Author Archives: Anne

Posted on April 15, 2008 by Anne| 7 Comments

Mexico City part 1: Izote de Patricia Quintana


I’m back! I know- it’s been absolutely forever since I last blogged and I promise (if anyone is still reading this!) that I won’t take such long blogging breaks anymore. Life, work, Scrabulous and other things have gotten in the way of Tuna Toast but I am happy to be back and even happier to report about my recent trip to Mexico City.


I went for just a few days last week to meet up with J, and saw and tasted so many gorgeous things that I think I’ll have to break my Mexico City posts into several. First of all, I love Mexico City. It’s such a vibrant city with so many smells, colors and flavors and is definitely what I like to dub a “real big city.” To me, Paris, Tokyo and New York also fall into that category- and Los Angeles, the one I actually live in- does not. Sure LA is technically a big city but with a lame mass transit system that few people use, the inability of residents to get anywhere without a car and restaurants closing their doors at around 11:00 PM, it just doesn’t have the energy or convenience of the other cities I mentioned.


Having planned my trip in advance, I’d made reservations at Izote de Patricia Quintana for our first night in the city. I’d read a lot about this restaurant whose chef has helped put Mexico City on the gourmet map by drawing heavily on indigenous ingredients and was very excited to try it. The restaurant was very colorful and was filled with fashionable men and women- it is located in Polcano, which many call the “Beverly Hills” of Mexico City. We ordered drinks (tequila for my friend, a dark beer for J, margarita for me and “Coke Light” for my friend LS who doesn’t drink) and looked over the English menu. There were so many interesting options that it was difficult to make a choice, but after consulting each other on what we were getting (to make sure there were no duplicates!) we ordered our food.

We were given a basket of large, crispy tortillas made with blue corn and a trio of salsas. All were very tasty, with the salsa verde being everyone’s favorite. They were the perfect accompaniment to our drinks- my margarita was perfectly tart and strong, while JI’s tequila shot came with a second shot glass filled with a savory, spicy tomato juice. It was so delicious I would have drank it as a soup had it been served to me in a bowl. I also loved that the waiters would bring your glass to the table and then fill it up with the tequila of your choice. Ditto if you ordered a tequila and tonic- they would pour the tequila into your large glass until you said to stop, then top it off with the tonic. I’m not really sure if they would keep pouring if you just sat there until the tequila filled your glass but I imagine they would.

Shredded venison

Tamales

We had decided to share a couple of appetizers to whet our appetites. The shredded venison with achiote and picked onions was my favorite- it had a very chewy texture that was strange at first, then became addictive….each rope-like piece was so flavorful and, when rolled in warm, handmade corn tortillas, was pretty much all you needed with any cocktail. The four small tamales were also good but so tiny that it was really a challenge to split them all up between the four of us. Since they were each a different flavor we wanted to try them all, and the one with huitlacoche (black corn mold) was definitely the winner. It was slightly pungent in the way a truffle is and added a nice contrast to the slightly sweet masa surrounding it.

Ceviche in chile

Nopalitos

Chile and cinnamon rubbed filet

After those plates were cleared, our main courses arrived and so many different scents wafted through the air I could hardly wait to dig in. J had a beautiful fresh chile stuffed with sweet, tender chunks of salmon ceviche. It wasn’t tart like most ceviches but just slightly tangy and mellow- I definitely tasted pineapple juice in there somewhere- and was so perfectly cooked in the acid. JI’s chile and cinnamon rubbed steak was so flavorful and aromatic- it’s something I’d love to try at home- and we noticed that a lot of people had ordered it as well. L ordered the rib eye with an apple and sweet potato puree which was less sweet than you may think and a wonderful match to his juicy steak. I went with the lobster enchiladas with pumpkinseed sauce which, quite honestly, was the best I’d ever had. The pumpkinseed sauce was sweet and creamy at first bite, but that sweetness slowly evolved into a mellow yet fiery heat in the back of my throat. It was so deep in flavor and, had I used a few pieces of bread to sop up the sauce after I’d eaten the enchiladas.

