Cheap food|Recipe part 2!

A few days ago, in an effort to share the little I know about cooking cheap (I’m still learning here), I posted a recipe for Easy Lentil Dal made with pink (or red) lentils.  Ever the experimenter (remember, we’re cheap around here), I tried the same recipe this morning with brown lentils (I had a half cup that’s been sitting around forever) and I am surprised to report that I like them even more than the red lentils.  They are meatier (sorry vegan* friends) and a little less like…ok, this is a bit gross, but a lot of Indian cuisine reminds me of (extremely delicious) baby food.  The brown lentils definitely lessen that quality.  And best of all – they’re cheaper.  Go brown!

The only thing that’s different between using the brown lentils and the red is the cooking time, which should be increased to about 40 minutes total.  I definitely recommend the mashing with a spoon bit from the other recipe with the brown lentils.  Makes much more of a difference.  In fact, if you like it thicker, add another 1/2 cup of lentils to the mashing bowl than the recipe calls for.

Onward.

Trying to keep this short (right) – I’ve had two major cooking disappointments since moving to the glorious sprawl that is LA Metropolitan.  One was a fresh pasta that I labored over for hours.  Long story short, I slid all the pieces into the cooking water and they all stuck.  The only thing that’s caused me to actually throw food, aside from this pasta, is gnocchi.  In restaurants, I love it.  At home, it drives me batty.  It’s just potatoes and flour, how hard could that be?  Plus, it’s just potatoes and flour, which means it’s FREAKING CHEAP.  The last time I tried to make it, I used Julia Child’s recipe, absolutely certain that it would turn out.  Julia had never failed me.  Never say never.  To call the little lumps of hell that took me hours to roll out “mush when cooked” is an understatement.  So when we had some potatoes in the kitchen that were about to go off and I said “oh I’ll make gnocchi!’ the husband and I looked at each other like “really?”

Happy to say, I found a recipe from Cook’s Illustrated online yesterday afternoon and ended up with this:

The photo’s a bit crap, but you can see little gnocchis in there, covered in pesto and cheese.  Amazing!

I swear I’m not a secret blogger for Cook’s Illustrated (although I’m looking for a job, so if someone wants to hook me up with that gig, I’m there) – I just can’t seem to screw up one of their recipes.  This one was so simple and I have no idea why it worked while the others didn’t (one of the downsides of the online Cook’s is no 1,000 words on the trial and error used to get to the technique).

Last note – I fried these.  That’s how I like my gnocchi.  I think they would have been a bit gooey if I hadn’t, but that could be due to having used a lot of flour.  My recommend for this recipe is to do what it says and test the gnocchi in a small pan to make sure you’ve got the flour/potato ratio right.  I think the less flour, the better.

(No More Tears**) Gnocchi from Cook’s Illustrated online

To insure that gnocchi are the right texture, bring a small saucepan of water to simmer while mixing the dough. Roll a small piece of the dough into the rope shape. Cut off a small piece or two from the rope, shape them into gnocchi, then drop them into the simmering water. If the gnocchi are too mushy, put the dough rope back into the potato mixture and add in another tablespoon or two of flour. It’s better to take the time to test one or two gnocchi than to ruin the whole batch. Also, be careful not to overwork or overknead the dough; you simply want to incorporate the flour into the potatoes. Avoid cooking the gnocchi at a rolling boil since violently churning water makes it difficult to determine when the gnocchi are floating. Even gently boiling gnocchi may bob temporarily to the surface, but don’t lift them out until they float.

INGREDIENTS

2 pounds russet potatoes (or other baking potatoes), washed
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour , plus more as needed
1 teaspoon table salt , plus more for cooking liquid

INSTRUCTIONS

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Bake potatoes until a metal skewer slides easily through them, 45 minutes to 1
hour, depending on size.

Hold potato with a pot holder or kitchen towel and peel it with a vegetable peeler or paring knife; rice peeled potato into a large bowl. Peel and rice remaining potatoes. Cool until potatoes are no longer hot, about 15 minutes.

Sprinkle 1 1/4 cups flour and 1 teaspoon salt over warm potatoes. Using your hands, work mixture into a soft, smooth dough. If dough is sticky (which is often the case), add more flour as needed, up to 1 1/2 cups total.

Roll about one-quarter of dough into a long 3/4-inch-thick rope. If rope won’t hold together, return it to bowl with remaining dough and work in more flour as needed. Repeat until all dough is rolled.

Cut rope of dough into 3/4-inch lengths. Holding butter paddle or fork in one hand, press each piece of cut
dough against ridged surface with index finger to make an indentation in center. Roll dough down and off ridges and allow it to drop to work surface (or don’t). (Gnocchi can be placed in a single layer on a baking sheet and refrigerated for several hours. Or, baking sheet can be placed in freezer for about 1 hour. Partially frozen gnocchi can be transferred to plastic bag or container, sealed, and frozen for up to 1 month.)***

Bring 4 quarts of water to low boil in large pot. Add 2 teaspoons salt or to taste. Add about one-third of the gnocchi and cook until they float, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes (about 3 minutes for frozen gnocchi). Retrieve gnocchi with slotted spoon and transfer to warm, shallow serving bowl or platter. Repeat cooking process with remaining gnocchi. Gently toss gnocchi with sauce (pesto, butter and sage, tomato, etc.) and serve immediately.

Cheers.

*And vegitarian friends too – it’s just more fun to say “vegans.”
**From me anyway.
***I actually skipped the refrigeration step, but I won’t in the future.  For freezing, I cooked half of my gnocchi in the boiling water, drained, and put them on a cookie sheet in the freezer.  When they were frozen, I put them in a zip lock (freezing this way prevents them from freezing into one big clump).  I’ve done it this way before and should be able to take them right out of the freezer and fry them up.  I’ll report back.