Sweet Potatoes restaurant puts out a cookbook

Since 2003, people have been able to enjoy Stephanie Tyson's Southern food at the Sweet Potatoes restaurant on Trade Street downtown.

Now, they can cook it themselves. Tyson, a chef who co-owns the restaurant with Vivian Joiner, has just put out "Well, Shut My Mouth! The Sweet Potatoes Restaurant Cookbook" (John F. Blair, $19.95).

Tyson thought she didn't want to write a cookbook. "There are just so many already out there," she said.

That changed after her maternal grandmother, Ora Porter, died in 2008 and as Tyson has watched her mother, Donzella Tyson, struggle with Alzheimer's disease. "I was afraid that everything would go unremembered," Tyson said. "I wanted to have a voice. I wanted my grandmother to have a voice."

Tyson spent a lot of time with Porter while growing up in Winston-Salem. And Porter figures prominently in the introduction to the book, which follows Tyson from childhood through her 25-year relationship with Joiner and a slew of restaurant jobs around the country.

"Stephanie wanted to make the book about cooking, and also about the restaurant and our story," Joiner said.

Tyson went to culinary school to learn technique, but her grandmother taught her how to taste. "I learned from her how to season food," Tyson says in the book.

As with the cookbook, the restaurant almost didn't happen.

Tyson had cooked in restaurants from Arizona to Florida before returning to her hometown in 2000.

With Tyson's cooking experience and Joiner's restaurant-management experience, they figured it was time to open their own place.

Finding the space was easy. Even though Tyson remembered her grandmother calling Trade Street a "buzzard roost" when she was younger, she and Joiner fell in love with a former pool hall on Trade. They also found a supporter in landlord Mike Coe, who owns Coe Electric and Plumbing and who helped with the construction.

But finding the money proved nearly impossible. "All the banks turned us down," Tyson said. "The city turned us down twice."

People thought they were in over their heads and had chosen a bad location. "They said we didn't have the foot traffic on Trade," Joiner said.

Eventually, they found a supporter in the late Phil Hanes, as strong an advocate for downtown development as the city has seen in recent years. "Everyone else was like, 'You're two women who don't have any money,' " Tyson said. "Phil took a chance that we knew what were doing."

Hanes helped Tyson and Joiner secure loans from the city and from the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership's Meade Willis Downtown Redevelopment Fund.

With those loans and some maxed-out credit cards, Sweet Potatoes opened in January 2003. Tyson chose the name after noticing that her prototype menu had sweet potatoes all over it. "Well Shut My Mouth" — though most customers don't use it — was added to the trademark name after Currie Williams, a local artist, painted a portrait of Joiner and Tyson with "Mmm Sweet Potato Shut My Mouth" written across the top.

The book has almost 100 recipes. It reveals Tyson's Southern soul and shows her love of Lowcountry cuisine that she picked up from Joiner's family and from working in Charleston. It also demonstrates her love of spices that she developed from the Caribbean influences that she found in Key West. Her fondness for Louisiana fare can be seen in her remoulade sauce for salmon cakes and Creole sauce for catfish.

Some recipes in the book are from Tyson's and Joiner's families. Many, though, are customer favorites from the restaurant's menu. These include the fried green tomatoes and okra that together are served as an appetizer. It includes Tyson's three-cheese macaroni and country ham soufflé, and her technique for buttermilk fried chicken. It also includes Tyson's pimento cheese, which has more cheese than most recipes and which cuts the usual mayonnaise by adding cream cheese. "I had never had pimento cheese before the restaurant opened," Joiner said. "Now I love it."

Tyson said, "I was raised on pimento cheese and fried bologna" — and you can get the latter at Sweet Potatoes, too.

The book also has Tyson's catfish NOLA and V.V. Mamma's meatloaf. The latter comes from Joiner's mother and includes Joiner's childhood nickname, V.V. — short for Vivian Victoria. "It's as close as you can get to my mother's recipe," Joiner said. "The only thing missing is the cornflakes. When we first opened, Stephanie kept forgetting the cornflakes."

Sweet potatoes show up in pie, cake, bread pudding, risotto, stuffing, biscuits and more.

Dessert recipes come first in the book — a tribute to Tyson's grandmother, who ate dessert first until her death at age 93.

Only a couple of customer favorites were left out, notably sweet-potato cheesecake. "If you let out all of your secrets, people won't come back," Tyson said with a laugh.

She probably shouldn't worry about that. From the beginning, Sweet Potatoes has been a busy restaurant. "They were popular right off the bat," said Gena Hodge Knighten, who opened Chelsee's coffeeshop next door just two months before Sweet Potatoes opened. "It didn't take long for the word to get out."

Sweet Potatoes was the first restaurant in the Downtown Arts District. "The opening of Sweet Potatoes was a milestone event in the city's efforts to revitalize Trade Street," said Mayor Allen Joines, as quoted on the book jacket.

