RECIPE: Sweet Potato Gnocchi Upgrade

As I’ve mentioned, frying any filled pasta with a parmesan crust is a great way to elevate any humble lump of dough. For Sweet Potato Gnocchi, it becomes a whole new dish.

1/2 cup finely grated parmesan or other hard cheese
salt and pepper to taste
unsalted butter
sage
1 batch Sweet Potato Gnocchi

1. Place cheese, salt and pepper in a bowl with tight fitting lid and shake to mix.
2. Combine 1 tablespoon butter and a 1/4 teaspoon of sage in a sauté pan over high heat.
3. In batches, toss a dozen or twenty damp gnocchi in the cheese mixture until coated.
4. As the butter begins to brown, add the batch of gnocchi, shaking the pan constantly and loosening with a spatula if they begin to stick. Flip as needed and remove from pan as soon a both sides have browned.
5. Pour any remaining butter over the gnocchi and serve immediately.
6. Repeat steps 2 through 6 until all gnocchi have reached enlightenment.

RECIPE: Sweet Potato Gnocchi

2 pounds sweet potatoes
2 pounds russet potatoes
2 large eggs
1/2 cup finely grated manchego cheese (or substitute pecorino, romano, parmesan, etc.)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 cups all-purpose flour

1. Bake all potatoes (sweet and russet) at 375 for 45 minutes or until very soft and the sugars in the sweet potatoes have begun to caramelize.
2. Peel and grate or rice potatoes. Combine with egg, cheese, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Sift in flour, incorporating gradually.
3. In a large saucepan, bring 6 cups water to a boil. Salt and taste water (TSB says it should “taste of the sea.” I just think it should taste as salty as you would like your gnocchi to taste).
4. Fill durable zip-top freezer bag with dough and snip one corner to create a half-inch diameter hole.
5. Over the boiling water, squeeze dough out of the bag with one hand, while using a knife in the other hand to cut it off in 3/4-inch lengths. Skim off dumplings as they rise to the surface and shock them in cold water. Cook pasta in batches, changing water mid-way if it becomes too cloudy and sticky with flour residue.
6. Optionally, gently press each gnocchi with a fork before shocking it to give it the characteristic ridges of gnocchi that are not possible to make before boiling because of the soft, sticky nature of the dough. This flattening is also advantageous if you intend to sear or otherwise fry the gnocchi.

Serve with alfredo sauce or brown some unsalted butter with sage in a sauté pan and pour over warm gnocchi.

JOURNAL: Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Ever since I made my first great batch of gnocchi, I have been trying to develop a sweet potato variation, but baked sweet potatoes are so much wetter and stickier than potatoes that it has been a struggle.

The ratio for my regular gnocchi is:
4 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes
2 large eggs
1 cup flour
1/2 cup grated cheese

Simply substituting sweet potato for Yukon Gold yielded nothing recognizable as gnocchi.

Substituting sweet potato for half the Yukon Gold was a step in the right direction, but required 4 times as much flour to achieve the same dough consistency, which yielded extremely dense dumplings.

I did a little research and found recipes that used comparably large amounts of flour, but were critiqued for their brick-like density and I feel strongly that gnocchi should be light and fluffy. Other recipes used as much flour but added other moist ingredients such as ricotta, a direction I did not want to take.

I found one recipe that used less flour and rather than rolling the dough it instructed the cook to put the dough into a pastry bag and squeeze it into the boiling water. Last week I attempted this with the ratio listed above (but half of the potatoes were sweet potatoes and the other half was russets) and the result was delicious and light but did not hold together well. When fried, they resembled sweet potato pancakes but the inside was still the consistency of mashed potatoes.

For last night’s batch, I doubled the flour and once boiled, they were precisely the consistency and flavor I desired. Oddly, when fried, the middle again became a bit looser, nearly as much like mashed potato as pasta in texture, but I think this is as close to perfect as I have the patience to reach, so I will post the recipe now.

RECIPE: Pumpkin Bisque

Serves 4 (I think).

1 small pie pumpkin (2-3 pounds)
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
2 shallots
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 splash dark beer (optional)
2 cups chicken broth (boxed broth is preferable to canned and vegetable broth can be substituted for a vegetarian recipe)
1/2 teaspoon rosemary
1 teaspoon basil
½ teaspoon thyme
1 bay leaf
1 cup heavy cream

Note: The pumpkin weight and herb measurements are guestimates, and I may have used one cup of broth equivalent instead of two in my initial trial, but I can't be sure. I'll update this next time I make it, but either way should yield good results.

