Storybook Eggs

Stranger I've Almost Forgotten: *Knock, knock*

Me: "Who is it?"
SIAF: "It's me."
Me: "Hmm? You sound familiar, but I've almost forgotten you."
SIAF: "It's me!!! Spring!"
Me: "Oh, of course! Well, in that case come on in, and I'll cook you up!"

Spring. As I'm typing this I can actually hear birds chirping outside my window. Asparagus and strawberries were available at the farmers' market last weekend, green garlic has been here for three weeks now, and the fresh milk I've been buying is thicker than ever. This is the season that always makes me think I should quit my job, pull out my big backpack, and live my life wandering around the countryside. I'm pretty sure I could live on wild onions and forest morels for at least a little while, but that's a fantasy for another day.

Three weeks ago the Dunwoody Green Market opened, which was great news for me. This means easy access to a few different farms that are growing slightly different veggies and such than my friends at the Morningside Market. Several wonderful little discoveries have come out of this market, but one of my favorites is duck eggs. I found them by accident. The day the market opened I loaded up one of my little friends (age 5), and we headed that way to see what we could find. He was very impressed by the white carrots and the free samples, but what most impressed him was a duck wearing a dress. Here's a picture of the duck and her owner:

You will notice that the duck (named Cutie Pie I later learned) is NOT wearing a dress in this picture, which is unfortunate, but so it goes. It cost 5 bucks to take a picture of the duck with the dress on, and I decided that money was better spent on what she'd produced: duck eggs. I'd never tried them before and was curious.

That afternoon I headed home with a dozen little treasures, proudly lifted the top of the carton, and watched Charlie's eyebrows raise in amusement. He suggested we fry them, and I couldn't think of a reason why we shouldn't, so we did!

Before we get into the part of this story that involves cooking and eating, let me take a moment to describe these little stars. The eggs are really beautiful. They're a very pale ivory with a gray tint and a few speckles here and there. They're longer and thinner than chicken eggs and are more difficult to crack. Because they come from water fowl, the eggs must have a slightly thicker shell with a more resilient membrane inside to protect the contents. One good whack on the side of the counter breaks through with no problem, and out slides a beautiful, orangey yolk and nearly-transparent whites. I was amazed by the size of the yolk. It's much larger than the yolk of a chicken egg and (I later learned) has a lot more protein.

What does one do with such a lovely new ingredient? Well, if you're me you create a recipe that features it. And so, Not-Quite-Benedict came to be. I am sorry to say that my stupid camera battery died before I could take a decent photo of the finished dish (that might have been my fault...), but I did manage to snap one not-so-great picture. This doesn't even almost do justice to the pretty eggs, but it's what I have. In fact, I think it looks kind of gross in this picture, so you'll just have to trust me when I say that it wasn't. It was delicious!

See! It's not gorgeous in the photo. Oh well.

Not-Quite-Benedict

serves 4

ingredients:

8 thick slices bacon

4 large duck eggs

8 buttermilk biscuits, recipe to follow

Hollandaise sauce, recipe to follow

salt

pepper

Place bacon slices in a large cast-iron frying pan. Place the pan on your stove-top and gently cook on medium-high heat, turning the bacon after 2 - 3 minutes and continuing to cook until it is cooked through and just beginning to crisp. Remove bacon from the pan and place on paper towels to drain. Do not discard the leftover bacon fat in the pan.

Carefully crack one duck egg in a small bowl, taking care not to puncture or otherwise break the yolk. Heat the reserved baking fat until hot but not smoking and gently slide the egg into the pan.

Allow the egg to cook until the whites set, 2 - 3 minutes, then carefully flip it over with a spatula, again taking care not to break the yolk. Cook another 1 - 3 minutes then remove from pan. Repeat with remaining eggs.

To assemble, split one warm buttermilk biscuit in half, and place two pieces of bacon on the bottom half.

Slide one fried egg on top of the bacon, and top with a generous spoonful of hollandaise sauce. Season with salt and pepper, and serve with an extra biscuit for sopping up the egg and hollandaise sauce. Serve immediately.

Buttermilk Biscuits

ingredients:

1 1/2 cups bread flour

1 Tablespoon honey

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk

1 Tablespoon milk (for brushing biscuits)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Blend in butter with your fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add buttermilk and honey and stir with a wooden spoon until a dough just forms.

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead several times. Using your hands, form the dough into eight balls and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush the top of each biscuit with milk, and bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until the biscuits are completely cooked through and are golden on top.

