I'm late. I'm late !!! - Daring cooks do Nut Butters

Opps missed the reveal date for Daring Cooks this month. Sorry!!

Better late than never I hope.

The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.

Margie and Natashya challenged us to make some more un-usual nut butters and use them to cook. I loved the idea and planned to do more than  did but then ended up clearing out the freezer which limited what I was cooking rather. I will however be making more of my own nut butters from now on as it's is very easy and one of my boys quite likes the flavour of nuts but hates the texture so this is a great way to get more into his diet! With school holidays coming up I can see lots of nut flavoured cakes and things on the horizon. I have also just got a grain mill so am hoping to do a whole bunch of flours to try as well !

Anyway to the challenge recipe I tried one of the our hosts they gave us which was Asian Noodle Salad with Cashew (or Peanut) Dressing the recipe for which at the end of the post. I managed to fail slightly in that I had no ginger when I came to make the sauce.. something I always have in the fridge ! But even without the ginger it was still really nice.

I really liked how simple it was to make and it reminded me to do more dishes with uncooked vegetables which is a good thing. I didn't have any shrimp so I cooked some bacon till crispy and used that. The vegs we had were carrot, cucumber, tomato and mushroom along with some cress for garnish which worked very well with the sauce.

The Cashews made a great change from peanut which is the only nut I'd normally think to use in such things and I will definetly do using more different nuts in future.

Asian Noodle Salad with Cashew (or Peanut) Dressing
Yield: 4 servings
Recipe notes: Customize the salad by adding or substituting your favorite vegetables. Shredded cabbage, bean sprouts, and slivered carrots would make nice additions. Obviously, you can omit the shrimp, or substitute chicken or tofu or the protein of your choice. The dressing is equally as good with peanut butter rather than cashew butter. We tested the dressing with nut butters made from salted cashews & peanuts with good results.
Ingredients:
Cashew Butter:
1 cup (240 ml) cashews*
Cashew Dressing:
½ inch (1 cm) slice of fresh ginger, chopped
8 cloves garlic, more or less to taste, chopped
½ cup (120 ml) cashew butter
¼ cup (60 ml) soy sauce
3 Tablespoons (45 ml) sugar
3 Tablespoons (45 ml) vinegar
3 Tablespoons (45 ml) toasted sesame oil
¼ cup plus 1 Tablespoon (75 ml) water
Hot sauce to taste (optional)
Noodle Salad:
1/2 pound (225 g) linguine or thin rice noodles
1 tablespoon (15 ml) olive oil
1/2 pound (225 g) small or medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 large red bell pepper, cored and seeded, cut into thin strips
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, sliced
1/4 cup (60 ml) sliced green onions
1/4 cup (60 ml) chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon (15 ml) chopped cashews (optional garnish)
Lime wedges (optional)
Directions:

1. Make cashew butter: Grind cashews in food processor for about 2 minutes until smooth. (*Or start with ½ cup (120 ml) prepared cashew butter.)
2. Prepare cashew dressing: Combine ginger, garlic, cashew butter, soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, sesame oil, and water in food processor or blender. Process/blend until smooth. Be sure to process long enough to puree the ginger and garlic. The dressing should be pourable, about the same thickness as cream. Adjust consistency – thinner or thicker -- to your liking by adding more water or cashew butter. Taste and add your favorite hot sauce if desired. (If the cashew butter was unsalted, you may want to add salt to taste.) Makes about 1 ½ cups (360 ml) dressing. Store any leftover dressing in the refrigerator.
3. Prepare noodles according to package instructions in salted water. Rinse and drain noodles. Set aside.
4. Heat oil in large non-stick pan over medium heat. Add shrimp to the pan and sauté for about 3 to 4 minutes or until opaque throughout. Alternately, cook shrimp in boiling water for about 2 to 3 minutes or until done.
5. Slice basil into thin ribbons. Combine noodles, bell pepper, cucumber, onions, and basil in a large bowl. Add about ½ cup (120 ml) cashew dressing; toss gently to coat. Add more cashew dressing as desired, using as much or as little as you’d like. Scatter shrimp on top. Squeeze fresh lime juice over salad or serve with lime wedges. Sprinkle with chopped cashews if desired.

