Sweet Potato Marshmallow with Duck Confit

One of my daily foodblog reads is Chadzilla. Chad is a chef at major beach front resort in the greater Miami area but he is a Louisiana boy at heart. While looking through his photo galleries a couple of months ago I came across a picture of a beet root marshmallow. This got me thinking what else I could do with a savory marshmallow and what flavors may or may not work. My first thought was sweet potato. I started looking around the internet for different marshmallow recipes and came across one that I thought would work out well at this SITE. 

My first experiment with homemade marshmallows did not work out well at all. I thought, mistakenly, that a mixture of sweet potato powder and sweet potato puree would work well but it does not. Once the marshmallows set up the puree rose to the top and sat on top of the marshmallow like a piece of jello. Two weeks ago I decided that I would just use the sweet potato powder instead of the mixture of powder and puree.

To make the powder I peeled and thinly sliced on a mandoline about 6 sweet potatoes. I then dried the sliced sweet potatoes in the oven till they were very crispy. I put these in a food processor till crumbled and then finely ground them in a coffee bean grinder till a powder formed. Following the recipe I chose to add about half of the sweet potato powder a little at a time while mixing the marshmallows( I also added a little bit more salt than the recipe called for to tone down the sweetness). This seemed to work out pretty well as the mixture started to take on the color of the potato. This part of the recipe was extremely sticky. Once I put the mixture in a pan to set up I had to boil the mixing bowl in a larger bowl just to get the left over marshmallow mixture off the sides.

Once the marshmallows were set up, I cut them into small squares and dusted them with a mixture of the leftover sweet potato powder and salt and pepper.

Now the whole reason I made these were to use in a dish for a family meal. I took some shredded duck confit and topped the marshmallow with it. I then added a blue cheese foam sauce and drizzled the whole dish with a sauce of reduced cane syrup, rosemary and chicken stock.

At first when I was describing the dish, some of my family were a little skeptical but everyone seemed to enjoy it very much. I have had some of my friends and co-workers try just the marshmallows and so far no has complained……..at least to my face.

Now what else would go well with a marshmallow ?

Comments

[Your wife - aka a guinea pig for new food experiments :)]

It was absolutely wonderful and I only got a little bit of it!! I say you try a feta approach....how could that be wrong? :) LOVE YOU.

[chadzilla]

You've gotta love that coffee grinder. I bought one some time back on a whim, and it has arguably become one of my most used pieces of kitchen equipment. Aside from spices, I've ground everything up from tea leaves to dehydrated vegetables to wood chips.
Those sweet potato marshmallows look damn good.
That's really cool the way you have your pix doing a slide show on your blog.

[Deborah Dowd]

Wow! I am really impressed- not only an original idea but you were also able to execute it as well. I'm not worthy1 I'm not worthy!

[Becca]

I love making marshmallows. Now true, the wildest I have done was peppermint marshmallows dipped in chocolate but...

You have now convinced me to do the strawberry marshmallows dipped in chocolate that I have been meaning to do.

Your mind works totally different then mine when it comes to food. You have a very "guy" approach. I love it...

[Roberto]

Great technique, great composition. Great job!