Serve warm.

*Note: If you prefer, biscuits can be cut into perfect rounds using a circular cookie cutter or the bottom of a glass. I just tend to like puffy, cloud-shaped biscuits so I form them by hand. Also, a handful of shredded cheddar and chopped rosemary can be thrown in with the dry ingredients for a more savory biscuit.

This is my wonderful mother-in-law's recipe for Blender Hollandaise. It's so tasty and will keep for 2 days. I used it on steamed asparagus the first night and then used the rest on the Not-Quite-Benedict.

Blender Hollandaise

ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, heated to a bubble

3 egg yolks

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

pinch of cayenne pepper

Put egg yolks, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a blender and blend on low for 10 - 15 seconds. Add the hot butter, and blend 15 - 20 seconds more. Serve immediately.

The Project Begins

When I first decided to keep this blog my husband, Charlie, gently warned me that the difference between a successful blogger and an unsuccessful one is largely the difference between a persistent blogger and one who is not. I'm sorry to say I've fallen into the second category over the last few months. However, he also reminds me that it is never too late to start again. Doesn't he sound wonderful? He is.

March 20, 2010 marked the official start of our year-long locavore project. We started with a bang, inviting 20 or so of our nearest and dearest over for a Spring Celebration. Even though the pasta machine DID break just a few hours before the party, causing me tremendous anxiety about the homemade fettucini with rainbow chard that was to be the focus of the meal, overall the kick-off was a success. We ate. We drank. We discussed. I was reminded, yet again, of what fantastic friends we have.

And so...we've been ticking along. Over the past few months several of the problems we anticipated have resolved themselves, some were solved after a fair amount of trouble, and some we've just had to deal with (still no poultry!). It's been interesting, and it's a shame I've not chronicled it up to now. Hopefully that will change over the next few weeks. I would like to get this blog up and running again, but I hesitate to make any bold proclamations about what I will or will not do. That seems to be the death of many of my plans and ideas. Instead, let me throw out a plan: I plan on doing better. That's all I've got for now. :)

Adventures in local eating

Oh...it's been a long, long time since I blogged. Shame on me. It's not because I haven't been cooking or thinking about food. In fact, that's taken up more time than ever. Since Charlie and I decided to take the locavore challenge this upcoming spring we've put a lot of time and effort into reworking our food habits and preparing for the big change. So many foods that we take for granted are difficult, if not impossible, to find locally. Of course, that's taking a negative view of our little project. The fresh fruits and vegetables, locally-sourced grass-fed beef, local Berkshire pork (oh my!), grits and polenta, local honey, and countless other goodies we've found have been amazing. Eating local foods in season has refreshed my palate for sure, and I believe the same is true for Charlie. However, a few problems/challenges keep popping up:

1. Local free-range poultry -- It seems that this would be an easy find. After all, Georgia is the number one producer of chicken in the country. Unfortunately, this fact seems to pertain only to factory-farmed chicken. Yuck. This problem deserves a post of its own.

2. Flour/Grain -- Although this lovely area is quite capable of producing grain, oats, barley, and the like, it seems there is no real market for it. The few local mills I have been able to locate make their flour from Kansas grain. How about that?! (I have heard a rumor that a mill exists in Helen, GA that makes flour out of locally-produced wheat. Is this true? I have no idea. An upcoming weekend trip should settle the question. If that doesn't pan out I don't know what to do. I welcome suggestions.)

3. Dairy -- Oh wait! I think I solved this problem today! Hooray!!!

Okay, so here's the deal. In the State of Georgia it is illegal to sell raw milk for human consumption. Read that again. Human consumption. So, I found a farm that sells raw, grass-fed cow milk for pets. Now, I don't believe for a moment that people are buying this $7/gallon milk for pets. Of course, it doesn't really matter. The label reads "Raw Cows Milk for Pets". After that the consumer is free to do what he or she wishes with the milk. I am going to make yogurt, mozzarella, ricotta, cream cheese, buttermilk, and sour cream out of mine. If that all goes well then perhaps I'll try a few other projects. Just the same, I did hesitate for a moment before drinking a glass of the raw milk. Before gulping it down I hopped on the internet and began googling. The FDA definitely hates raw milk, but I don't trust them anyway. They claim that since 1998 raw milk has sickened 800 Americans. While this is meant to be a deterrent, I took it as an endorsement. Only 800 people have been sickened since 1998? Really?! Please note, that's not deaths. That's an astonishingly low number of Americans. Consider that since its appearance last spring 10,000 Americans have died of Swine Flu.