Daring Cooks - pate

I only seem to be doing posts for Daring bakers and cooks currently. I am going to try and get back into other posts I've just been busy so on the computer less and off actually doing things more which can't be a bad thing really.

So on to the challenge !

Our hostesses this month, Evelyne of Cheap Ethnic Eatz, and Valerie of a The Chocolate Bunny, chose delicious pate with freshly baked bread as their June Daring Cook’s challenge! They’ve provided us with 4 different pate recipes to choose from and are allowing us to go wild with our homemade bread choice.

The various recipes covered most options and we love pate here so I was determined to try at least one. The vegetarian version I've made before and in fact made several to help cater an event late last year so I decided to make the Three Spice Liver Pâté: adapted from Ravenous Couple, which was inspired by White on Rice Couple.

I will copy the recipe below and like most pates it is really very simple to make.  I did make one or two adaptations. We dislike totally smooth pates so I kept back some of the pork belly and added it towards then end so it was roughly chopped not pureed smooth like the rest of the mix. The second adaptation was a mistake ! I totally forgot to add the egg but honestly it was great without it and still held together well which is very useful to know as we have a friend who can't have egg.

 I cooked the pate in several tiny loaf tins which made very good individual portions and I must admit we just eat the bacon with the pate.. never did get this whole discard the bacon lark it's the best bit.!

A tiny loaf tin with sewing thread as a size gauge !

The pate was really good and definitely a recipe to go in the keep file. I'm really sorry I didn't do a bread. I did have a plan of what to do but then we had a freezer incident and had to cook up and eat a lot of things all at once and that rather threw all my plans out. The pate got made mostly because i had just bought the liver when we realised there was a problem, instead I served it with salad, and home made chutney which was lovely.

our coarse version -cos we prefer it this way

Three Spice Liver Pâté
Yields one 25 by 12,5 cm (10 by 5 inch) terrine or loaf pan
1 lb / 454 grams pork liver (or beef or combination)
1/2 lb / 227 grams ground pork
1/2 lb / 227 grams pork fat (or pork belly)
2 cloves garlic
2 shallots
1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp / 2 ml cinnamon
1/2 tsp / 2 ml coriander (ground or crushed)
1/2 tsp / 2 ml cumin
3/4 tsp / 3 ml salt
1 tbps / 15 ml coarse freshly cracked peppercorns
2 tbps / 30 ml cognac
2 bay leaves
1 package of bacon

Preheat oven to to 350ºF (180ºC).
Cut liver and pork fat into small pieces and add to food processor. Add ground pork, garlic, shallots, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, salt and pepper. Grind until smooth.
In mixing bowl, incorporate the meat and liver mixture with the cognac and eggs.
Line bottom of baking or ceramic pan with overlapping pieces of bacon. Place a bay leaf on the bottom and then fill with meat/liver mixture. Cover top with another bay leaf and then overlapping pieces of bacon.
Place in oven in the larger baking pan and add enough water to cover 2/3rds of the pan containing the meat/liver mixture. Bake for about 1-1.5 hrs.
The pâté will contract and the juices will be on the bottom. Allow to cool and soak up the juices. Remove any excess bacon and discard the bay leaves.

Daring Cooks do Stacked Enchiladas

 Our hosts this month, Barbara of Barbara Bakes and Bunnee of Anna+Food have chosen a delicious Stacked Green Chile & Grilled Chicken Enchilada recipe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo! The recipe, featuring a homemade enchilada sauce was found on www.finecooking.com and written by Robb Walsh. 

Mexican food is something I love the sound of but can find very little of here, which is strange in a way as we have nearly every other cuisine under the sun!  Coventry is a hugely ethnicly diverse city and within just our little block of streets there must be 20 languages spoken and a similar number at my son's school. We have shops selling Chinese, Indian, South African, Caribbean, Halal, Polish, Thai and so on and that's just in our little local set of shops never mind the rest of the city but pretty much the sum total of Mexican inspired foods is the use of tortillas to make wraps, tacos shells, the occasional tin of refried beans and salsa.

