20090218

Photo Heavy

If you want, go back one entry and click on the link to the Gnocchi recipe that I linked to. Keep it open in a separate tab (you do use Firefox, right???) so that you can refer back. This one is gonna be photo-heavy, with little room for explanation. We'll do our best.

(Meyer) Lemon Gnocchi
"1 pound of potatoes peeled and cut into 2-inch dice."








"Shake over moderately high heat until dry...Rice the hot potatoes in an even layer..."
(Sorry, homey don't own a ricer. BUT, I have a food processor with a grating blade. Last time, Jesse and I pushed the potatoes through a sieve, and that sucked. So this time, the foodpro had its way with the potatoes, and it worked fine. Just make sure they're VERY dry before you start)



"...whisk together the egg yolks with the lemon zest, 1 teaspoon of olive oil, and the salt, and pour over the potatoes..."






"...Gently roll the dough into four 1/2-inch-thick ropes. Using a sharp knife, cut each rope into 1/2-inch pieces. Roll each piece against the tines of a fork to make ridges...cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate."






Paraphrasing the rest, you cut almost a stick of butter into a half-cup of chicken stock, and whisk to make a sauce. Boil the Gnocchi for 2 minutes (about a minute, they'll float, boil 1 minute more) then let them cool, and sautee them in butter.
Really let them pick up some gorgeous color. It'll help them taste better and look prettier.



Then, it's just a matter of adding some chopped parsley to the sauce, and dousing the gnocchi in said sauce. The result is supposedly 8 appetizer-sized portions. But we? We don't need no steeenking appetizers!!!
NoM NOM NOM!!!!
100 posts in. Thanks for reading, kids. I'm hoping to branch out, try some new things, eat som new foods. We're having fancy nibbles/tapas for the Oscars when Leah comes to play, so there's that!! And now, it's getting warm again. We'll have summer and cookouts and beach trips and all sorts of fun stuff to look forward to. GLEE!!!

20090216

Wow. Lame.

Ok, so I fully admit. I backed off blogging for an entire 2-week period, despite my month-old resolution to blog 3 times a week.
I was poor. We barely had any food. We were scraping by. But I'm back. And I'm going to update one and all about our fantastic Valentine's Day Weekend meals. GET EXCITED!!

On Saturday, we had a late brunch. And a reprisal of Cafe Lub. Which is the cutest thing in all get-out, just so we're clear.
At Jesse's request, Cafe Lub involved chicken fried steak, biscuits, and mimosas. I think the fact that he dipped the steaks in the egg, and I dipped them in the four made them even better -- most things taste better with teamwork.
Especially things that are really really awful for you, but are so tasty and yummy and come with gravy on top and biscuits to dunk in and fizzy mimosas to wash them down.....


Last night for dinner, we had a wonderful first-try on something that I will be making over and over and over again. Shrimp Scampi. It wasn't as good as Sorrento's, but since Nick would stab me if I ever asked him for a recipe, I'll have to approximate. I used Tyler Florence's recipe, sort of.

1 box of linguine. Boiled in salted water. Drained and about a cup of the pasta water reserved.
1 big shallot and 4 garlic cloves grated on the microplane so all the juice goo stuff was collected. That sauteed for a few minutes in 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil with a pinch of red pepper flake.
A pound of medium shrimp (tails on, shells off, cleaned, deveined) were seasoned with salt and pepper and sauteed in the buttery garlicky shallotty goodness until they were just pink. They were fished out and reserved keeping them warm -- put them in a bowl and cover with a pot lid. Then, half a cup of dry white wine went into the skillet with some lemon juice. Tyler asks you to squeeze in a whole lemon, but that was too much for me. Start with half. Taste, and decide.
When the wine and lemon juice come to a boil, add in 2-3 tablespoons of butter. I'd vote for 3. It makes a difference.
Once the butter is melted in, add a bunch of chopped parsley, put the shrimp back in, toss, and then add the pasta. The sauce should be a little gloopy. Add about half a cup, tops, of the reserved pasta water. Toss around until the water kind of reduces off a little.... the sauce should be creamy and coat all the pasta and shrimp with lovely buttery garlicky goodness. If it's too gloopy still, add a little more water to thin it out.

Serve. Pepper would probably be good. NO CHEESE. Sorry, kids. You'll thank me later.
I promise.

Tonight, I'm making one of the first recipes I ever tried to make in this blog, or at least one of the first I photographed. I think this time will go better. Maybe I'll even photograph the whole way along, you lucky people!!! :)


I'm back. Maybe for good. I hope. :) Here's to post #99!!!