Sweet Potato Gnocci Part II The tasting...

I made the sweet potato gnocchi. It’s pretty good for a first effort but I think I can do better. I found that because sweet potatoes are much more moist than potatoes I used a lot more flour, which in turn made the gnocchi more dense. Instead of light pillows of potato goodness I had the equivalent of a latex pillow, very dense, but good. I bet I can improve with a little tweaking. I need to figure out how to dry out the sweet potatoes a bit. I think if I slice them and bake them on a low heat for a longer they should end up dryer, then I can send them through the food mill or the food processor and see what happens!

The sauce was also a good first effort but by no means the end of the line. I used ½ bottle of pinot noir, ½ box of beef stock, 2 pats of butter, poultry gravy mix (I haven’t been about to pick up the beef gravy mix yet), ginger, thyme, tarragon, rosemary, basil, salt, and pepper. I definitely used way too much ginger. I had to work to counteract the gingery kick by adding the thyme and tarragon. I think there were a few too many flavors going on all at once. Next time I’m going to cut back a bit. I’ll take out the ginger and basil and see where that takes me.

I used a neat little trick with the pepper. I wanted a nice strong peppery flavor so I took some whole peppercorns and put them in a plastic bag and crushed them with a meat tenderizer. I suppose if I had a mortar and pestle I wouldn’t need to do that, but why waste the money on a mortar and pestle when I can smash things with a hammer?

After we ate dinner I realized how much stuff was floating in my sauce and decided that I needed to do something about that. Before I packed up the leftovers for lunch I strained the gravy through a mesh strainer to remove all the bits and pieces of spices. Now I have a velvety smooth sauce! The only thing I need to do now is figure out how to thicken it up a bit without adding cream or too much flour. Time for more brainstorming.

I've figured it out!! I think...

I haven't tried it yet so bear with me...

I was challenged to make sweet potato gnocchi a few months ago. This should be pretty straight forward, same a regular potato gnocchi (I hope). Bake the sweet potatoes. Take off the skins and run the potatoes through a ricers or food mill. Add flour until the dough is not sticky. I also usually add nutmeg and probably still will for the sweet potatoes.

My biggest worry thus far has been what to serve it with. Normal red gravy or pesto wasn’t going to work, a cheese sauce would overpower the taste of the sweet potato but the normal topping for sweet potatoes might be a bit much (brown sugar and butter). I wanted to make a sauce that would complement and enhance the flavors of the sweet potato. I was inspired by the flavors of Outback Steakhouse. Normally when I go there I get a petit filet or the sirloin, green beans, and a baked sweet potato with all the fixings. So with that in mind I came up with an idea. Borrowing the steak flavor and the sweetness of the brown sugar I think I’ve nailed the sauce. I’ll need to tweak it when I actually put it together but here it is:

Red wine
Beef stock
McCormick’s brown gravy mix
Molasses (for the sweetness) with a tang
A little bit of worstershire sauce
Salt
Pepper

Mix the red wine, beef stock and molasses in a heavy sauce pan on medium/high head and cook until boiling. Whisk in the brown gravy mix. Add a little bit of worstershire sauce to taste. Continue to cook until the sauce thickens up a bit.

The plan is to make this on Monday or Tuesday. So I’ll report back on Wednesday and let you know how it goes!

Gnocchi

Last weekend I made gnocchi but I just realized I didn't say anything about how to cook it or how to serve it.
So here goes!
Boil at least 4 quarts of water (gnocchi like room to swim around) with a healthy pinch of salt. Bring the water to a rolling boil then pull back until the water is lightly bubbling. Add as much gnocchi as you plan on serving. I find this easier when they're frozen. They'll cook for about 2 minutes, maybe three. You'll know they're done when they start to float to the top. As each little potato pillow floats to the top skim it off with either a slotted spoon or a small strainer of some variety.

Serving suggestion:(This is thanks to my sister and Paris)
Gnocchi with pesto and grilled chicken.
I usually cut my chicken into bite size pieces and toss it into a frying pan with salt pepper and olive oil. Flip at least once.
Place a small amount of pesto in the bottom of a bowl, as you're removing the gnocchi from the hot water shake off the excess water and drop right into the bowl. Add the chicken and toss with extra pesto as desired.