I make Tortillas quite often, so often I have the mix pre-made in a jar, as they are a great easy bread to make and I can use them like nan breads with Indian and to make wraps for sandwiches and so forth so that part was easy.

I use the tortilla recipe from Delightfully Gluten Free but I add just a dribble of glycerine as I find it helps with the stretch of the dough and I can get them thinner without breaking.

So first stage done.. mini tortillas, cut out with a biscuit cutter so they are about 4" wide and I added poppy seeds just because it sounded fun! By making them small I could get four stacks in my dish to go in the oven.

I looked all over and the only place I could find tomatillos was in quite large tins by mail order and if we didn't like them I'd end up with a lot left over so very reluctantly I decided I would have to do a different version. I will of course probably find six different places selling them after the challenge is over, that's always the way isn't it?

I decided instead to do the mole sauce from here which the hosts had suggested as a replacement, as we have never had a mole sauce before either  it was still a challenge, particularly as the list of ingredients sounded very strange, chocolate and peanut butter with tomatoes? Still I had everything but the chillies. We have lots of chillies for sale here in the market and ethnic shops but this recipe calls for chipotle peppers which are apparently smoked and I really though I was out of luck on that one as well but at the last moment found some in Morrisons !

It's really nice to, I've very glad I had an excuse to pick that jar up as I think I will use it in other dishes too. So all ingredients acquired I set to making the sauce, which was really very easy and smelt really interesting, here it is bubbling away before I blitzed it smooth!

Tom and I really liked the taste though Jon wasn't so convinced, we decided the closest we have had before would be a satay sauce.
So on to the construction of the dish, to the sauce and tortillas I added some precooked turkey and cheddar cheese and layered it up in stages, very like making a lasagne really which is what that dish is more normally used for in this household.

So after a couple of layers of tortillas, turkey, sauce and cheese, it was topped with more torillas, sauce and a bit of cheese and put in the oven.. for a bit to long really so mine is less pretty than most of the other Daring Cooks but I caught it before it really burned! 

So here is the final dish, served with rice, very tasty and something I will certainly be considering doing again soon in one form or another. I loved the different taste of the mole sauce but the dish as a whole wasn't so un-usual I couldn't see serving it to friends or family which is nice.

Recipes.

GF Flour Tortillas (based on a recipe from Delightfully Gluten free)

1/4 cup each of cornflour (corn starch), tapioca flour, potato starch.
1/2 cup of Dove farm rice flour (which is mixed brown and white)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/4 tsp glycerine
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 to 3/4 cup of water (enough to make a nice dough)

Mix all the dry ingredients, then add the oil and glycerine. Finally add water to mix. Leave to sit for a few minutes then roll out as thin as possible by making small balls of dough, flattening them then rolling to size.
Cook in a dry pan with just a touch of oil for a minute or so each side.

Mole sauce (based on recipe from food network)

2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tin of chopped tomatoes.
1 sweet pepper, chopped
heaped tsp of chipolte pepper
1/2 pint chicken stock
2 tbsps smooth peanut butter
2 oz dark chocolate

The original recipe had chilli powder as well but as most of us are not used to chilli I stuck to just the chipolte peppers for the first time which gave it a bit of a kick but not too strong for us.

Saute onion in oil till translucent, add garlic and spices and saute to toast spices a bit. Add all other ingredients and simmer of 10 mins, Puree till smooth.

Stacked Enchiladas
Put a small amount of sauce in the bottom of a oven dish. Add a layer of tortillas, top with turkey, cheese and a little more sauce. Repeat this layer then add a final layer of tortillas, more sauce and some cheese.

Bake for about 20 mins to melt cheese and heat through.

Daring Cooks do Risotto

This month we were given a dish I had no problems at all getting my family keen to try as they all like it very much ! Another Naturally gluten free dish as well !

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

We were required to make our own stock and risotto base but after that were free to do whatever flavours we wanted and as usual the Daring Cooks made many wonderful and varied varieties.

I decided to do a fairly simple version partly so I could see what the risotto was like without masking it to much with other strong favours and partly to make sure all the family members would like it. As a result I chose to do chicken and peas.

Stock seasonings

I liked the stock, the cinnamon gave it as subtle twist I'm not used to but I liked it.

