Adventures in gnocchi and tomatoes

A couple years ago, I was leaving on a seven week trip around the world. Well, not really, but it seemed that way to me! I’m from Western Canada and travelled to a couple countries in Africa and a handful in Europe. For the first five weeks, I was doing a volunteering/teaching practicum trip in Kenya, followed by a backpacking trip in Kenya and Tanzania. For those weeks, I was fairly isolated and had limited and infrequent internet abilities. While all of this was going on, I was leaving Diggles back home and had almost no contact with him at all. After the first five weeks, he met me in Amstersam and we went travelling in Europe for two weeks. It was a wonderful time in my life!

A few days before I left, I made a special meal for Diggles to say good-bye and thank him for supporting me in my volunteering endeavours. The gnocchi that follows was a part of that meal. That was also the first time I made (read: successfully made) homemade pasta. For these reasons and more, it’s a meal that has stuck with me. I can remember it so clearly.

The pictures in this post are from the most recent time that I made this gnocchi (an Anna Olson recipe, of course!). The original recipe calls for a red pepper coulis, but this meal was for a Monday Night friend extravaganza and red peppers aren’t a group favourite. I instead made a traditional marinara sauce with delicious San Marzano tomatoes that I got at the Italian Centre Shop. It was extremely successful and the tomatoes were worth the special trip. Diggles said that this gnocchi and tomato sauce was the best it’s ever been! My sister (an occasional member of the Monday Night group) argued that the gnocchi were not gnocchi at all, but rather “cheese balls”. Nonetheless, she cleared her plate. No matter the name, this meal is a winner and one that I will return to often.

Recipes

Goat Cheese Gnocchi

(Recipe from Anna Olson via The Food Network)

These quantities are what I used and make a double-batch.

1 pkg (300 g) fresh goat cheese, at room temperature

1 pkg (250 g) light cream cheese, at room temperature

6 tbsp green onion, finely chopped

3 tbsp parsley, freeze-dried and finely chopped

2 tbsp lemon zest, finely grated

3 eggs, separated

2 cup all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

For gnocchi, beat goat cheese and cream cheese until smooth.

Stir in green onion, parsley, lemon zest and egg yolks until smooth. Fold in flour half of flour.

Whip whites with salt to soft peaks.

    

Fold half into goat cheese mixture. Fold in the rest of the flour and egg whites.

Bring large pot of water to a boil and salt generously.

Rip off a chunk of dough and roll out into a log shape about ¾- inch in diameter.

Cut into ½ inch pieces (or approx. width of your thumb).

Place on a parchment lined tray and repeat with the rest of the dough. Keep covered in the fridge until ready to prepare and serve.

Drop gnocchi into water and simmer until they float, about 3 minutes. Gently remove with a slotted spoon and set on a plate.

To serve, heat sauce (recipe below) and spoon into a bowl. Gently place warm gnocchi on top and serve.

Bright and Delicious Marinara Sauce

(Adapted from The Food Maven)

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 medium onion, finely chopped

1 large clove garlic, lightly smashed

1 28-ounces can plum tomatoes

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tsp basil

In a saucepan, over medium-low heat, combine the oil and the garlic. Cook the garlic, pressing it into the oil a couple of times to release its flavor, until it barely begins to color on both sides. Remove the garlic.

Add the onion and cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until the onion is fully tender, 8 to 10 minutes. If the onion begins to color before it is tender, add water by the tablespoon.

Add the tomatoes. Stir well. Add the salt and black pepper to taste. Increase the heat slightly and bring to a brisk simmer.

Adjusting the heat as the sauce cooks down, and stirring frequently, simmer briskly for about 10 minutes. Add the basil and simmer until the sauce has thickened and reduced, about 5 minutes. Using an immersion blender, blend the sauce until smooth. Ladle into bowls.

Do you like gnocchi? Even if it’s not made of potatoes? Do you think these should be called “cheese balls”?

Adventures in Cabbagey Laziness

Last night, I had Easter dinner with my aunts, uncles, sisters, parents and cousins. Extended family functions such as that have been one of the highlights of my life because most of my cousins are about the same age as me. We used to play constantly. Our family has a lake lot and, when we were young, it had an old log cabin on it (complete with outhouse). Some of my best childhood memories were there and that may be one of the places that lead me to fall in love with nature. I can distinctly remember eating toast with Gran’s strawberry jam while walking in the dew covered grass. The birds would chirp and you’d see all kinds of wildlife, including foxes, toads, deer, coyotes, owls, woodpeckers and eagles. There was even a memorable bear sighting in the area that led to the bear being trapped and released.

One of my favourite things to do at the lake was to bring my Archie comics and a bag of sunflower seeds down to the dock and read with the water lapping underneath me. On one such day, I even saw a pelican with it’s bill full.

None of this has anything to do with the following recipe, except that my family, whom I love, really enjoyed this dish last night and asked me to blog it. I would personally change this recipe somewhat the next time I make it and I’ve included some notes on that subject below. The instructions that follow are how I made it for the family function.