Rib eye with apple and sweet potato puree

Lobster enchiladas with pumpkinseed sauce


Being vacation and all, we had to order dessert (of course) and the four we chose were all very impressive. J went with a trio of sorbets- the guava being the best one- which came with a Florentine made with pumpkin seeds. L had to go with the chocolate box with chocolate truffles, blackberries, raspberries, and a vanilla custard sauce which we all pretty much dug into once we saw the creamy custard literally spilling out of what looked like a paper bag made of chocolate. Talk about over the top! JI’s crepes filled with a hazelnut chocolate filling and a vanilla custard sauce were voted our favorite, and my crème brûlée of mamey (a melon that looks kind of like a mango and I saw everywhere at the Mercado) had a golden, crispy topping and hid a pile of warm berries at the bottom of the dish. I took a couple of bites and couldn’t eat anymore but the rest of the table ended up making a pretty big dent in it.

We rolled ourselves out of Izote with full bellies and big smiles. I saw Patricia Quintana wandering around the dining room but was too shy to say anything to her. I think it’s cool that a female chef is making such an impact on the culinary world, and we certainly enjoyed her unique creations.


Izote de Patricia Quintana
Av. Presidente Masaryk 513
Between calles Sócrates and Platón, Col. Polanco, Chapultepec Park & Polanco
Mexico City, Mexico
55/5280-1671, 55/5280-1265

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Posted in Izote de Patricia Quintana, Mexican cuisine, Mexico, Mexico City restaurants, Polanco restaurants

Posted on February 25, 2008 by Anne| 10 Comments

Austrian Raspberry Shortbread

I have a confession to make- I hate making shortbread, shortcrust pastry, pâte sucrée….anything with a high butter content that requires rolling out. The key is to chill the dough very well so that the butter will stay cold when you roll it out but I almost always end up handling it too much and getting most of it plastered to my board or counter. I’ve also tried the method of pressing the dough with my fingers into the baking dish, but that almost always results in uneven pastry. I mean, I can make pastry but it not my forte.

So imagine my utter delight when I came across this recipe for Austrian Raspberry Shortbread. At first glance it seemed that the recipe included some sort of grated cheese (?!?!) but upon closer inspection I realized that it was grated frozen shortbread dough. I read on and on and realized that this was the answer to all of my butter-based pastry problems. WHAT A BRILLIANT IDEA! Make the dough, freeze it and then run it through your food processor with the grater attachment and simply pour the grated dough into a pan. Whoever came up with this method should get a freakin’ James Beard Award.

So here’s the step by step:

Cut frozen dough into small enough chunks to fit through the feed tube of your food processor

Grate the frozen dough in food processor

Take half of the grated dough and sprinkle it evenly in a 9 x 13 baking pan lined with parchment or foil

Drizzle 1 cup of raspberry jam over the grated dough (I know I know it looks like ketchup!)

Sprinkle remaining grated dough over the jam and resist every urge to press down – leave it alone!

Golden brown fresh out of the oven…

Sift powdered sugar over the top immediately after taking out of the oven

After letting it cool completely, chill in the fridge for an hour or so which makes it easy to cut the shortbread into clean bars

Box them up and take them to work so you don’t end up eating all of the shortbread

This recipe has opened up a whole new world for me. Next time I need to make any shortbread crust or base I will use this method. Since you don’t pat down the grated dough, there is a lightness that you don’t find in other shortbread, although the pound of butter is definitely obvious. It’s one of the most addictive things I think I’ve ever made. Be warned!

Recipe is here.

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Posted in bar cookies, Cookies, raspberry desserts, Shortbread, sweets

Posted on February 18, 2008 by Anne| 1 Comment

Kona Blue Kampachi & Warm Butternut and Chickpea Salad with Tahini

Last week I got an email with the subject line “Fish for Seafood Lovers!” and at first, I didn’t pay much attention. Lately I’ve gotten sucked in too many times by spam emails cleverly disguising themselves as genuine emails about food and/or cooking. Once I clicked on “Chocolate dreams!” thinking I’d be reading about a box of sweets and I ended up getting an eyeful of something I’d rather not repeat here.