So, I finished my reading, poured myself half a glass of raw milk (for pets), and happily drank it down. It was absolutely delicious, and I feel just fine. Of course, it's only been an hour so we'll see how this goes.

All I want is a safe, reliable source of local milk from grass-fed cows (with no hormones, antibiotics, etc. added), and I think I've found that. I was also able to purchase a dozen beautiful farm eggs (from free-range hens), raw garlic Colby cheese, and raw mild cheddar. The cheeses are delicious, by the way.

Since I've been discussing dairy, I will leave you with my Mother's fabulous homemade eggnog recipe. This stuff is so good! She made a pitcher over Christmas, and I drank so much I made myself sick. Umm...it was not because of the store-bought, pasturized milk. It was because of my gluttony!

Mom's Eggnog

Ingredients:

4 eggs, separated

1/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp sugar

1 pint milk

1 cup heavy cream

3 oz brandy

1 tsp nutmeg

Beat egg yolks until pale. Add 1/3 cup sugar, and beat until incorporated. In a separate bowl combine milk, cream, nutmeg, and brandy. Add milk mixture to egg yolks, and stir to combine.

Using a mixer, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Add remaining 1 Tbsp sugar, and continue to beat until stiff peaks form. Spoon egg whites on top of eggnog, and serve.

By the way, If you have an opinion on raw milk I would love to hear it!

Roasted Vegetable Pizza

On Wednesday I went to the Spruill Farmers Market in Sandy Springs (Georgia). It's a nice little market that sets up weekly and sells a variety of produce, dairy, meat, jams, and the like. For $37.50 I was able to get this:



I think that's a pretty nice catch for less than 40 bucks. In case some of it is difficult to see or identify, here's a list of the produce pictured above:
*3 sweet potatoes
*1 bunch rose turnips
*1 bunch carrots
*1 bunch kale
*1 bag braising greens (collards, mustard greens, and kale)
*1 bag chickweed
*1 bag totsoi (not sure I have the spelling correct on that one)
*2 winter squash
*7 1/2 oz fresh mozzarella

Charlie and I took some of the produce pictured above (along with a few other ingredients) and turned it into this:



Now, let me tell you something. I am a lucky woman for many, many reasons. I have a wonderful family, a husband who constantly wows me with his kindness and love, amazing friends, good health, a steady job, and such. All of that keeps me going, and I'm grateful for the good fortune I've had in my life. However, I think (and hope) most of those things are shared by a great many people. There is, however, one thing I have that most people don't, and that's a husband who makes awesome pizza. Isn't that lucky? Also, he has a knack for knowing when I'm exhausted and don't feel like cooking dinner. I love when Charlie calls and says he'd like to make a pizza for dinner. My reply is almost always an enthusiastic "Yes! Please!".
We decided to make a roasted vegetable pizza with some of our farmers market bounty. Charlie started by making dough. He's been working on the perfect pizza dough recipe for awhile, and after dozens of pizzas and constant tweaking I think he's finally achieved it.
While Charlie worked his magic on the dough I roasted vegetables. I decided to go with sunchokes (purchased at the Morningside Farmers Market last weekend), winter squash, and kale. I thought that combination would give the pizza a woodsy autumn flavor. I sliced the squash, tossed it with a little olive oil and kosher salt, then popped it in the oven (preheated to 375 degrees) for about 20 minutes.





I also thinly sliced the sunchokes (with the peel still on), treated them to a little oil and salt, and added them to the oven. They took a little longer to roast -- about 30 minutes total. (Sunchokes are also known as jerusalem artichokes, but they aren't from Jerusalem, and they aren't artichokes so I go with the farmsy (just made that word up!) term, sunchokes.)



Next up: kale! I gently sauteed a large handful in just a touch of olive oil, and then the veggies were ready! Charlie rolled out the dough, and we assembled our pizza.





Oooh...the fresh mozzarella is so tasty and melts into ooey gooey deliciousness. Bagged, shredded mozzarella just doesn't compare.
Charlie slid the pizza onto the preheated pizza stone, and 12 minutes later we had dinner!