Here is the basic recipe for the stock.

Chicken Stock
Ingredients:
1 large chicken 2-3 pounds about 1 kg
chicken bones 2-3 pounds 1 kg
2 onions, roughly diced
1 medium leek - white part only, roughly diced
2 sticks celery, roughly diced
2 cloves garlic, halved
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp. white peppercorns ( Any type of whole peppercorn will do)
2 bay leaves (fresh or dried, it doesn't matter.)
peel of 1/2 lemon
1/4 tsp. allspice
Directions:

1. Wash the chicken and bones and places in a 5 Litre pot, cover completely with water and bring to a boil
2. Skim away any scum as it comes to the surface
3. Add the vegetables and bring back to a boil
4. Add the rest remaining ingredients and simmer very gently, uncovered for 1.5 hours
5. Carefully lift out the chicken, set aside. The chicken meat can be removed from the chicken, shredded off and used for other things like soup!
6. Simmer the stock gently for another hour. At , at the end you should have around 2 Liters
7. Carefully ladle the liquid into a fine sieve, the less the bones and vegetables are disturbed in this process the clearer the stock will be. 
The stock is now ready for use. Freeze what you don't need for later use.

Bowls ready to serve.

 

We all really liked this and will happily have it again. I think it is only the second time I have ever made risotto but I really am going to try and make it a much more common dish on our menu as it really isn't hard and is very good.

 Risotto Base

Ingredients:
olive oil 2 fluid oz 60 ml
1 small onion, quatered
rice 14 oz 400g
Any type of risotto rice will do. I use Arborio but the recipe itself says Vialone Nano. Another to look for is Carnaroli.
white wine 2 fl oz 60 ml
chicken or vegetable stock , simmering 2 pints 1 L
Directions:

1. Heat oil in a pan and add onion. Fry for a few minutes to flavour the oil then discard. (We diced ours and left it in as we like onion).
2. Add the rice and stir for a few minutes to coat each grain of rice with oil and toast slightly.
3. Add the wine and let it bubble away until evaporated.
4. Add enough stock to cover the rice by a finger’s width (about an inch or two). Don't actually stick your finger in, it will be hot. Just eye it off.
5. Cook on medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon from time to time, until most of the stock has been absorbed.
6. Repeat Step 5 making sure to leave aside approximately 100 ml. of stock for the final step. .
7. Repeat, save 100ml for the final stage.
8. Once you are at this point, the base is made. You now get to add your own variation.

After this I added the rest of the stock and
unsalted butter 3.5 oz 100g chilled and cut into small cubes.

Let these  combine in properly and then added
parmesan cheese, grated 2 oz 60g
a good amount of chicken taken off from the stock chicken
about a 1.5 cups of peas.

Serve in bowls.

Daring Cooks do Mezze

Before I start the Daring Baker post I just wanted to say something completely unrelated. A few months ago Freegle was born.. which is a UK based re-use network.. Today we past 1 million members  !!! It's been a great few months!

 The 2010 February Daring COOKs challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid.

Mezze is like a Middle Eastern  version of tapas, lots of bits and pieces eaten together. You can pick and chose whatever you like. Michele challenged us to do two compulsory dishes and then add to them whatever we liked. If you check out the other Daring cooks you will see lots of different combinations of dishes. The two dishes she asked us to all do were to make  homemade Pita bread and hummus. 

The hummus recipe she gave us is at the bottom of this post. We very much enjoyed it and I found it very simple to make. We had it both plain and also with some caramelised onions puréed into the mix.

As  I can't use a normal pitta bread recipe I tried a couple of different versions. 


The first one I tried was a result of a discussion with a friend who has Turkish friends who make chickpea pitta at home. She got me the recipe or rather a rough list of ingredients so here is my recipe based on that.