Anyway, after I’d finished my move on Scrabulous (I’ve been playing my friend Nozomi in England for about 2 months and she’s kicking my butt!) I was going through my emails and spotted the Fish Email once again. I gingerly clicked on it and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was from a publicist who was promoting her client, Kona Blue, a Hawaii-based company specializing in kampachi (a type of yellowtail). She offered to send me some kampachi and made sure I understood that I was not obligated to blog about it. I found no reason to deny their request to send me free, sashimi-grade fish, so I wrote her back, gave her my info and told J to keep an eye out for a cold pak via Fed Ex.

A few days later, my seventeen (!) pound box arrived and I ran home to open it; luckily most of the weight was the result of the ice packs included in the box. I pulled out two large kampachi fillets- they were gleaming and gorgeous! I stuck one in the fridge, announced to J that we were having kampachi carpaccio for dinner and sliced off a big chunk which I cut into very thin slices, drizzled with good olive oil and a touch of ponzu, and then garnished with a bit of cilantro and red onion. It was so good that I didn’t even stop to take a photo. Sorry! I was worried that, due to the high fat content, it might taste fishy, but it tasted clean and fresh.

Since J left the next day for a month (insert sad face here), I knew I couldn’t possibly eat the rest of the kampachi the next day so I stuck it in the freezer.


Which brings us to yesterday, when I went on a cooking bender of sorts- baking a massive pan of raspberry shortbread to take to work (more on that later…holy cow it was insanely good), oven roasting some bruised roma tomatoes I’d gotten for a bargain at the Farmer’s Market and chopping, draining, roasting and mixing various ingredients to make Molly’s Warm Butternut and Chickpea Salad with Tahini. It’s kind of ironic that I was cooking so much since my household has shrunk from two to one in J’s long absence, but I guess I just got the urge, and hey- I’ll be taking gourmet brown bag lunches to work in addition to eating some good home cookin’ for dinner. Anyway, I decided to keep on my cooking marathon and moved on to the kamapchi.

Roasted butternut squash

Other salad elements…..


I’d experienced the pure, clean flavor of the fish raw and relatively unadorned; this time I wanted to try it cooked. The website is filled with lots of info on how it’s virtually impossible to overcook it due to its fat content, how versatile it is, etc. Since I already knew that the fish was of a very high quality, I wanted to keep it very simple and let the fish speak for itself. After a sprinkle of good sea salt and pepper, I dredged it lightly in super fine flour and seared it in a pan with a bit of olive oil. The fat from the fish rendered slightly and it was ready in no time. I topped it with a few of the oven roasted tomatoes which I smashed into a chunky salsa and served it with the chickpea/butternut squash salad and some leafy greens.

How was it? Ho-ly-mo-ly. Look, to any detractors who might be snickering that I loved the fish because it was free, I say “Pushaw!” or whatever disgusted sound I could make at you in writing. The kampachi was juicy, tender, meaty and just perfectly moist. Once again, the fat in the fish only added subtle flavor without any cloying fishy taste. I think I actually liked it better cooked since the heat made all of the lovely fish fat melt into the meat in such a nice way, giving it the texture of a good, well marbled salmon. The roasted tomatoes were the perfect tangy/garlicky foil to the pan seared kampachi. It’d tasted just as good if I’d paid a grip for it. Getting it sent to me was the icing on the cake!

The Warm Butternut and Chickpea Salad with Tahini was very good, but the small squash that I’d bought was lacking in sweetness….perhaps signaling the end of the butternut season *sniff.* I’ve eaten more butternut squash this past fall/winter than I’d ever had in my whole life, and it’s quickly become my favorite. I am sooo sorry to see it go, although a peek at some gorgeous sugar snap peas and stacks of sweet Satsuma oranges at the Farmer’s Market already has me dreaming of the next seasonal bounty. Guess I’m fickle with my produce!

Kona Blue

Warm Butternut and Chickpea Salad with Tahini

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Posted in butternut squash, chickpeas, healthy cooking, kampachi

Posted on February 12, 2008 by Anne| 9 Comments

Urasawa, Beverly Hills

Last Saturday, my family and I made our much-anticipated maiden voyage to Urasawa. My sister was generous enough to take us all there to celebrate our birthdays, anniversary and other milestones, and we had a wonderful time. I can’t really put into words the kind of service and food we experienced; it was all delicate, profound and will be put into the “once in a lifetime” category.

