below that will delight your sweet tooth in every whimsical way :)
This recipe seemed to fit in line with my newly sensible yin-yang balanced approach to cooking as it involved limited ingredients/flavors & sensations. The key really is to use True cinnamon (also named Ceylon or Canela)which may be indentified by it's quill being full to the core versus it's peppery more conventional cinnamon brothers of Indonesian, Saigon or Cassia/Chinese cinnamon which one may easily differentiate & recognize as a quill that is a curl of bark. (the picture should help ... I've no idea where it landed on this blog page). Well ... that's likely enough epicurious trivia for one day . . and I'm terribly behind on my Nichiren Buddhist study - I'm going to be the first practicing student to flunk this test!
with Culinary Blessings of Spirited Sort,
Chef Scotty
Scotty's Sweet Potato Pie
Original Recipe Yield 1 - 9 inch pie
Ingredients
1 (1 pound) sweet potato
1/2 cup cream cheese or yogurt (if yogurt add 1 more egg)
1 cup white cane sugar (or blue agave if you desire)
1/2 cup sourcream
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (canela/mexican cinnamon to be exact)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tbsp of fresh lemon juice
*add a pinch of cayenne at your discretion
1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust (or better yet crushed gingersnap cookies with a
few tablespoons of sugar and melted butter)
Directions
1.) Boil sweet potato whole in skin for 40 to 50 minutes, or until done. Run cold water over the sweet potato, and remove the skin.
2.)Break apart sweet potato in a bowl. Add softened cream cheese, and mix well with mixer. Stir in sugar, sour cream, eggs, cinnamon, vanilla & lemon juice. Beat on medium speed until mixture is smooth. Pour filling into an unbaked pie crust.
3.) Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 55 to 60 minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Pie will puff up like a souffle, and then will sink down as it cools.
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