Yum! Homemade pizza really is super easy to make and can be topped with anything you like. We've tried all sorts of toppings, from capers (nice and salty but you have to trap them with melted cheese or they just roll off) to anchovies (the fish flavor is intense...use sparingly!). It's a great weekday dinner as long as you remember to start the dough as soon as you get home from work.

Charlie's Pizza Dough

(adapted from Michael Ruhlman's Ratio suggestions)

ingredients:

2 cups semolina flour*

1/4 teaspoon yeast

6 oz water, lukewarm

1 Tablespoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon kosher salt

pinch of red pepper flakes (or more if you want a spicier crust)

1 Tablespoon olive oil (we just use a nice glug), plus additional for oiling the bowl

cornmeal

In a medium bowl combine flour and yeast. Create a well in the center, and add water. Allow to rest 2 - 3 minutes. Add oregano, salt, and red pepper flakes. Mix with a wooden spoon until dough begins to come together then add olive oil. Knead approximately 10 minutes or until dough is smooth, sticky, and bounces back when lightly touched. Lightly oil the inside of a medium bowl, place the dough in the bowl, and turn to coat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and allow to rise 1 - 1 1/2 hours. The dough will not double in size but will swell a little.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. If you have a pizza stone, place it in the center of the oven to preheat along with the oven.

Turn the dough out onto a surface dusted with cornmeal. With floured hands, form the dough into a 8 - 10 inch circle with a flat center and slightly thicker edges (to form the crust), working some of the cornmeal into the dough as you shape it. (Use a gentle hand so you do not tear the dough as you work with it.) In order to prevent tearing, the final dough shaping should occur on whatever you will use to place the pizza in the oven. We use a pizza peel, but if you will be baking your pizza on a baking sheet you should use that at this point.

Top the pizza as you wish and place in the oven. Bake for 12 minutes. Let the cooked pizza rest for five minutes so the cheese and ingredients can settle, then dig in!

*For those of you in the Atlanta area, semolina flour can be purchased at the Dekalb Farmers Market. It can also be purchased in gourmet food shops, and I'm sure it's available for purchase online. Semolina is made of durham wheat and adds a unique texture to the pizza dough. If you are unable to find it, bread flour can be substituted.

Project Locavore: Step One

The Morningside Farmers Market sets up every Saturday, rain or shine, in the parking lot across from Alon's (in front of Teuscher Chocolates...yumm!). It's beautiful, and unlike a lot of farmers markets, it's open year-round. This past Saturday I went for the first time, which absolutely disgusts me since I live about 2 miles away. Why haven't I been there before? I have no idea. Seriously, I was able to walk there in less than half an hour. It's mostly laziness I suppose. I do love to sleep in on Saturdays.

Here's what I bought:

*2 lovely Berkshire pork chops

*1 giant bunch kale

*1/2 lb sunchokes

*1 winter squash

*1 1/2 heads cauliflower

*2 watermelon radishes

Total cost for all of this wonderful food: $19. And this is what we had for dinner (this is one person's serving):

In case you're unable to tell, the plate above includes:

*1 pan-seared pork chop with apples and onions
*roasted cauliflower and squash
*sauteed kale and dandelion with pine nuts
*roasted sunchokes
*homemade rye

The majority of that dinner came from the farmers market, the exceptions being: olive oil, 1 onion, 1 green apple, pine nuts, dandelion greens, and rye bread (made earlier in the week). Not too shabby, right? It was quite tasty, and we even had leftovers.

Now, time to get down to business. Our household has decided (okay, I decided and poor Charlie is very sweetly going along with my plan) to try a year of living locally. "What does this mean?" you may ask. Well, we're still pounding out the fine points, but here are the main ideas. We're going to attempt to buy at least 80% of our food locally for a full year. We'll begin in earnest this March (when the growing season begins). Until then there's plenty to do. I've been researching local farms, dairies, mills, and such. Fruit and vegetables should be no problem. Local meat, it turns out, is also easy to find. We've already joined a meat CSA -- more on that soon. There's a dairy about 50 miles away that sells milk in a nearby specialty food shop, and I think I've found a mill where we can buy whole wheat flour and grits.

And now for the do-withouts. Obviously, no sugar is grown within 100 miles of Atlanta. This means we'll either have to make a small allowance for sugar, or we'll learn to use honey as our only sweetener. I'm leaning toward honey as it is readily available and a much healthier choice than processed sugar. There are a number of spices that aren't grown near us. We'll have to make some decisions about which we'll continue purchasing even though they aren't local (salt, for example) and which we'll give up (probably cinnamon, nutmeg, and the other lovely holiday baking spices). We are not giving up coffee, but we are looking for a local roaster. Oils are tricky. Olive oil is (maybe) out, but I think we'll be able to get local peanut oil and perhaps a little sesame? Much more research is necessary, clearly.