I’ll try my best to remember everything we ate; some of the sushi is lost on me now that a few days have passed but here is my photo essay of our wonderful Urasawa meal! Enjoy:

Beautfiul display behind counter

First course- hairy crab salad with crysthansamum petals

Lightly seared toro with ponzu
and edible gold leaf

Assortment of lightly stewed vegetables & seafood

Assorted sashimi on ice block…check out that toro…wow!

Baked dish made of yamaimo (mountain potato) with various treasures hidden inside..like uni, ginko nuts, shrimp. Most surprising dish of the night- had the exact texture of rice but was made of this very healthy potato.

See the uni inside?

Tempura of cod sperm sack served with dashi dipping sauce

Chef Hiro Urasawa starts to work on a huge slab of Kobe beef…..

…perfectly marbled with fat

Toro seared on a hot stone

The leftover meat from the hairy crab used in the first course, cooked in it’s own shell with a nice slice of uni. This was sublime…

Beef slowly braised in sweet soy….this was one of my favorites. So tender….!

The raw ingredients for shabu shabu, including a large slice of foie gras.

See huge slab of foie gras….

Cooked for about a minute in the hot broth, the foie gras was rich, tender yet extremely refreshing. My father and J, neither of whom are big foie fans, loved this dish.

Sushi course:

Toro

Hirame

Kohada- much less “pickeled” than versions I’ve had before, you could really taste the fish instead of the vinegar.

Lighly grilled shiitake mushroom. This was absolutely meaty and delicious.

Sayori (half beak)

Aji- Spanish mackeral

Awabi (abalone)- I’ve never been a fan of abalone but this was very good.

Uni (sea urchin). The best I’ve ever had, hands down. No bitterness, just sweet and creamy. Wow.

Maguro (tuna)

Ama ebi (sweet shrimp)- we watched Urasawa-san cut open big, fat Santa Barbara spot prawns to create this. Again, the best I’ve ever had.

Giant clam- slightly crunchy and sweet

The housemade “gari” or pickled ginger was sweet and spicy with a softer texture than most.

Real, fresh wasabi root

Unfortunately, this one escapes me!

Saba- mackeral

This one is lost on me now as well…

Unagi, sweet and tender

Astuyaki tamago- his version was almost cake-like..I could have eaten a few more of these!!

Desserts

Box containing assorted fruit- the stewed apple was my favorite

Sesame pudding topped with a sweet bean paste and matcha (green tea)

The sesame pudding was super smooth, slightly nutty and just sweet enough.

Toasted rice tea finishes out the amazing meal



The thing that surprised me the most, I have to admit, was the cheerful disposition of the chef, Hiro Urasawa. I guess I assumed that he would be a very serious and disciplined type, and although he certainly is when it comes to his food, he was good natured and joked a lot. He made everyone feel so comfortable and made sure to call each person by name.

Everything about the experience was perfect, and I highly recommend one visit if you ever get the chance. It is, as most people know, very expensive, so it certainly isn’t a place to go often but everyone should experience this at least once in their lives. The food, service and watching Urasawa-san at work is absolutely worth every penny.

Urasawa

218 Rodeo Drive Los Angeles CA 90210

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Posted in Beverly Hills restaurants, Japanese food, Sushi restaurants, Urasawa

Posted on February 1, 2008 by Anne| 2 Comments

The Spotted Pig- NY

Ok- wow, another long lapse since posting! If only Ms. Spears would stop having breakdowns I’d have more time to blog already!


Two weeks ago I had the chance to go to NYC- it was only for 14 hours, mind you- but it was to jet off and see my dear J and that’s all that would fit into the schedule. I guess it ended up being more like an 18 hour trip since my return flight was delayed by FOUR HOURS and I landed at 4:00 AM. Since I start work at 6:30 AM, it didn’t make life too fun. Worst part is, my friend who was also on the same flight got a totally unsolicited email via the customer service people at American Airlines, apologizing for the inconvenience and offering to credit her frequent flier account with 3000 miles! WTF?!?! They never made me such a generous offer nor have they responded to my three emails requesting that I get the same treatment. Guess they only like “Platinum” members.