1. Preheat oven to 375.

2. Hack the pumpkin into 8ths like longitude lines on a globe and remove the fibrous/seedy part with a spoon. Slice off the shell and cut into 1 inch cubes. Place in a covered baking dish with 1/4 inch water and drizzle with maple syrup. Cook until easily squished with a fork, about 20 minutes.

3. Cut carrot into 1/2 inch lengths and pulse in food processor (approximately five 1-second pulses). Cut celery into half-inch lengths, peel and quarter the shallots and add both to food processor for another five one-second pulses.

4. Heat 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat in a large, heavy bottom saucepan. Once the butter stops foaming, add the vegetables from the food processor and sauté, seasoning with salt and pepper and stirring occasionally until soft. If the pan gets a little dry, add a splash of beer rather than more butter.

5. Add broth, rosemary, basil, thyme and bay leaf to pan and bring to a boil.

6. Pour off any remaining liquid from baking dish and add pumpkin to simmering soup, mashing gently with a fork or something.

7. Simmer 5 minutes, add cream and remaining butter. Remove from heat as soon as soup returns to boil.

8. Discard bay leaf, pour soup into food processor and pulse until combined and visibly chunk-free, but some texture and bite remains.

9. Pour into four bowls and garnish with sour cream and fresh basil or parsley or something.

10. Serve immediately with crusty bread or croutons.

RECIPE: Mac and Cheese 2

1 pound elbow pasta
8 tablespoons unsalted butter plus more for dish
3 cups panko flakes
2 pounds extra sharp cheddar, grated
8 ounces Monterrey Jack, grated
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon black pepper
3 cups whole milk
1 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Note: the only salt I used was in seasoning the water for cooking pasta, so don't forget to salt the water before you add the noodles.

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees, butter a large baking dish and grate the cheese while pasta is cooking. (For the love of God, buy a food processor. The 11-cup Cuisinart is the perfect size for grating two and a half pounds of cheese)
2. In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt 3 tablespoons of butter and integrate panko and two cups of cheese. Remove from pan and set aside.
3. Return pan to heat and melt remaining butter.
4. Add flour, red pepper flakes and pepper and stir constantly over medium heat for three minutes.
5. Whisk in milk, bring sauce to a boil, whisking constantly and simmer for 3-5 minutes to thicken.
6. Add cream, cheese and mustard and turn off the burner. Stir until sauce is a uniform consistency.
7. Incorporate cooked pasta and pour into the buttered baking dish.
8. Spread panko mixture across the top and bake 20 minutes or until golden brown on top and bubbly throughout.

RECIPE: Cran-Pear Chutney

1.5 pounds bosc pears (about three on the larger side of average), peeled, seeded and diced
3 cups water
1/2 lemon, seeded and diced (rind and all)
1.5 cups brown sugar
1 medium sweet white onion
1 tablespoon fresh ginger
1.5 cups cider vinegar
1 cup dried cranberries
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon cayanne
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon garam masala

1. Heat water to a boil in medium saucepan and add pears, cooking until soft (10-15 minutes).
2. Strain pears, and set aside in a mixing bowl, returning cooking water to saucepan.
3. Bring water back to boiling and add sugar and lemon. Cook down to a syrup on medium heat (20-30 minutes).
4. While syrup simmers, grate ginger, dice onion and combine all ingredients not currently cooking.
5. Mix everything into the saucepan and simmer for about 1/2 hour, until liquids have reduced, cranberries have plumped and onions have become translucent.


It's great on poultry or fish, sandwiches, with a cheese plate and of course with Indian food.

ARTIFACT: Lost Mac And Cheese Recipe

Of all things, I was flipping through a book on ecologically sound design practices, and between the pages, stuck to a drool-stained magazine page featuring the 7 bowl system from elBulli designed for Ferran Adria, was a pair of post-its labeled Matt's Mac. I can't be sure how many refinements and tests went into this recipe, and it isn't complete, but I think it is the ingredients and measurements that I used to love, so I am going to compare and integrate it with recent attempts next week.

JOURNAL: Vegan Jell-O Flop

With the summer semester finally coming to a close, I thought I would get back into the kitchen and play around. I’ve gotten rusty. I sought to improve on past attempts to make cocktail aspic, or fancy jell-o shots, or whatever you want to call them. I used Agar agar, the seaweed-based, and thus vegan, alternative to Jell-O, which is made of hooves and has a less interesting texture. Agar agar also holds up better when mixed with liquor in my experience.

My attempt at Cosm-O Shots yielded less than impressive results. They don’t taste like much of anything and the red color was not as saturated as I hoped. They had not set when I tried to pull them out of the freezer, but set quickly when spilled all over the kitchen (the key is maximizing surface area). OK, that last part is not the fault of the recipe, so much as the clumsy cook.