There will be some exceptions that make up the 20% of non-local products. We'll need yeast for bread baking, and I don't think we can find that locally. I'm also looking into making some cheeses, and the cultures and rennets for those must be ordered. Charlie makes wonderful pizzas, and he needs semolina flour for the dough. I don't think that's available locally (the closest I've found is about 250 miles away), and I'm not asking him to give that up so we'll most likely continue purchasing a brand grown in Michigan.

There's much more to say about this project, but it will have to wait for another day. I leave you with pictures of the gorgeous, tasty watermelon radishes I picked up on Saturday. We ate them hinly sliced on rye bread with a little cream cheese and a sprinkling of sea salt. Delicious.

A map and my opinion of it

This absolutely disgusts me.  The map above displays the McDonald's restaurants currently operating in the United States.  Really?  Are there THAT many?  Yes.  It turns out that there are over 13,000 McDonald's in the U.S.  I'm pleased to say that I am not one of their customers nor have I been for quite some time.   I know I sound hoity toity, but so be it.  I think they're disgusting, and I do not wish to participate.  

According to Michael Pollan (my personal hero) in his most recent book, In Defense of Food, An Eater's Manifesto, a McDonald's chicken nugget is comprised of no less than 38 ingredients.  Gross.  

I have much more to say on this topic, but at the moment I'm not up for expounding.  It's coming one of these days --- factory farms, corn, the whole bit about processed food in America --- but not today.

I was just reminded to "cop to the fact that my husband will eat a McDonald's hamburger in *snap* nothing flat"(direct quote from Charlie Bennett).  True.  We're working on that.

Cocktail Time

I'm a big fan of funky little cocktails, and I found myself in need of a recipe for one at a recent dinner party.  The party had a Greek theme, and as I don't particularly care for ouzo (yuck), didn't want to serve beer, and was generally disinterested in a number of other Greek drink options, I decided to make up a specialty cocktail.  Thus, Persephone's Kiss was born.   There's nothing about this that is actually Greek, but I squeaked by because of the pomegranate.  When in trouble always look to myths and folklore!

Persephone's Kiss

ingredients:

1 oz pomegranate juice

3 oz Champagne 

1 small scoop pomegranate-blueberry ice cream*

Pour pomegranate juice in a champagne saucer.  Top with Champagne and gently in drop ice cream.  

*A melon baller makes small, pretty scoops

I love that these were a little fancy and a little like dessert.  I had seconds.

Happiness Soup

It has been very damp and gloomy in Atlanta for the past couple of weeks, and it has affected my attitude quite a bit. I need some sunshine! The other night I felt particularly down so I decided to make a pot of Happiness Soup. The recipe for this comes from Nigella Lawson, and it's very simple. I made it on a weeknight after work, and it took no time at all.

Happiness Soup

adapted from a recipe by Nigella Lawson

Ingredients:

3 medium yellow squash

zest and juice of 1 lemon

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp ground turmeric

4 cups chicken stock*

1/2 cup basmati rice

salt and pepper

Cut the yellow squash into thin rings, then dice. Heat the oil in a medium stockpot and saute the squash along with the lemon zest for about five minutes or until squash has softened. Stir in the turmeric then add the lemon juice and chicken stock. Drop in the rice and bring the soup to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for 20 minutes or until the rice is tender. Serve with crusty bread.

*For a vegetarian soup vegetable stock may be substituted.

The name is, of course, a little silly. However, the cheery yellow in combination with the fresh squash and soft rice do make me happy. There's nothing I'd rather eat on a dreary day.

Gnocchi

I am gnocchi-obsessed right now. I just can't stop making the stuff! It's so tasty and (too) filling.
This has been an obsession of mine in the past, but my love for gnocchi was rekindled in Italy. I had some fabulous bites in Sorrento and a strong desire to recreate that experience at home.