Chickpea pitta

it is "roughly"
3 cups chickpea flour
"a bit less than a cup of other" flour (apparently plain flour or corn flour?) - we call cornstarch cornflour here so i used that.
2 teaspoons yeast
pinch salt
pinch sugar
pinch cumin seeds
pinch tumeric
2 tablespoons oil (ideally olive but not extra virgin, apparently)
"Water until it forms a soft dough"

She also said the pan it is cooked it is roasting hot as she remembers touching it by accident as a kid!!
So I mixed as directed then left it to prove for a few mins.. I find gluten free baking doesn't generally like long initial proving and there is no gluten to develop. Then I rolled out egg size lumps and put on trays, proved for 30 mins or so (actually longer as a small person woke up) and cooked on a very high heat (220 in a convection over) for about 6 mins.. I over cooked a few mostly as they were too high up the oven and to get that high a heat the oven puts on the top elements which then tend to grill anything close!

A few thought about puffing in the oven but it didn't survive coming out of the oven though they can be carefully split if wanted they don't have a pocket as such. Really quite tasty, chewier than a wheat one but my friend says she actually prefers that and she isn't gluten free so I'll take her word for it not having had wheat ones in nearly ten years. I might try rolling out a bit thinner in the next batch and a little more liquid as I think I made the dough a bit dry and see if that gets more puff.

For the full meal however I tried a sweet potato recipe from Straight to bed cake free and dried. I adjusted it a little replacing the sorghum with Dove Farm gluten free plain flour and the maize with gram flour (chickpea).
These were really fabulous and even more orangey yellow than in the photos. We will definitely be making them again. I think I will try some potato based ones as well as sweet potatoes are something we only get occasionally. These ones even puffed and developed pockets!

Sweet potato Pitta

So the full Mezze meal consisted of Sweet Potato pitta, caramelized onion hummus, plain hummus served with mince meat (which is how I often have it at our local Arabic restaurant ), more meat for those who like it without hummus, pickled beetroot, sweet and sour pickled roast peppers, tomato and cucumber.. we also ended up having some grated cheese as the small ones decided it was like tacos and they wanted cheese to add to them! They had a point. By the way I had dreadful trouble taking the photo of all the dishes as Treestump kept trying to put his place-mat on the table ready to eat!!



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Hummus – Recipe adapted from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden
Prep Time: Hummus can be made in about 15 minutes once the beans are cooked. If you’re using dried beans you need to soak them overnight and then cook them the next day which takes about 90 minutes.
1.5 cups dried chickpeas, soaked in cold water overnight (or substitute well drained canned chickpeas and omit the cooking) (10 ounces/301 grams)
2-2.5 lemons, juiced (3 ounces/89ml)
2-3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
a big pinch of salt
4 tablespoons tahini (sesame paste) OR use peanut butter or any other nut butter—feel free to experiment) (1.5 ounces/45 grams)
additional flavorings (optional) I would use about 1/3 cup or a few ounces to start, and add more to taste

Directions:
1. Drain and boil the soaked chickpeas in fresh water for about 1 ½ hours, or until tender. Drain, but reserve the cooking liquid.
2. Puree the beans in a food processor (or you can use a potato masher) adding the cooking water as needed until you have a smooth paste.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Adjust the seasonings to taste.

Daring Cooks do Satay

The January 2010 DC challenge was hosted by Cuppy of Cuppylicious and she chose a delicious Thai-inspired recipe for Pork Satay from the book 1000 Recipes by Martha Day.

This was a very interesting and indeed delicious recipe. Not a straight thai satay but none the worse for that.

I made two versions, chicken and pork, both were really lovely.. The pork was stronger and darker which I loved, where as the chicken was gobbled up by the smaller members of the family. The marinade gave the meat a lovely depth of flavour but still allowed each meat to come though.

Cuppy also gave us a peanut sauce recipe to go with the meat. My first attempt doing this curdled horribly. I think I cooked it too fast and too hot, but after much stirring it came back together. The second time I was more careful to heat it slowly and it worked fine.. yes it was good enough to make more than once. It is possible though that the sort of peanut butter I used had some effect as I used two different types. The first one was a fairly basic smooth and the second a whole-nut crunchy. Both were great and we ate the extra over the remaining rice.. Honestly I could just eat rice and sauce!

I can honestly say this was the quickest and easiest Daring recipe I have ever done but that is not at all a bad thing as it is one we will certainly be adding to our regular menus and many of them have been too complicated to cook regualrly around two small boys however much we might like them.

