Double Indemnity

Thursday, June 2 (can you belive it is JUNE already?!) we watched Double Indemnity and supped on Double-Baked Sweet Potatoes with a side of summer squash.

"You think you are such a hot potato as a claims manager; such a wolf on a phony claim... Maybe y'are. But let's look at that Dietrichson claim... accident and double indemnity. You were pretty good in there for a while Keyes... you said it wasn't an accident, check. You said it wasn't suicide, check. You said it was murder, check" – Walter Neff

Double Indemnity starring Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck was written and directed by the great Billy Wilder (The Apartment, Some Like it Hot, etc). Walter Neff is an insurance salesman falls madly and instantly in love with a crazy dame who is looking to get rid of her husband. Under the watchful eye of his own insurance company Walter conceives of a scheme to do just that and cash in on the double indemnity clause in her husband's insurance policy. My favorite tagline from this movie (1944) is: "From the moment they met it was murder!" While not my favorite Billy Wilder movie, it was thrilling even though the motive for murder—"love at first sight" was a little hard for me to believe.


These hot potatoes are highly recommended!! Baked fully in salt and loaded with sour cream, butter, and pancetta, they become savory instead of overly sweet as sweet potatoes can sometimes be.

Double-Baked Sweet Potatoes with chipotle chili sour cream adapted from this recipe
Ingredients:
3 medium sweet potatoes*
1 box kosher salt
3 slices pancetta, diced
3 green onions, diced
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon sour cream
handful of gouda parrano cheese, grated

Chipotle Chili Sour Cream
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder

*we only made 2 large potatoes, but used the same amounts for the rest of the ingredients

Directions:
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Line a deep baking dish with foil. Fill with kosher salt about halfway full. Bury the potatoes in the salt and cover with remaining salt. Bake until soft inside, about 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the size of the potatoes.

While potatoes are cooking, cook the pancetta until golden. Add the green onions, stir and cook for about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside. Once the potatoes are cooked, remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Slice in half. Gently remove the flesh, leaving a slight lining so as not to go through the skin of the potato. Put the flesh into a mixing bowl and mash with a fork. Add the pancetta mixture, butter and sour cream, stir until mixed. Stuff the skins with the mixture of sweet potatoes. Put the stuffed potatoes on a baking sheet and slide into a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes. Top with a spoonful of chipotle cream. We served our potatoes with sautéed yellow squash with shallots.