The picture above is of the dish that fired up this most recent incarnation of my gnocchi obsession. This gnocchi in combination with a glass of wine made for a near-perfect meal. The gnocchi was tiny and smooth with none of the expected ridges or dimples on the side. The chef knew just how to dress the itsy bitsy dumplings -- simply. Rather than piling on a cream sauce or heavy ragu, the gnocchi was tossed with olive oil, a few perfect roasted tomatoes, red pepper flakes, chopped fresh parsley, and a little lemon. It was topped with the most fabulous mussels and clams. I assume once the gnocchi was cooked it was thrown into a sauce pan with the tomatoes, red peper flakes, olive oil, and shellfish (so the mussels and clams could open over the gnocchi and flavor the dish with their juices). It was all so delicious. Everyone else at the table had food envy when the server brought it out.

My travel buddy, Paige, had the gnocchi pictured above on our second night in Sorrento. The color was so shocking when the server brought out the dish! It's a spinach gnocchi dressed in a creamy salmon sauce, and if you look closely you can see the flecks of poached salmon in the picture. Paige said more than once that this was the best thing she ate on the trip, and it's easy to understand why. The creaminess of the sauce complimented the tenderness of the dumplings, and the strong salmon flavor was delightful. I was a little surprised to see dairy paired with seafood, as that is a classic no-no in Italian cooking, but I'm glad they did it! Delicious.

Before I start sharing recipes and posting pictures of homemade gnocchi I would like to clear up a few common misconceptions. The first, most obvious, and most common is that gnocchi is always made from potatoes. This is true sometimes but not always. Gnocchi first appears in Italian cookbooks in the 13th century, predating the arrival of potatoes in Italy by about 300 years. Before the arrival of potatoes it was generally made of semolina flour mixed with eggs and water, and these days just about anything goes. Gnocchi can be made of potatoes, semolina, riccotta, or bread crumbs and can include a variety of other ingredients (spinach, rosemary, pumpkin...). The name refers not to ingredients but to the shape. Gnocchi literally means "lump" and refers to a small, dense dumpling. I think this is great because it leaves it open for plenty of experimentation and can be paired with a number of diverse sauces. Most gnocchi have ridges on the side for sauce to cling to, but (as previously mentioned) even that's not a requirement.

The gnocchi I've been making is ricotta-based and includes some semolina (for texture and added yumminess).   I've made it several times and have modified the recipe slightly each time.  So, here's the basic recipe with plenty of notes to follow.  

Ricotta Gnocchi

ingredients:

2 cups whole-milk ricotta

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano

1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg (preferably freshly grated)

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup semolina flour plus more for flouring work surfaces

Stir together the ricotta, eggs, cheese, and nutmeg.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Add the flour, stirring to form a soft dough.  On a well-floured work space (use the semolina for this), shape the dough into several 1-inch-thick ropes.  Cut crosswise at an angle into 1-inch pieces with a very sharp knife.  Put in one layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet sprinkled with semolina flour (or all-purpose if you don't have semolina).

Refrigerate the gnocchi for 15 minutes (or up to 24 hours).  Bring a large pot of salted water to a rapid boil, and cook the gnocchi in batches.  Each batch should take 3 to 4 minutes.  (When the gnocchi is fully cooked it will float.)  Lift the gnocchi out of the boiling water with a slotted spoon or a small strainer and drain.

That's it!  I bet that's a lot less work than you were expecting.  Right?!  

You may have noticed that the gnocchi pictured above is flecked with green.  When I made that batch I decided to throw a handful of chopped spinach into the dough.  I was very pleased with the results as the spinach added a splashy bit of color and packed a gentle flavor punch.  Other additions I plan on trying out include rosemary, pumpkin and cinnamon, garlic, and lemon zest.

Another thing you may have noticed is the size of my gnocchi compared with the restaurant pictures at the top of this post.  I chose to make a larger gnocchi with a more rustic cut.  Partly this is because I really like a less refined look, and partly it's because I can be a lazy cook at times.  It's much faster to make larger gnocchi and after a long day at work I'm not always patient when it comes to dinner.

So, the next step to making great ricotta gnocchi is dressing it.  There are countless things that can be done, but here are a few that I've tried.  The first time I slowly sauteed two chopped shallots in a generous chunk of butter until they were caramelized and the butter browned.  I then added three cloves of garlic, a sprinkling of red pepper flakes, and some fresh rosemary.  I threw the cooked gnocchi in at the last minute and gave the pan a couple of tosses so the gnocchi was well coated.  I then plated the gnocchi, topped it with a handful of shredded parmesan (along with sea salt and cracked pepper), and finished it off with a dash of extra virgin olive oil.  It was very simple and also quite tasty.  

