A Sweet Side Dish

by Todd Kliman

Looking to spruce up your Thanksgiving meal? Three words: cognac mashed potatoes.

A clever riff on hidebound holiday fare from Bobby Flay? A "kicked-up" concoction from Emeril?

Nope, the combination is the creation of perpetually stoned-but-improbably-functional rapper Snoop Dogg -- who else would think to fuse Yankee tradition with hip-hop chill? -- who shared his, uh, recipe when he did a guest turn this week on Martha Stewart. (A pairing so inspired, so hilarious, it makes Klugman-Randall look quaint -- and every other "reality" show look forced -- by comparison. Note to network execs: get this ultimate salt-and-pepper duo a slot in prime time.)

Me, I don't dare make them -- I still remember being blasted for futzing with the sweet potatoes one year -- but I'd love to hear from anybody who's got nerve enough to give it a go.

Now, a Cristal-spiked gravy -- that I could maybe get with.

Todd Kliman is a James Beard Award-winning restaurant critic and the food and wine editor of Washingtonian magazine. The Wild Vine, his book about the Rosetta stone of American wine, is due in 2009.

(See Part Two of the video, after the jump.)

1:15 PM ET | 11-26-2008 | permalink

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