Adventures in Pasta Making: Gnocchi

My sister, Debbie, had the big idea to make gnocchi tonight.  I'm always up for a cooking challenge, so I said "sure why not, we can do it!"  (although, she had doubts all day about it)  I found a recipe on a blog called 101CookBooks, How to Make Gnocchi like an Italian Grandmother Recipe.  It sounded good and hey, if it was an Italian grandmother's recipe, then it must be good!!

The first step was to boil 2 potatoes for about 45 minutes.  Afterwards, we quickly removed them from the water and peeled them.  Debbie handled the mashing of the potatoes using a fork (no fancy potato ricer or mill to use).  Once mashed, I added 1/4 cup of beaten eggs and 3/4 cup of flour and started to create a dough.  After some careful kneading, I divided the dough into 8 balls:

From there, I rolled the balls out into "snakes" before cutting them into small 3/4 inch pieces or as I like to call them "pillows."

Using a fork, we pressed the gnocchi pillows into it using our thumbs to give it a slight curve shape and texture from the fork lines, which allows the gnocchi to grab the sauce you choose to eat it with.

From here, we dropped the gnocchi back into boiling water to cook them.

Being the first time we ever made gnocchi, I think they came out pretty good.  I've only tried them once before, so I don't have much experience to base it on.  They were soft but strong enough to withstand tossing in the heavy gravy we made.  My sister thought the texture was off though...that they were too soft.  I'm wondering if we made them too thick, which didn't allow them to cook enough in the middle?  In any case, I'm not discouraged at all.  Even the bloggers we got the recipe from make it known that gnocchi is not something you get right the first time.  It takes experience and a whole lot of patience.  Which I completely agree.  This adventure took about 2 1/2-3 hours from start to finish.  When I try to make gnocchi again, I think I will prep the potatoes the night before, which will help to break up the time needed to prepare this dish.

Here is the tomato based "gravy" that Tara gave us the recipe for:

(Cento crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, chopped onions, garlic, fresh basil, fresh oregano, sugar, salt and pepper)

We enjoyed this with some pot roast my dad made and some green beans my mother had stir fried.  It was truly a family affair, although Marily missed out on it all because she had to call in sick :-(

Oh by the way...did I mention that I made a peach cobbler with the peaches I picked up at the farmers market this morning?  I used a simple  Peach Cobbler recipe on the Food Network's website from Paula Deen.

Sweetening up the peaches for the filling:

Mixing up the batter:

Ready for the oven:

About an hour later, the finished product...

Topping it off with a little vanilla ice cream...it was absolutely delicious!!!

Crazy crowds at the market

This morning we woke up a little late and didn't make it to the farmers market until about 9:30ish. Wow! Can we say "let's not do that again!?". Between the Florida heat and the crazy crowds, it just wasn't something Marily or I wanted to repeat. It's like vulchers fighting over roadkill...except it's produce people! Anyway we decided that we either wake up early or we don't go at all.





Even with that, there were still several great experiences during this trip. First, we walked through this beautiful walkway to get to the market. Secondly, we enjoyed our first taste of crepes from a vendor who whips them up to order. We chose one with strawberries, banannas and nutella topped with some powdered sugar.




I wanted to take some pics of the market for this blog post but it was a little tough with the crowds mentioned earlier. So, you'll just have to settle for one of our score:





We grabbed another 1/2 pound of fresh roasted coffee from Z-Coffee (Sulawesi beans this time). Marily had her eye on some specialty pastas, so we grabbed some lemon basil fettuccine and sun dried tomato fettuccine. We also got some nice hickory smoked cheddar cheese that will go fantastic with the ciabatta rolls from last week. Other then that, just some nice vegetables for cooking this week.

Oh, by the way..last week Marily and I put ourselves up to the challenge to select a new ingrediant each week that we wouldn't normally cook with. Kind of like Iron Chef but without the competition ;-). Last week it was fennel. This week it's leeks. Hmmm, I wonder what recipe we'll choose to enjoy our leeks?


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Bordeaux-licious!

Last weekend Marily and I went to the Winter Park Farmers Market and came across a wonderful bleu cheese made by a local artisan cheesemaker. Friday night we decided to head to Total Wine to purchase a nice wine to pair with our cheese. We spoke with one of their "wine guys" and he recommended a nice Bordeaux.

Inspired by the wine, I decided to make steaks with mushrooms and a red wine sauce. I threw the broiler pan in the oven set to high broil, then seared the streaks for a minute on each side (seasoned with olive oil and McCormicks Montreal Steak Seasoning).
Afterwards I placed the steaks on the warmed broiler pan and continue to cook for 5 minutes.

While that magic happened I prepared the red wine sauce. Using the searing pan, I added a little olive oil and sliced garlic, sauted for a few minutes then added about 4 tbsp butter. Once the butter melted, I added a little beef broth, 1/2 cup red wine and the mushrooms.

Meanwhile, I threw two oven safe plates into the oven while the steaks finished cooking. Once the timer went off (yes the key to perfect cooking is accurate time!) everything was ready to plate.








It was delicious. The steak did come out more medium to medium well so I'd either try using the low broil setting and/or cook for less time (we like medium to medium rare).

Back to the cheese. We both remember the bleu cheese to be absolutely, surprisingly delicious. When we tried it again tonight, it seemed very salty. I'm not sure whether it was the food or wine pairing, or if we just handled it wrong...or perhaps being an artisan cheese this one just was more salty compared to the one we sampled. In any case I'm certainly not going to give them a bad review....we'll just try it again!







Mocha loved it though...







By the way, the Bordeaux was Arthus 2005 Cotes De Castillon at a <$18 price point, it was a steal.

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Motivation!

As I sat on the couch tonight with my wife watching a rerun of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations (Japan episode), I realized how much culinary curiosity I have...how much excitement I have over cooking food, or trying new foods...then it dawned on me how lazy I have been with this blog! Marily and I haven't posted in FOR-EV-ER (yes reference from the old movie "The Sandlot").

Over the last week or so...I guess since we just found the Winter Park Farmer's Market (although we have lived in Central Florida all our lives and I'm sure it has been there just as long or longer), I've gotten a little spark...a little buzz again about food and cooking.

Thinking about the Anthony Bourdain episode, I was like I'd try chicken sashimi...I'd eat Kentucky Fried Monk fish (of course I'd eat anything Iron Chef Morimoto cooked me!), I'd try...dare I say it...Cod Sperm...OK, maybe I wouldn't admit it...but hell, we eat fish eggs aka caviar...same difference.

This week we enjoyed fennel for the first time in a chicken milanese recipe and it was delicious. It was that night that Marily and I decided...let's pick a new ingredient each week to cook with. So here we go! Look forward to more posts and pictures...and our comments on how well it went.

See ya later!

-Chris