Anyway, on to more positive things. While in NY, J and I managed to squeeze in one lunch- I already had a plan for where I wanted to go after hearing about it multiple times….The Spotted Pig, also known as The Place Where Chefs Eat. Hey, if it’s good enough for Anthony Bourdain, it’s good enough for me. Besides, with a name like The Spotted Pig, how could one go wrong?

Today’s specials…….

We took a taxi from Times Square to the little pub-like restaurant and sat at a cozy little booth. The décor is funky and eclectic, with the main theme being, well, PIG. There were pig signs, pig dolls, pig photos, pig throw pillows….you get the idea.

Since it was our first meal of the day, we both ordered coffee which came in individual-sized French presses- cute. Although there were many non-pork items on the menu that caught my eye, I knew I had to get something oink-related. I decided on the Cubano Sandwich and was everything a sandwich should be. Chunks of slow-roasted pork sandwiched between two crusty-on-the-outside-tender-on-the-inside bread with a liberal slathering of good, strong mustard and sliced dill pickles. Wowza. I loved that they pressed the sandwich without grease- I hate an oily Panini.

Oink, oink

J opted for a non-pig item but his was just as good…..actually, dare I say it, his was better. The Smoked Haddock Chowder with Homemade Crackers was, well, special. The shallow bowl had flakes of the smoked fish and un-uniform cubes of potatoes in spades, with a touch of tarragon and some sort of acid. Vinegar, perhaps. It was the best bowl of steaming gourmet-yet-comforting chowder I’d ever tried. The homemade crackers added a light crunch and J was kind enough to give me more than a few bites. I don’t know if I could have parted with that precious soup if it had been my meal! The two perfect, Dijon-laden deviled eggs we had as a starter were also scrumptious and introduced J to the wonderful world of the popular appetizer- he’d never really had one before. The poor guy.


It was a near-perfect experience- we only regretted we didn’t have even one night to have cocktails with our wonderful meal. The atmosphere in The Spotted Pig is perfect for late-night drinks paired with seriously gourmet bar food. If only Los Angeles had a place like that.

The Spotted Pig
314 W. 11th Street
@ Greenwich St.
New York, NY 10014

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Posted in pork, The Spotted Pig

Posted on January 21, 2008 by Anne| 5 Comments

Tales From The Road: Taylor’s Automatic Refresher, San Francisco, CA

Aloha- I’m back! No, I haven’t been prancing around the globe or anything like that; I have just been helping to launch a daily show at work and it’s been very time consuming. I do miss blogging and have wondered if there are even any readers left, so I pledge to document my eating and cooking adventures more often from now on. Unless Britney’s fifth personality decides to go bungee jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge, of course.


J, my best friend M and I traveled to San Francisco for New Year’s, and by the time we landed at around 2:00 PM, we were famished. Just one week earlier, when J and I ran through The Ferry Building for the 20 minutes we had on our car meter during our short visit at Christmas, we had noticed the hoards of people munching on fat, juicy burgers at Taylor’s Automatic Refresher and bemoaned the fact that we didn’t have time to join them. Well, here was a chance to get in on some burger action so we all three hopped into our rental car at SFO and made a beeline for Taylor’s.

We arrived to a line out the door and intoxicating smells of French fries, grilled burgers and onion rings………mmmmmmmmmm! Being in the Bay Area, Taylor’s offers something that you usually don’t find at burger joints- a nice selection of wines by the glass to wash down your juicy slab of meat with. I decided on the basic cheeseburger and an order of onion rings, while J opted for the blue cheese burger and M got the bacon cheeseburger and a side of fries. We parked it at the counter and waited while watching the cooks at work on the griddles.

I had noticed the copious mound of blue cheese that the cooks had been putting on the meat, and J was a bit overwhelmed by the ratio of it to everything else on the burger. I like blue cheese, but something so potent is better in small amounts. My burger was perfectly cooked, but the two thick slices of American cheese were still cold- again, I probably would have been better off with one slice of cheese. I know in America “bigger and more is always better” but I guess I’ve never been a big fan of that concept (unless it’s referring to a glass of wine, of course;). M was happy with her burger but I think we all decided that the fries were the real star- thin, crispy, perfectly salted and absolutely addictive. My onion rings were crisp and lovely too.


