If you are of German or Irish descent, or generally identify your people as the white American working class, you have a special place in your heart for potatoes.

Me, I am three for three.

Duck fat, on the other hand, was certainly not part of the ancestral cuisine. 

When I went paleo, I learned lots of ways to cook sweet potatoes, which by themselves uniquely satisfy both the desire for something delicious and the urgent need for a hit of emergency “acceptable” carbs right after a workout.  I must’ve eaten a metric buttload of sweet potatoes since August of 2010 - microwaved, cubed and fried into hash, smashed, whipped with butter and lime juice, sliced into a fusion tortilla espanola, cut into steak fries and baked, tossed with a million different spices, and the best way - simply roasted, whole.

Duck fat makes all those methods seem like culinary insanity.

To get the perfect, deeply browned potatoes I wanted, I experimented with a couple methods. Ultimately, sweet potatoes soften and loose their shape too quickly on the stove top for my purposes. I decided to microwave them first, then cube them and crisp them in the duck fat. Bingo.

Ingredients

Rendered duck fat

Sweet potatoes, scrubbed (if you can get Japanese or Korean ones, do. They are yummier.)

Directions

1. Poke a few holes in the sweet potatoes with a sharp knife.

2. Microwave them, one a time, until they are just cooked through - soft but not mushy. The length of time this requires is dependent upon the power of your microwave and the size of the spuds.

3. When they are done, let them cool a bit, then cut them into chunks about 2x2. You can remove the skin if you don’t eat it, but it helps the potatoes hold together in the pan.

4. Heat enough duck fat to cover the bottom of the pan in a thin layer over medium-low heat in your heaviest pan - cast iron or enameled cast iron are ideal, but not necessary. Don’t use a nonstick pan.

5. Salt the potatoes lightly and place them in the pan. Sautee them without disturbing them until they are as brown as you want; it will only take a few minutes.

6. Turn them with a spatula and brown a second surface. 

7. When they are as browned as you like, remove them, taste for salt, and serve.

Do-ahead note: You can also nuke the potatoes, then refrigerate. Cube and sautee when you’re ready. 

Thanks again to Dan Reshef for the photos.