Lazy Cabbage Rolls

(adapted from Allrecipes)

1 pkg soy ground beef

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup onion, chopped

1 1/2 (355 ml) cans tomato sauce

1 small head of cabbage, chopped

1/2 cup uncooked brown basmati rice

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

2 cups vegetable broth

sour cream

Throw everything into the slow cooker. Stir. Put on high for 5 hours. Serve with sour cream.

Notes on this recipe

First of all, doesn’t this take lazy to a whole new level? Yes. Yes, it does. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of this dish when it was finished, but it pretty much looks like reddish-orange rice with thick sauce. Like you couldn’t have pictured that by the ingredients, eh? Here’s a pre-cooked pic.

As I mentioned above, my family really enjoyed this recipe. I liked the flavour of the dish, but found the texture to be a little too mushy. Diggles said he liked it that way and that he “doesn’t like to chew cabbage”, but I think it can be improved upon. The next time I make it, I will do the following: substitute the tomato sauce for canned tomatoes, brown the “beef” with the onions and garlic and cook it in a pot for a half an hour to 45 mins.

The cooking time may flex depending on how the cabbage and rice cook, but I think that I would rather my cabbage and rice a little bit more al dente. The original recipe calls for this whole thing to go in the oven for one hour and I think I would even reduce that if I were to bake it. If you were to make it in your slow cooker, I would suggest putting it on low to prevent burning/mushing. If you like your cabbage mushy (or soft), you could put all the ingredients in the slow cooker and then add rice when you get home.

How do you like to cook cabbage? Soft and disintegrating, crunchy or in between? 

Adventures in corn bread and chili

It is a fine week in the land of teacherdom: SPRING BREAK!

I have plans-a-plenty for how to use this wonderful gift of time. Here is a breakdown:

1. Spring Cleaning Challenge (See Finely Ground for details)
2. A LOT of cooking and baking
3. Yoga
4. Sleeping and relaxing
5. Other things I never have time for (like reading, crafts, art, looking out the window)

With all this time on my hands, I’ve done an art/collage project…

… and I’ve officially broken in my cast iron pan. It turns out that the pan is amazingly non-stick and easy to use.

To celebrate, I have tested a Skillet Corn Bread recipe for you! Corn bread is delicious on it’s own, but wouldn’t you agree that it’s much better with Vegetarian Chili?

Vegetarian Chili

 1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 medium onion

1 green pepper, chopped

1 carrot, finely chopped

1 celery stick, chopped

1/2 jalapeno pepper,diced finely, seeds removed

3 cloves of garlic, smashed and diced

1 pkg soy ground beef

2 (540 ml) cans of tomatoes

1 (540 ml) can of black beans, drained (or kidney, navy or really any kind of beans you like!)

1 can of corn, drained

1 1/2 tbsp chile powder

1 tsp oregano

1 tbsp cumin

1 bay leaf

1 cup of water or vegetable broth

In a large pot, heat oil on medium heat. Add onions and simmer until translucent. Add peppers, carrot, celery, garlic and soy beef. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Add tomatoes, beans, corn, spices and water or broth. Simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Eat!

Notes on this recipe

I like the Cracked Black Pepper and Garlic Alymer Accents tomatoes in this chili. They are the perfect size and I really enjoy the cracked pepper. Be forewarned that they bring up the heat factor! Obviously, you can also use regular canned tomatoes or even freshly diced tomatoes. If you go fresh, you will want to add salt into the recipe and keep your eye on the level of liquid in the chili.

In terms of heat, I find this chili to be a medium, back-of-the-mouth spice. Diggles thought it was much spicier, but managed to cope by eating lots of corn bread.

I find that a lot of the liquid evaporates from the chili during the simmering and leaves the chili with the perfect consistency. Overnight, the chili absorbs the liquid and leaves it chunkier and thicker. Depending on how wet you like your chili, you may want to add more or less liquid.

I added carrots in for extra colour and nutrition, but I dice them quite small to prevent mega-carroty spoonfuls and to help them soften up.

Skillet Corn Bread

While this was simmering, I made the Skillet Corn Bread found on allrecipes.com. I mega-love allrecipes because it’s so easy to use and search and the comments are ridiculously helpful. Many of my go-to recipes are modified or adapted from that site, including the vegetarian chili.

Anyway, back to the Skillet Corn Bread. This recipe is beyond easy and makes a coarse, savoury corn bread. I modified the recipe by doubling it and substituting the salt for sea salt and the buttermilk for half cream and half milk.

As I was mixing the corn bread, I was surprised by just how wet the batter was after everything was added. Note that it’s important to just mix the liquid in until the dry ingredients are moistened. When this super liquid-y batter hit the pre-heated pan, it made the most satisfying sizzle. When the bread came out, it was beautiful (see above).

Diggles and I were both really surprised by how easily the corn bread came out of the pan. Success! I believe that the key to the bread coming out in one piece is heating the oil and the pan in the oven, which seals the crust as you pour in the batter.

After having eaten this corn bread, I have come to understand that I prefer my corn bread on the sweet side. I quite liked the texture of this corn bread versus other, more cake-like, versions. I will thus begin my journey of trial and error to make this recipe the exact right amount of sweet. I’m thinking this recipe minus one egg, plus 1/4 cup of honey and 2 tbsp of sugar and a drizzle of honey on top might just be perfect…

How about you? How do you like your cornbread? Sweet or Savoury?