I’m glad that we finally had a chance to eat at this near- institution, but I think there are too many other eateries in San Francisco that beg to be tried before we make another trip back.

Next up: The Spotted Pig in NYC.

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Posted in San Francisco, Taylor's Automatic Refresher

Posted on January 3, 2008 by Anne| 3 Comments
HAPPY 2008!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh lordy, it’s embarassing how long it’s been since I last posted. I traveled a bit for the holidays (to see family and to spend New Year’s in San Francisco) and now I’m literally having heart palpatations at work due to the enormous volume of things that need to get done now! Although I vow to post more in 2008, I have to keep this one short.

Since I never posted about my Christmas cookies, I’ll put the photos up in this post. I made some soft gingerbread stars, dark chocolate and pistachio biscotti, apricot thumprints and spoon cookies- a recipe that I’ve been eyeing for over two years and that Molly actually blogged about so nicely that I feel I don’t have to go into detail…..except to say please try to make these if you can. They are as delicious as she describes, and even better two or three days after you’ve made them.

Spoon cookies

So I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, and here’s looking forward to more good eating in 2008!

More to come, and thanks for being patient (insert cricket chirping sound here).

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Posted in Cookies

Posted on December 10, 2007 by Anne| 6 Comments

Solar de Cahuenga

Another short post but wanted to get this out there, especially if you live/work in the Hollywood area as I do (work, not live!). I very rarely leave my building for lunch and instead enjoy my lunch straight out of a Tupperware in front of the warm glow of my computer screen. However, I know it’s good for the soul to pry oneself from their office and get some sun once in awhile, so my friend B and I decided to actually eat out the other day.

Nestled in the heart of Hollywood, my eating options are either Shintaro sushi or something in the Hollywood/Highland shopping complex. Although the food at The Grill is good, I don’t normally like to fork over $20+ for lunch. Shintaro is probably my first choice for a lunch out, but I drive past a really cute crepe place every morning that has piqued my interest for awhile now. It’s called Solar de Cahuenga and it’s just one of those places that you think “I HAVE to try it sometime!” but haven’t gotten around to. Well, I’m happy to say that I finally did, and I’ll be back again soon.


The coffeehouse vibe is a great way to escape the workday, and their system makes it easy to have a fast lunch. Walk up to counter, place order, get your number and find a table. I ordered the Sunny Path – grilled chicken breast, sautéed onions & button mushrooms in a rich Dijon sauce crepe- which was filled to the brim with the creamy mixture. It was delicious and I was pretty surprised at the large portion. My friend B got Susie’s Own – lean ground beef sautéed with sweet onions, red bell peppers, spinach, nutmeg & chopped hard boiled eggs finished with marinara sauce- which wasn’t quite as successful- it wasn’t bad but it had nutmeg in it which I thought was odd with the beef. Also, I’d rename it The Kitchen Sink Crepe if I was them. Honestly- it just had too much stuff going on. He devoured the whole thing anyway.

Solar de Cahuenga offers lots of breakfast items, sandwiches, panninis, crepes, coffee drinks and lots of sweet goodies. It might not be the most authentic in crepes, it’s still nice as a fresh lunch option. I’d like to go back and try some of their sandwiches which looked very good from afar.

Menu

1847 Cahuenga Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90028 (323) 467-7510

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Posted in Hollywood restaurants, Lunch, Solar de Cahunega, Sweet breakfast

Posted on December 3, 2007 by Anne| Leave a comment

Recipes From Other Blogs….

No time to really write much today so I thought I’d post a couple of things I’d made recently. Both were from other blogs…..when you read as many food blogs as I do, who needs cookbooks?!?! These people are so talented and give us all access to such wonderful photography and commentary that it’s hard not to be inspired.

Farro, Roasted Butternut Squash & Black Kale

I saw Heidi’s Farro and Roasted Butternut Squash and knew I had to make something like this since she combined two of my favorite foods. I used her recipe as inspiration and cooked my farro is chicken stock, then tossed it with butternut squash I had roasted with olive oil, thyme and garlic. I also added my new favorite vegetable black kale which I had also sauteed in garlic and olive oil. Some dried porcini mushrooms had been hiding in my pantry so I reconsituted those, chopped them roughly and added them as well as a bit of their liquid to the whole thing. Tossed with some sea salt and lots of black pepper, it has quickly become one of our go-to side dishes.