I know not everyone likes pesto soooo alternatively you could put your chicken pieces in a crock pot with some pasta sauce, spice as desired (oregano, parsley, basil, garlic powder, onion powder).

Really you could make both if you have alternate tastes at your table like I do. Neither one is particularly difficult.

BTW: I know you can buy pesto and pasta sauce and gnocchi at the store, but by making it myself I know exactly what's in it, and fresh just tastes better. It takes a little bit of time and a little bit of planning but you're taste buds will thank you!

Buon appatito!!

Success - The full story Saturday

As you know from last night's post I actually succeeded in completing my 4 goals for the weekend. So here's the full story with recipes. This is going to be a bit of a long post so I'm going to split it into two, Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday was quite a busy day for me. I had to go grocery shopping before I could even start my weekend cooking projects. Saturday at noon is not a good day and time to go to the grocery store. People are crazy and everyone is there. How is it that people who do not work (I'm looking at you retired people) go to the grocery store when everyone else is there? You have all day, every day. Go on Tuesday at noon. No one else will be there and you can take as long as you want staring at each grape in the bag, no one else is waiting to grab a bag of grapes and continue on their way. Ok I'm done, I'll talk about cooking now.

Chicken Escarole Soup:

I've had this at my husband's family's home for almost every holiday and I figured it was time to learn how to make it, plus I had escarole in my food share package and didn't know what else to do with it. So it was a win-win!

4 chicken breasts cut into small bite size pieces.
1 head of escarole - cleaned and cut or torn into bite sized pieces
1 bag of frozen peas and carrots
1 lb orzo
3 boxes of chicken stock, enough to cover all the ingredients
some fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Put chicken and chicken stock in a slow cooker on high for 2 hours or until the chicken is fully cooked. Add the peas and carrots and the escarole. Continue to cook on high until the escarole turns dark green and is not stiff. Add the parsley and salt and pepper to taste. Cook the orzo per the instructions on the box. Add the orzo to the soup just before serving.

For a first attempt it's not bad. I think I can do better but I wanted to go really basic on the first try.

Gnocchi

This is one of my favorite things to make. It's a great thing to make ahead of time and have in the freezer ready to pull out any time you have guests. You'll always have fresh home made pasta!
I will admit that I have not tried this batch yet It's in the freezer for later in the week.

5 russet potatoes
1 egg
2 to 3 cups of flour

Bake the potatoes until they are tender. While they are still hot (this part is tricky, I recommend gloves for this) remove the skin and mash the potatoes in either a potato ricer or a food mill on the finest grain. The potatoes should cool enough by the time you're done ricing them that you should be able to handle them. beat the egg in a separate bowl and add to the potatoes. Add the flour one cup at a time while mixing until the dough becomes stiff. It will be a little sticky but that's ok. Roll the dough into 1/2 inch wide strips and cut the strips into 1/2 inch segments. You could roll a fork over the dough at this point and make it look like the commercial gnocchi but I don't recommend that, I think it's too much effort for a very small reward. Once you have cut your gnocchi you can either cook it fresh or freeze it so you're ready to cook it any time.

Pesto
What goes better with gnocchi but a good sauce? I made a very simple pesto and learned a very valuable lesson about cook books.

1/2 c pine nuts toasted
2 c basil packed down
1/3 c olive oil
1/2 c parmesan cheese
3 gloves garlic
salt to taste

Add all the ingredients to a small food processor (here is where I ran into trouble see below). Pulse until the basil leaves and pine nuts are no longer recognizable.

The recipe I was working from said you could make this in either a blender or food processor so I pulled out the Kitchenaid blender threw all the ingredients in and tried to pulse on puree. No good, the blade was spinning into nothing and would not pull the basil down I was able to crush a few pine nuts and the basil that happened to be touching the blade when I pushed the ON button but it wouldn't combine like I knew it should, and like I'd seen on Iron Chef more times than I can count. I still have no idea how they do it. I added more oil thinking maybe that was the problem. Nope! Still no luck. So I transferred all my ingredients partially chopped into my mini prep food processor and amazingly in a matter of seconds I had a real pesto.