I had previously made a cranberry agar agar, substituting juice for half of the water and found the flavor to be very weak, so I thought it would be perfect if I added cranberry juice concentrate to the water, thus creating a stronger flavor, but it was still pretty bland and extra chewy to boot (actually, not unlike chewing a boot).

Next batch will probably be 12 ounces of water to 12 ounces of concentrate, less agar powder and all of the alcohol. I will also combine the boiling agar water with the rest of the ingredients in the mixing bowl, specifically one with a lip designed for pouring, and not in the hard-to-aim saucepan.

Recipe (For archival purposes ONLY - DO NOT attempt to duplicate):

4 ½ cups water
1 pouch agar agar powder with sugar added (enough for 6 cups)
2 cups vodka
½ cup triple sec
1 ½ cups Cranberry juice concentrate (11.5 ounce jar)
Juice of 4 limes

1. Bring water to boil in a medium saucepan while combining the booze and juice in a bowl.
2. Upon realizing that the other ingredients are too cold to combine, and that you were supposed to bring the water and agar agar to a boil together, turn off the heat and replace the pot lid with the mixing bowl.
3. Go outside for fifteen minutes.
4. Return to kitchen, add agar agar to water and return to a boil, whisking constantly.
5. Remove from heat, and whisk in other ingredients.
6. With little regard for safety or sanitation, proceed to cover the stove and floor in sticky pink goo while trying to fill ice cube trays, baking dishes and plastic containers.
7. Put in freezer because you are too impatient to wait for it to gel in the refrigerator.

JOURNAL: Five Minute Sauce for Pasta

The summer has been hectic. I am teaching a course at twice the speed I taught in the spring, I'm taking a class as a student, also double-time, plus I've been traveling, so there has been little time for cooking and even less time for writing about it, but I need to remember to make time to eat at least.

I have been cleaning my apartment like a madman tonight, the imminent return of my lovely roommate at my heels, and around ten thirty I realized that I hadn't eaten yet…today. Well, a fistful of edamame around noon, but that was it. In five minutes, plus the time it takes to boil linguine, I MacGyvered a surprisingly delicious sauce out of the random things I had discovered while tidying the kitchen.

It went like this: I sautéed the mushrooms left over from New World Tempura (Oops, I still need to write about that) in a quarter stick of butter that I found behind my food processor and a teaspoon or two of (what I assume was) dalmatian sage from an unmarked bottle of what looked like green-gray lint. I killed the heat and mixed in a 6-ounce tub of creme fraiche with an expiration date that must have been a typo, because it looked fine to me, and a little sea salt. It was really satisfying and surprisingly delectable. I will gladly make it by choice next time, rather than out of necessity.

RECIPE: Mac And Cheese 1

1 pound elbow pasta, cooked
6 tablespoons unsalted butter plus more for dish
2 cups panko flakes
2 pounds sharp cheddar, grated (about 7 cups)
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons salt
3 cups 2% milk
2 cups heavy cream
8 ounces gruyere, grated (about 2 cups)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees, butter a large baking dish and grate cheese while pasta is cooking.
2. In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and integrate panko and one cup of cheddar. Remove from pan and set aside.
3. Return pan to heat and melt remaining butter.
4. Add flour and stir constantly over medium heat for three minutes. Season with red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.
5. Whisk in milk, bring sauce to a boil, whisking constantly, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 5 minutes to thicken.
6. Stir in cream, cheese and mustard until sauce is a uniform consistency. Remove from heat.
7. Stir cooked pasta into the sauce and pour into the buttered baking dish.
8. Spread breadcrumb mixture across the top and bake 25 minutes or until golden brown on top and bubbly throughout.

JOURNAL & RECIPE: Ginger Infused Vodka

While all of the recipes I’ve found online are raw root infused, I prefer to take an extra twenty minutes to make a ginger vodka variation using roasted ginger, which tastes infinitely better, and I am really surprised that I couldn’t find another infused vodka recipe out there with roasted ginger.

It’s great in a number of cocktails or as a shot, and is the ultimate addition to lemonade on a hot day or a glass of ginger ale. Alternately, you could add a sugar to the mix and make a ginger liqueur, but I will get into that in a future blog.

Notes: I usually make a double batch using a 1.5 liter bottle and two inches of ginger root. I prefer Smirnoff for making infused vodkas, as it yields the cleanest flavor and is the highest quality you can get for a moderate price, in my opinion. I might add some cloves to the next batch. I'll let you know how it goes.


