Sweet potato tagliatelle with spicy seafood

I have been cooking and experimenting in the kitchen for almost as long as I remember. Over the years I have made many less than excellent meals, most of them while following a recipe, but also many lovely ones. When I go wildly freehand, I tend to have an idea of what to serve when I start cooking. Not today. I started with a plate full of seafood, but that was pretty much as far the plan went and my brain blankly refused to come up with any decent ideas. The problem was that dinner time was approaching rapidly and I had hungry mouths to feed.

Today's meal could have gone horribly wrong and halfway through I had serious doubts, to the point where I actually left the kitchen for a while. I sat down and simply crossed my fingers before returning to check on the progress of the crazy creation.

What I'm about to tell you now is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

I was alone at home with my son, who is pretty good when it comes to appreciating my cooking. Because I was only cooking for the two of us, I allowed myself to go down the experimental road, although I never expected where it was to take me. Instead of sharing the recipe, as I normally do, I shall show it in a picture diary.

For various reasons I had decided on mussels and prawns, but that's where the plan stopped. Yes, of course I had scanned Pinterest for ideas, but not a single recipe tickled my fancy. Perhaps that's not strictly true. Some looked really tasty, but other factors threw spanners in the works. We had pasta yesterday and I didn't want the same kind of carbs two days running. Rice was served with a meal the day before that, so that also went out the window. Potatoes and seafood are generally not a good combo. If there had been anything in the fridge to make vegetable rice from, I would have made a seafood paella, but it was the day before the grocery delivery was due to arrive and the fridge was almost empty. 

Against better judgement I decided to turn everything on its head and pick a sauce before picking a base for the seafood dish. During a fridge scan I came across a favourite combination of mine, something I have come to think of as Sauce a la Mia. It is a Greek yogurt base with tomato puree, ketchup and chilli paste. I use it in a lot of dishes and I thought it would work at least fairly well with the mussels and prawns. A pepper and a leek were allowed to join the party. 

This looked like a decent start to a tasty meal.

After some basic chopping, the pepper and leek went into a frying pan to soften in a little oil.

1 tsp of chilli paste went in, followed by a good stir.

As the seafood was added, it was time to get serious about what to serve the dish with. I still had no idea and my mind was racing. 

Sweet potato to the rescue! Roasted, riced or mashed... no, not suitable. Shredded lengthwise on the mandolin however and turned into tagliatelle...

At this stage I considered stir frying it, but I wasn't convinced that was a great idea.

Postponing the sweet potato decision, I turned my attention to the seafood and added 1 tbsp tomato puree, 1 tbsp ketchup and 3 tbsp Greek yogurt.

Oh my, it was beginning to look really nice and the flavour wasn't bad either.

I finally decided to go all in and cook the 'tagliatelle' in the sauce. There wasn't quite enough sauce to accommodate all the sweet potato though.

Hmm... I wonder what would happen if I added some coconut milk, the drinking version. A splash and a taste test. Nice enough, so I added some more and gave it a good stir.

This is when the serious doubts set in, mainly because it was far too late to change anything and by now we were both very hungry. I went to sit down and kept my fingers crossed for five minutes, before returning to the kitchen to check if the sweet potato was cooked. I wanted it to be fairly soft, but with a little bit of bite left in it.

Dishing up, I could only hope for the best. I'm not going to lie. The first couple of bites were tentative and I was still on the fence. However, the more I ate, the better it got and by the time I licked the bottom of the bowl, I was more than a little chuffed. I had created a completely new dish.

That's when my other half called to say he was on his way home. Had I saved him any dinner? As luck would have it, there were plenty left and I crossed everything I had that he would find it edible, even if a bit strange. He loved it, the sweet potato tagliatelle particular. Phew!

Will I make it again? Definitely!