"They took a huge risk by being the first ones," said Kathleen Barnes, the owner of Sixth and Vine restaurant, which opened in 2005 on Sixth Street, about a block away from Sweet Potatoes. "They were a trailblazer. Because they were doing such great lunch business, we thought another restaurant could work there."

Two more restaurants have opened on Trade since then — Finnigan's Wake in 2006 and Breakfast of Course! Mary's Too in 2010.

Tyson said she's thrilled to see the downtown thriving. "I couldn't be prouder of where I'm from — just to see the change that the city has gone through."

Pimento Cheese

Makes 4 cups.

2 cups mayonnaise

4 ounces cream cheese (½ of an 8-ounce package)

1½ tablespoons onion powder

1½ teaspoons granulated garlic

1¼ teaspoons paprika

Pinch of cayenne pepper

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon white pepper

½ teaspoon sugar

½ cup grated white cheddar cheese

2 cups grated yellow cheddar cheese

¾ cup diced pimentos, rinsed (and drained)

Combine the mayonnaise and cream cheese in a mixer until smooth. Add the onion powder, garlic, paprika, cayenne, salt, white pepper and sugar. Mix until combined, then fold in the cheese until thoroughly incorporated. Stir in the pimentos.

Serving suggestion: Use as an elegant dip in your most festive dish (such as the martini glasses used at the restaurant), with crudités, or use in a sandwich on white toast with a piece of perfectly fried bologna.

Recipe from “Well Shut My Mouth! The Sweet Potatoes Restaurant Cookbook.”

V.V. Mamma’s Meatloaf with Wild Mushroom Gravy

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

At the restaurant, Tyson uses all breadcrumbs and no cornflakes, but Joiner’s mother always used a mixture of cornflakes and leftover bread or crackers.

4 eggs, beaten

¼ cup ketchup

¼ cup Worcestershire sauce

2 cups crushed cornflakes

1 cup panko breadcrumbs

2½ pounds ground beef

1¾ cups diced green pepper

1¾ cups diced yellow onion

1 tablespoon oregano

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons pepper

1½ teaspoons dried thyme

1 tablespoon granulated garlic

Wild Mushroom Gravy (recipe below)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the beaten eggs, ketchup, Worcestershire, cornflakes and breadcrumbs. Allow to sit 3 or 4 minutes to sufficiently moisten the cornflakes and breadcrumbs. Add the remaining ingredients (except gravy) and thoroughly combine. Turn the mixture onto a baking sheet and form two loaves, spaced well apart. Bake 45 to 50 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center registers 160 degrees. Serve with wild mushroom gravy.

Recipe adapted from “Well Shut My Mouth!

The Sweet Potatoes Restaurant Cookbook.”

Wild Mushroom Gravy

½ cup butter

¾ cup flour

2 teaspoons chopped garlic

1½ teaspoons dried oregano

1½ teaspoons dried thyme

2 cups sliced wild mushrooms (combination of shiitake, oyster, portobello and others)

¾ cup julienned onion

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 cups beef stock

Pepper to taste

1. Combine the butter and flour in a skillet to make a roux. Slowly cook the roux about 15 minutes until brown (stirring almost constantly). Let cool.

2. In a medium saucepan, combine the garlic, oregano, thyme, mushrooms, onion and oil. Saute until vegetables soften. Add beef stock and bring to a boil. Add cooled roux and cook, stirring until floury taste is gone. Season with pepper to taste. If gravy is too thick, thin with water or more beef stock and readjust seasonings as needed.

Recipe adapted from “Well Shut My Mouth!

The Sweet Potatoes Restaurant Cookbook.”

Sweet Potato Pie

Makes two 9-inch pies.

2 cups cooked and mashed sweet potatoes

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon flour

3 eggs, beaten

1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ cup melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon lemon extract

¼ cup sugar (optional)

½ cup water (optional)

2 sliced (peeled) sweet potatoes (optional)

2 unbaked 9-inch pie shells

1. Combine the mashed sweet potatoes with the 1 cup sugar and flour. Stir in the beaten eggs. Add the sweetened, condensed milk and add the cinnamon, nutmeg, butter, vanilla extract and lemon extract. Mix well.

2. This step is optional, but it looks really cool! Add ¼ cup sugar and the water to a saucepan. Bring to a simmer and add sliced sweet potatoes. Cook about 15 minutes, until sweet potatoes are barely tender. Allow sweet potatoes to cool to the touch. Layer slices of sweet potatoes evenly in the two pie shells.

3. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Evenly divide the filling mixture among the two pie shells. Bake for about 45 minutes or until done. Pies should rise and the middles should no longer look shiny or wet.

Recipe adapted from “Well Shut My Mouth! The Sweet Potatoes Restaurant Cookbook.”

Book signing

A release party and book signing for “Well, Shut My Mouth! The Sweet Potatoes Restaurant Cookbook” by Stephanie L. Tyson will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 11, at the Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts at 251 N. Spruce St.