1 750 ml bottle of vodka
1 inch piece of fresh ginger root

1. Preheat oven to 300degrees.
2. Pour one shot of vodka from bottle and drink.
3. Wrap ginger in aluminum foil and place in oven for an hour.
4. Allow ginger to cool only as long as you must in order to handle.
5. Peel ginger and slice thinly across the grain.
6. Cut again so that pieces will fit into bottle without being forced (important for getting the ginger out of the bottle later).
7. Add ginger to bottle, replace cap and leave in freezer for two weeks.
8. Strain vodka with fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth.
9. Rinse remnants from bottle with cheap vodka (not water).
10. Use a funnel to return infused vodka to bottle and discard ginger.

RECIPE: Belfast CarbomBBQ Sauce 1

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup diced shallots
1 1/2 cups ketchup
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup Pabst Blue Ribbon beer
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon ginger powder

1. In medium saucepan, cook shallots in oil over medium heat until golden (about 7-10 minutes).
2. Stirring constantly, add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.
3. Reduce heat to low and simmer covered for 1/2 hour stirring frequently (which can be tricky because this stuff spatters like you would not believe. I swirl the pan a few times before lifting the lid).
4. Remove from heat and allow sauce to cool five minutes.
5. Puree in food processor (optional).

JOURNAL: Gingered Duck (Cookies)

The classic Swedish holiday cookie involves two of my all-time favorite ingredients, neither of which I usually associate with cookies, or each other. The appearances, flavors, aromas and textures of ginger and bacon fat seem so diametrically opposed that I was both horrified and intrigued by the thought of combining them into one sticky biscuit.

It works. It works as well as I imagined it possibly could, and the flavor and texture of these cookies is hard to rival, but I thought I might be able to come up with a little trick to make it work even better, a twist to put it over the top, and that got me thinking about other favorite fats and ginger dishes, and it all fell right into place.

Rendered duck fat is probably the most amazing thing on Earth, up there with Bose-Einstein Condensate as a substance that both perplexes and amazes me, so impossible to wrap my head around how it can do what it does. I have found that in the kitchen, anything that benefits from a richly flavored fat like bacon grease can become ten times more tantalizing when substituted with rendered duck fat. Ginger duck dishes also work very well in Asian cuisine, so I think I might just have devised a winner.

Experiments will follow soon and I will update with a recipe and results in an impending posting.

RECIPES: Manic Mango Refined

Crab Mangoon

2 (8 ounce) packages softened cream cheese or Neufchatel cheese
2 mangoes, seeded, peeled and finely diced
1 (8 ounce) package faux crab legs, broken into pieces (real crab or lobster if you are feeling fancy, but really the fake works better)
2-3 scallions, white end half removed, cut into thin rings
1 teaspoon chili pepper flakes
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Won ton wrappers
Oil for deep-frying

1. Combine everything but the wrappers and frying oil and leave the mixing bowl in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours to allow the flavors to meld and the cheese stiffen.
2. Scoop about a tablespoon of filling onto each won ton, wet two adjacent edges and pinch them together to make a pregnant triangle.
3. Use a fork to crimp the sealed edges.
4. Submerge in hot oil until golden.
5. Drain on paper towels for five minutes, but serve them quickly or else they will become flaccid and soggy.
6. Serve with duck sauce, sweet chili sauce or both...or something else.

Frozen Ginger Mango-Rita

Serves: 1
Don't bother making a half recipe.
You will regret it when you run out.

1.5 cups Simple Ginger syrup*
6 ripe mangoes, pitted, peeled and cubed
3 limes, two juiced and one cut into wedges)
4 cups ice
1.5 cups tequila
1/2 cup Grand Marnier or Cointreau
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cayenne pepper

1. Combine mangoes, syrup, and lime juice in a food processor. You might have to do this in batches if you don't have the 14 cup model.
2. Add liquor and ice and blend until smooth.
3. Combine sugar and cayenne, stirring thoroughly on a small plate.
4. Wet the rim of a glass with a lime wedge, and dip it in the dish to coat the rim before filling. Repeat with every glass.
5. Garnish with a wedge of lime.

*Simple Ginger

I like to keep this on hand. I store it in squeeze bottles for use in cocktails, desserts and sauces. It will keep for a couple weeks.

1 cup H2O
1 cup sugar
3 inch piece of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced

1. Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan.
2. Stir Constantly over medium heat until sugar dissolves.
3. Bring to a boil and simmer for five minutes.
4. Remove from heat and let steep for 1-2 hours.
5. Pour through fine mesh strainer and discard ginger pieces.