Recipes below are as Cuppy gave them to us.

------------------------------------------------------

Pork Satay with Peanut Sauce

 Depending on the ingredients you select, 

Time Table

	Prep	Marinate	Cook
Pork	30 min.	4 – 24 hrs	20 min.
Beef/Lamb	30 min.	6 – 24 hrs	20 min.
Chicken	30 min.	2 – 12 hrs	10 – 15 min.
Vegetables	5 - 10 min.	2 hrs	5 - 10 min.
Tofu	5 - 10 min.	2 hrs	5 - 10 min.

Satay Marinade

1/2 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 T ginger root, chopped (optional) (2 cm cubed)
2 T lemon juice (1 oz or 30 mls)
1 T soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 tsp ground coriander (5 mls)
1 tsp ground cumin (5 mls)
1/2 tsp ground turmeric (2-2.5 mls)
2 T vegetable oil (or peanut or olive oil) (30 mls)
1 pound of pork (loin or shoulder cuts) (16 oz or 450g)


Feeling the need to make it more Thai? Try adding a dragon chili, an extra tablespoon of ginger root, and 1 tablespoon (0.5 oz or 15 mls) of fish sauce. (I keep some premature (still green) dragon chili peppers in the freezer for just such an occasion.)
Directions:
1a. Cheater alert: If you have a food processor or blender, dump in everything except the pork and blend until smooth. Lacking a food processor, I prefer to chop my onions, garlic and ginger really fine then mix it all together in a medium to large bowl.
2a. Cut pork into 1 inch strips.
3a. Cover pork with marinade. You can place the pork into a bowl, cover/seal and chill, or place the whole lot of it into a ziplock bag, seal and chill.

Uncooked Chicken and Pork Satay

Chill Chart

Pork	Beef/Lamb	Chicken	Vegetables	Tofu (no oil)
4-8 hrs Up to 24 hrs	6-8 hrs Up to 24 hrs	1-4 hours Up to 12 hrs	20 min – 2 hrs Up to 4 hrs	20 min – 4 hrs Up to 12 hrs

Directions:
1b. Mix well.
2b. Cut pork into 1 inch thick strips (2-2.5 cm thick), any length.
3b. Cover pork with marinade. You can place the pork into a bowl, cover/seal and chill, or place the whole lot of it into a ziplock bag, seal and chill.

Cooking Directions (continued):
4. If using wooden or bamboo skewers, soak your skewers in warm water for at least 20 minutes before preparing skewers.
5. Gently and slowly slide meat strips onto skewers. Discard leftover marinade.*
6. Broil or grill at 290°C/550° F (or pan fry on medium-high) for 8-10 minutes or until the edges just start to char. Flip and cook another 8-10 minutes.
* If you’re grilling or broiling, you could definitely brush once with extra marinade when you flip the skewers.

 Peanut Sauce
3/4 cup coconut milk (6 oz or 180 mls)
4 Tbsp peanut butter (2 oz or 60 mls)
1 Tbsp lemon juice (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 Tbsp soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 tsp brown sugar (5 mls)
1/2 tsp ground cumin (2.5 mls)
1/2 tsp ground coriander (2.5 mls)
1-2 dried red chilies, chopped (keep the seeds for heat)
1. Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl. Add soy sauce and lemon, mix well.
2. Over low heat, combine coconut milk, peanut butter and your soy-lemon-seasoning mix. Mix well, stir often.
3. All you’re doing is melting the peanut butter, so make your peanut sauce after you’ve made everything else in your meal, or make ahead of time and reheat.

Daring Cooks - Sushi English style.

The November 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was brought to you by Audax of Audax Artifex and Rose of The Bite Me Kitchen. They chose sushi as the challenge. As Audax does even when he isn't hosting he has done a whole host of varieties and as he is in Australia he was also first to post this month so if you want to see a wider range and indeed a blog version of all the very thorough instructions they gave us check out his blog.

Our Challenge was to make three specific forms of sushi and in that I failed as I never made the dragon sushi but I did make several types of the other two.

I've struggled to find Nori as it's a bit random who will have it in around here and didn't end up with any wasabi but I knew I'd have to leave that out for most of the family though I like it so that was not a major loss.