Check out those little bites of deliciousness!

The next batch of gnocchi received a similar treatment.  I omitted the rosemary and instead added fresh sage leaves which I fried in the butter along with the shallots.  I also sprinkled a few chopped walnuts on top.  I don't have any pictures of the finished product, but it was quite pretty and had a more autumnal flavor.  

The last time I made ricotta gnocchi I added the chopped spinach.  I was so pleased with the results that I decided to try a bowl with nothing more than olive oil, sea salt, and freshly ground pepper.  

I liked that very much but decided to punch things up a little.  Charlie made a wonderful tomato sauce with plenty of fresh herbs from our container garden so we tried that on the gnocchi with parmesan cheese on top and spinach as a garnish.  It looked and tasted beautiful.

Now you know the story of my recent gnocchi adventures.  I've had a blast making it and can hardly wait to try out other versions!

Dolmadakia

Perhaps my favorite thing that I ate while in Greece was dolmades. Before the trip I knew them as stuffed grape leaves, but dolmades (or dolmadakia) is the correct name. I ate them twice on the trip: once with tzatzki sauce and sliced tomatoes and once drizzled with a really thick oil of some sort (I never figured out just what it was, but it was tasty). I was a big fan of both, but I especially dug the freshness of the leaves with the tzatzki. The tomatoes were also a nice flavor booster.
A few nights ago I set out to make my own dolmades, and in the process I learned a little about how they are traditionally served. It turns out that they're usually referred to as dolmades when they contain meat and are served as a main course. I'm sure those are nice, but I prefer mine to be meatless and small -- served as meze (a first course). The recipe I found called for wine-soaked red currants and golden raisins, but I wasn't really in the mood for the dried fruit addition so I left it out. Also, I had some nice mozzarella in my fridge so I substituted that for the Greek cheeses the recipe called for (though I do think a nice salty feta would be very tasty). I added some sauteed scallions and a ton of minced garlic, and soon I'd created my own version of dolmadakia, just a shadow of the recipe. In the future I plan on adding a handful of chopped fresh dill to amp up the flavor a little more and perhaps a little mint for interest.
These are fun treats to make, and they look pretty impressive (I think). If you try them out yourself please let me know how yours turn out!


Dolmadakia

ingredients:
12 oz arborio rice
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 - 3 shallots, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
6 oz shredded mozzarella cheese (or crumbled feta)
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh dill
2 teaspoons chopped fresh mint
20 - 30 grape vine leaves packed in oil

Cook the arborio rice according to package directions. Once rice is cooked add butter and stir to incorporate.



Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a small pan and saute shallots on low heat for 10 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 2 more minutes. Add the shallots, garlic, mozzarella (or feta), dill, and mint to the cooked rice. Stir to thoroughly combine.

Remove vine leaves from oil and separate one leaf from the others taking care not to tear it. Flatten the leaf on a clean work surface.



Place approximatel 2 teaspoons of the rice filling in the center of the leaf. Fold the bottom of the leaf upward, over the rice filling.



Fold the sides of the leaf in and over the rice filling. Roll the leaf forward, toward the top of the leaf. As you roll, neatly tuck in any loose pieces of the leaf. When you finish you should have a neat little bundle filled with rice. (Some of the leaves will tear so it's important to have a few extras.) Repeat with the remaining rice and leaves.



Once you have filled all of the leaves with rice and formed neat bundles, pack them in a medium sauce pan. I only made enough to form one layer in the pan I used, but if you have more you can stack them on top to create a second layer of leaves. Pack them tightly in the pan, then cover with water.





Place a lid or plate on top of the leaves to hold them under the water. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook the leaves for 10 minutes. Drain the water from the pan, pressing on the leaves with the lid or plate to remove excess water. Carefully remove the leaves from the pan, place on a platter, and put in the refrigerator. Refrigerate until the leaves are cold, approximately 1 hour.
Serve the grape leaves cold or at room temperature with tzatzki sauce and sliced tomatoes.



The Greeks serve theirs in a star shape. I was pretty pleased with my presentation. The picture above is of the dolmadakia I made at home. The two pictures below were taken on my trip (in actual Greek restaurants). Not too shabby, huh?


I ate these on the island of Santorini. They were my favorites!


I had these on the island of Naxos -- very tasty as well!

I'm a pretty big fan of these little bundles. It takes a few tries to really get down the folding, but once you do it's easy to make a lot of these fairly quickly. Opa!