Personally, I'm a fan of these potato pancakes any time of the year, but with
them being a staple of Chanuka they've been all over the Food Network and such,
and I've been getting the fever. So I pulled out a recipe from the
wonderful "The New Basics Cookbook"
(
) and started shredding and frying away.
I first had gnocchi about 10 years ago at a mediocre Italian Restaurant in
Oswego, NY. For nearly all of the last 10 years I've had no desire to
order "those stupid little chewy dough balls" again. Several months ago, I
went out on an adventuresome limb and ordered an appetizer of "Gnocchi with
smoked tomato cream sauce" at the relatively new restaurant with the killer
atmosphere, Lola Bistro (360
Monroe Ave. Rochester). This has taken a bee line to the top of my
list of yummiest dishes in town. Small gnocchi, crisp on the outside,
fluffy inside, great potato flavor, in a decadent sauce that the simple
description "smoked tomato cream" doesn't quite capture fully. This was my
attempt to reproduce this dish at home. I quickly realized that my chances
of reproducing the sauce that I really have trouble describing in my head were
pretty low, so I was more focused on trying to reproduce the texture and
experience of the "glorious little potato balls".
The recipe I used for the Gnocchi was
found here.
I searched around quite a bit and there wasn't too much variation. I liked
the idea of using the Yukon golds, if only for the color. I ran over to
the new Kitchens Etc. to buy a ricer for what seemed like a reasonable $13.
It seemed to do the trick.
A couple things I learned while making them:
The best way to form them (after cutting pieces off the rolled log) seems
to be putting them in the cupped palm of a lightly floured hand and rolling
each end with a fork
After forming them, place them in a single layer somewhere, don't stack
them. The bottom ones will get crushed.
Sautéing them in a hot pan with some veg. oil and butter after they've
been boiled did form a bit of crust on the outside, but not quite as crunchy
as I was looking for. I think just sautéing a little longer may have
done the trick. Frying them in deeper oil was not as successful.
They tended to stick to the bottom and break apart.
The sauce was pretty good, a mixture of shallots, garlic, sweet red pepper,
red pepper flakes, canned stewed tomatoes, white wine, and cream. I served
the dish on a big lovely leaf of Swiss chard. The whole dish was very
good, but not quite the Zen-like experience of Lola's. I'll keep trying.
While searching for the etymology of the taunt "Boo-Yah" (As in "I just dunked on your sorry ass! Boo-Yah!"), I stumbled across references to Booyah soup. Apparently, this is a stew from Belgium with chicken, beef, and pork that's generally made in huge vats. It seems to be popular in Wisconsin, where there are a lot of Belgian immigrants. I'm going to have to make up a batch of this just for the fun of saying the name.
Now if I can just find the recipe for Who's-Your-Daddy Gumbo...
The most basic delights can be so woefully neglected. Tonight's delight
was encouraged by a very sick girl in desperate need of a remedy. She
seems to be doing much better. Hmm...that ache in my lower back seems to
be going away as well.
For this cure-all, simmer some chicken (I used two quarters, one breast and
one thigh, right from the freezer) in about six cups of stock for an hour or so.
Add some big chunks of celery, carrot, onion, and a crushed clove of garlic to
this pot to help intensify the stock flavor.
Remove the chicken and vegetables with a slotted spoon. Discard the
vegetables, they're spent. Pull the chicken apart into bite sized pieces.
Saute one cup each of chopped onion, celery, and carrot briefly. Add
these and the chicken to the pot of stock. I also added 1-2 tsp dried
thyme and 1 tbsp of fresh sage. Bring to a boil and add 1/4 lb of small
pasta, I used some tiny bow-ties. Boil until pasta is done and S&P to
taste.
Sorry about the informality of this recipe, but I'm sure there are about a
billion possible permutations of very similar ingredients that will all come out
tasting well. Of course this is the only method that will cure your brain
cloud.
Flash...From the "more trouble than it's worth department"! This was my
first delving into sourdough bread. I started the proofing at 8:00AM and
had nice fresh sourdough bread from the oven at 11:30PM! And although the
texture was pretty good, the flavor was underwhelming as far as sourdough goes.
I'll proof overnight next time, but I'm not sure what to do about the flavor...
Notice the nice mutated, I mean, rustic appearance of the near loaf. I'll
get the dough a little more homogeneous in the pan next time.
This soup is just fun as hell to make. Two soups, cheddar cream and
spicy black bean, served side by side in the same bowl! It looks very
slick and the flavors are really conducive to adding lots of tex-mex
accoutrements and garnishes, adding to the fun. Sour cream, salsa,
guacamole, jalapeños, green onions, corn chips, etc... Knock yourself out!
Making the two simple soups at the same time is also a fun little orchestration
challenge.
Found the recipe
here on the
indispensable Epicurious. I ended up using
this recipe
for the black bean side as I wanted one spicier that that referenced in the
first recipe, and I didn't want to take the time to soak the beans. As far
as I can tell the only reason to make things with dried beans instead of canned
is that they're a bit cheaper. Friends and I have done side by side
comparisons and were unable to tell the difference. Please leave a comment
if anyone has a different opinion.
The perfect beverage with this soup??? A
black and tan of course!