Fig and Almond Tart

Although mine doesn’t look nearly as gorgeous as Jules’ version on her beautiful blog, stonesoup, it tasted delicious and had my husband clamoring for more. I’ve always loved frangipane with any fruit (especially pears) and the combination of the almonds, eggs, butter and vanilla creates one of the best sweet flavors ever.

Hopefully I’ll have some time to get my holiday baking started. Speaking of which- if anyone has a foolproof, easy-to-handle sugar cookie recipe (meaning easy to roll and cut from) I’d love it if you could share. Although I really enjoy baking Christmas cookies, I’m not the biggest fan of cut-out cookies since a lot of the dough is so fussy.

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Posted in farro, figs, foodblogs

Posted on November 26, 2007 by Anne| 6 Comments

Homemade Gnocchi

So the Big Eating Day is finally over and I have no turkey post for you. Not that I didn’t have turkey- I had plenty of it plus oyster stuffing (my absolute favorite!), sausage stuffing, corn, watercress salad, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, uni mousse and pumpkin pie at my parents house. All of it was delicious, but I’ll leave the posting of that to my sis since she took photos and all that.


This post is somewhat Thanksgiving related. You see, my parents bought a 10 pound bag of potatoes with which to make mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving, but of course 10pounds was about 8 pounds more than we needed. So, in addition to the usual turkey/stuffing packs that they send home with us, they also added a few potatoes to each parting gift. It’s strange- as much as I love potatoes, I rarely buy them. Maybe it was the whole carb thing that scared me off of them for awhile…..well wait, I still eat loads of bread so that can’t be it…but for some reason they don’t find their way into my kitchen often. I stared at the little suckers and wondered what to do.

Milled potatoes

Then it hit me. Gnocchi! I’d been meaning to try my hand at the small dumpling-like knobs of dough for awhile, but I’d also been a bit fearful. I’d heard so many tales of how overworking the dough resulted in tough erasers or how not kneading the dough enough resulted in the gnocchi falling apart in the boiling water. I set my fears aside and opened up my trusty Mario Batali cookbook. It seemed easy enough- potatoes, check. Egg, check. Flour, check. I boiled my potatoes and got to work.

The skins came off easily from the still-hot potatoes and I ran them through my food mill which resulted in a big pile of fluffiness. After a liberal sprinkle of flour and one egg and a bit of salt, I worked the mass with a fork until it came together. I continued to knead it with my hands for only four minutes, as the recipe said, and it ended up in a nice ball- still a bit tacky but not at all sticky.


Now the time consuming part began. After dividing the dough into six sections, I realized that I needed to divide it even more in order to easily roll each into a one-inch rope that would still fit on my cutting board. For the next hour or so, I rolled, cut, rolled over tongs of a fork, placed on a cookie sheet and then boiled a batch for one minute, dumped the gnocchi into an ice bath and did it all over again about four times. It did take some patience but I got the hang of it after awhile, and I was pleased to see that the cooled gnocchi did not stick together at all. Mario’s recipe calls for you to toss the finished gnocchi in 1/2 cup of oil in order to store it, but I skipped that step entirely since it was unnecessary and I didn’t want my gnocchi coated with oil.

Boiled and cooled gnocchi

The recipe made a LOT of gnocchi so I bagged a couple of batches into ziploc bags and froze them. Then I took my portion, boiled it in salted water until they floated to the surface and tossed them in homemade marinara mixed with chicken sausage and eggplant. A sprinkle of parmesan later and dinner was served.

How were they? TOTALLY worth the effort!! It’s true what they say- homemade gnocchi are as light as air if done right and these were fluffy and tender. Each was like a potato pillow and would be delicious tossed with just a bit of browned butter and pecorino, as well as a heartier tomato sauce or pesto. I would definitely make these again, and it’s a good thing that one recipe makes so many of them. Mario himself stated that you could make any old weeknight meal special by whipping out a batch of these homemade gnocchi, and he’s right. I’m looking forward to eating them again and again.

Recipe here.

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Posted in Gnocchi, Italian cooking, Mario Batali recipes