How To Make The Yams

Since a Facebook friend asked me for my candied yam recipe, I will share it here in a spirit of holiday joy and joyness.This is adapted from the recipe for "Yummy Candied Yams" in The New Basics Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins.

YUMMY CANDIED YAMS

"These are a great classic favorite," the authors write. But instead of serving them with cranberry sauce (or the pineapple chutney the authors recommend), they'll be accompanying the "Bob Evans Feast To Go" we'll be enjoying at Papaw's tomorrow. My mom can clean things up and lock up the guns or cook when she gets there the day before Thanksgiving, but not both.

4 small yams (6 oz each)

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1/2 cup maple syrup*

1/4 cup bourbon

1/4 cup chicken stock

1. Come home from work the night before Thanksgiving and peel the yams before you change out of your work clothes. The recipe says quarter them but that hasn't worked well for me - I just

2. Place the (whole but peeled) yams in a saucepan, cover them with cold water, and bring them to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until just tender but still firm, 20 minutes. This is why I don't quarter them, because they turn to mush in 20 minutes. Drain well.

3. Melt the butter in a skillet. Alternatively, look for butter and find none in refrigerator. Recall that mother-in-law last had custody of butter because she was baking butter-intensive and delicious sand cake. Enter Babushka's apartment and ask if she has any remaining butter. Demur when she laments that she used all the butter. Decline her offer to get up from bed and have her son take her to the store right now so you can have butter. Assure her that you believe you can prepare the requisite glaze without butter.** Verify that you have, in fact, checked and that there really is no more butter in the house. Repeat. Anyway, add the maple syrup and the bourbon and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is slightly reduced, 15 minutes.

* Me, I like the fact that the "glaze" kind of burns going down. But if you prefer a sweeter glaze, you need to use about double the amount of maple syrup the recipe calls for. Since I have been given to understand that my grandfather prefers a sweeter glaze - but, alas, I did not buy enough maple syrup to follow my own recommendation - I added a lot of honey and some orange peel. We'll see how it tastes tomorrow.

** I checked a couple of other candied yam recipes in other cookbooks and this appears to be true.

4. Combine glaze and yams until the yams are lightly coated. Then add chicken stock and simmer for another 15 minutes over low heat. If your people like their candied yams actually sticky with candied-ness, consider using less stock.

Now the yams are in the fridge along with the sand cakes waiting for tomorrow's journey.