Tuesday, 26 May 2009

• Gnocchi al a at home.

  I'm cooking at home a lot less now for various reasons but instead will try to make up for it by eating out more - budgeting dining out.

  Here are some gnocchis I made a couple of weeks back - sort of a departure gift to myself since I will be reducing homecooked meals for sometime - isn't my life a soap opera!?! (sarcastically teasing).

  

  Boil the pototaoes.

  

  And, yes with a hot potato - scrape off and flake the insides into a bowl.

  

  DO NOT MASH! Instead, if you have a ricer - put it through the ricer, but for the 94% of you out there that refuses to buy a ricer you can smush it through a fine strainer. Let the potatoes cool down, add a beaten egg, salt to taste and just-enough- flour to barely hold the mixture together. I know I'm being completely vague with the details but here's a good measurement: 2 med size potatoes, 1 beaten egg, about 1/3 cup of flour all-in-all. The "thing" with gnocchi is that it's a very grandmother's recipe. You have to do this by 'feel' to get the right fluffy gnocchi - that's why I'm being vague with details.

  Important to note: Do not mash or be rough with the mixture, it will activate the gluten in the starches making it gummy. Also add just enough flour - adding too much will make for a tougher gnocchi.

  

  Roll it out to a long string and chop off nickel size bites.

  From this point on, you can boil it for about 15 seconds and throw it in a tomato based sauce OR you can pan fry and top it off with some bacon-scallion compote and a light parm-cream sauce. I did the latter....

  

  Gnocchi should be light, fluffy and not dense. I enjoyed eating these though I will probably not make them for a while - it's a finicky dough to work with and can only be done in fresh batches. Batches done too early will absorb all the flour and be too wet - leaving it near impossible to work with.

  - Happy eating and living!

   

  • 10:29 AM
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