Preheat the oven to 220°C fan (430°F/gas 9) and line a baking tray with baking parchment.

Scrub the sweet potatoes and cut each one into long, generous wedges. Tip them into the prepared baking tray.

In a bowl, mix together the maple syrup, soy sauce and 3 tablespoons of the olive oil. Pour this over the sweet potato wedges and scatter over the salt. Rub the wedges all over with the sticky glaze, ensuring each one is glistening. Scatter over the thyme leaves, then bake for 30–40 minutes, tossing the wedges halfway through cooking. At this stage, the potatoes should be smelling delicious and looking caramelised and beautifully blackened in places.

In the meantime, heat the remaining tablespoon olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the lardons and sauté for a few minutes until their fat is released and they turn golden.

In a bowl, whisk the soured cream with the milk to thin down to a drizzleable consistency.

When the sweet potatoes are cooked, empty them into a shallow bowl and generously administer all the toppings: squeeze over the lime juice, then drizzle with sour cream and LOTS of salsa macha (see below). Crumble over the feta, then scatter over the crisp lardons and coriander. Tuck in wedges of lime all around and serve

For the Pecan and Brown Sugar Salsa Macha

‘Clean’ the ancho and morita chillies (see note below). De-stem the árbol and shake out most of the seeds.

Toast the sesame seeds in a dry frying pan for 6–7 minutes until pale golden. Tip half the toasted seeds into a bowl and set aside. Tip the rest into a blender and pulse until mostly ground. Now toast the pumpkin seeds, if using, in the same pan, for 5–6 minutes until toasted and popping. Transfer to the bowl with the whole sesame seeds.

Heat half the oil in a small saucepan over a medium heat until it is gently bubbling, but not so hot that it will burn your precious nuts and chillies. Add the garlic cloves and toast for 4–5 minutes until pale golden. With a slotted spoon, scoop out the garlic and transfer to the blender. Now add the pecans and peanuts or almonds to the oil and cook for 3–5 minutes until they turn a pale caramel colour and smell deliciously nutty. Using a slotted spoon, scoop them into the bowl with the pumpkin seeds. Finally, toast the chillies for 30–60 seconds until they have just darkened (chillies burn even faster than garlic, and will taste bitter if burnt). Using the slotted spoon, scoop the chillies into the blender with the garlic and ground sesame.

Add the salt, brown sugar and remaining cold oil to the blender and blitz a few times to form a rough paste. Now add the cooking oil from the pan, along with the nuts and seeds from the bowl, and pulse a little so you have a mix of some chunky nuts and some ground. Taste, adding more salt if needed; the chilli oil should taste richly nutty, rounded and delicious. Empty into a clean, sterilised jar, label and store in a cupboard, where it will last for several months.

Note: ‘Cleaning’ a chilli means preparing it for use in recipes. First, wipe it clean with a damp cloth, then cut away the stem with a pair of scissors and cut along the seam to open it out like a book. De-vein it and discard the seeds, which are rarely used in cooking. The chilli is now ready to use.