Yam and Ricotta Cheese Mash

Paul recently joined the rest of the CrosssFit masses and hopped on a modified paleo-diet train. At first, I thought he did this just to frustrate my cooking notions, but I've grown to accept his choices.

What is the paleo-diet you ask? Well, let me tell you! Basically, he doesn't eat ANYTHING that cavemen didn't eat. If it didn't grow during the paleolithic age (I assume that's where the name comes from) then he doesn't eat it. Oh, but he will eat things that come from a cow, so dairy is in. Yams are also on the acceptable list. Give it a google, learn all about it.

Since I prefer to eat a starch with every meal, I have been trying to dream up interesting ways to cook yams to accompany whatever meat and vegetable we're going to chow down on.

One Christmas in the not-too-distant past, I made a yam and ricotta gnocchi which tasted pretty good. I decided to try and modify this recipe. The gnocchi recipe called for flour, which is obviously unacceptable and just so happens to be responsible for getting the gnocchi molecules to stick together. Glutenous fibres and all. Yadda yadda, food science.

So - where was I. My goal was some sort of yam/cheese patty, but without the ability to use flour I needed some other sort of sticky substance to get the patties to actually FORM and stick together. I chose egg. I roasted a large yam, mashed it up with ricotta cheese, egg and spices and attempted to fry it. It wasn't good - esthetically, I mean. It just looked and tasted like a floppy pancake. That's when I decided on a fluffy yam and ricotta mash.  Turned out pretty good, Paul was pretty happy with it and so was I. I'm sure it'll turn up on our plates again.

This mash accompanied our BBQ'd lamb chops, guiness-brasied onions and some broccoli.

Yam and Ricotta Cheese Mash

Ingredients
1 large yam
1 egg
1/3 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 tbsp garlic powder
1/2 tbsp italian seasoning
1 tsp chipotle powder
salt and pepper to taste
*Experiment with seasonings. Ricotta and Yam are quite bland and will pick up any flavour beautifully. Try a cajun seasoning or a Jamaican jerk.. or anything you think of!

Directions
1. Turn on oven to 400 F. Slice up yam and toss with olive oil and salt and pepper. Roast for an hour or until tender. Pull out of oven, let cool.

2. Mash yam with ricotta cheese, egg and seasonings.

3. Fry in pan for 10-15 minutes on medium heat, turning and stirring when necessary. You want the egg to cook. The mash should be a bit fluffy, and not soggy.

*Dear Zita, I didn't measure anything, but I estimated these measurements just for you :)