My rice did burn a little on the bottom (I never get rice cooked this way right) but the rest of it was fine. It has a very nice taste once the dressing is added I must say and we all enjoyed it though it was quite a faff to make compared to standard rice.. but then you can't make pretty shapes with standard rice!

I started with a British fusion idea I had so here is an English Breakfast roll served with tomato sauce as that is what you get with breakfast, though brown sauce would be fine as well and closer to soy in flavour.. I just liked the colour better of the tomato! for the photo! I think actually they would work with soy sauce too.

Filling is egg, bacon, mushroom, tomato and black pudding (blood sausage). I only did one sheet of nori so it isn't really a spiral but they were still great.
Then I did tuna and sweetcorn at the request of my 6 year old. Again one sheet and pretty much all eaten by him, he came back for seconds and thirds!

Next came Nigiri sushi which I did find harder as the rice didn't like sticking together firmly enough, though it liked sticking to me if I didn't keep my hands quite wet! As Audax had done vegimite and cheese I felt I had to do Marmite and cheese, I also did some with a cheese that has branston pickle added to it. The small one loved them but the older ones of us decided that grating the cheese and doing it in a roll would work better. The Marmite does as a lovely savoury taste though again it is quite like soy sauce in that regard. I also did ones with smoked salmon. No raw fish for us not because we don't like it but we live as far from the sea as you can get in this country and so I didn't feel any of the fish on offer was fresh enough.

Finally I did some plain rolls wrapped in Nori with toppings. Do they have another name? We had prawns and cucumber and black and white pudding. The puddings are the same recipe but the black one had blood and the white doesn't. They are a sort of oat based spiced sausage and actually made really delicious sushi, Black pudding sushi will defiantly be on our list in the future.

I have promised  Noodles I will make him some egg wrapped sushi as he wasn't totally struck on the seaweed.. this he tells me after eating about 6 pieces ! I also really want to have a go at the more complicated rolls with faces and flowers and so on. I figure I can make canes in Polymer clay and it's basically the same technique give or take :)  So watch this space for my alien faces when they all go wrong!!

Daring Cooks make Pho

Argg I'm a couple of days late I completely missed the posting date but i was rather distracted as our three legged cat was found seriously hurt in a neighbours drive Wensday morning. We have had to have him put to sleep, he had been savaged by a dog and was just too badly hurt to keep going, any one of the things wrong with him would have been sortable but all together they were just to much for him.. We will miss him greatly and whoever's dog is responsible is very lucky I don't know who they are!

Anyway after that rather big downer to something all together more tasty.

the Daring Cook challenge this month was Pho by Jaden of Steamy Kitchen.. I used her full length recipe which can be found here on her blog. We have been asked not to post that recipe in full but we were given a shorter one from her up and coming bookcalled The Steamy Kitchen cookbook which will be on other Daring cooks blogs if you wish to look.

I very much recommend this recipe, it was flavourful and very comforting without being overly hot, all of us including the smalls liked it which isn't always true with soup. Even the long version isn't hard it just needs some time around the house rather than sitting over the stove and it's naturally gluten free to!

Daring cooks - A Spanish rice recipe

This month's Daring Cook challenge was hosted by Olga from Las Cosas de Olga and Olga’s Recipes this month and she picked a Spanish recipe, Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes by José Andrés.

She says he is one of the most important Spanish Chefs at the moment. He trained under well-known Ferran Adria at his three Michelin star restaurant El Bulli. José Andrés lives now in Washington DC and he owns several restaurants in Washington DC area (El Jaleo, Zaytinya, Oyamel…). The recipe is from his US TV show Made in Spain.

Now I didn't end up making it quite as suggested as i could not get the cuttlefish but I stayed as true to it as I could apart from that.

I had a go at the recipe quite early on after the challenge went up as I happen to have fresh artichokes that needed eating.. I NEVER have them, even though I love them. Literally this is the first time in years and I was given some by someone at the allotment. I have young plants on my plot and they seem to grow very well but I will not get any flowers this year. I don't think I've ever seen them in the shops. One problem I had was I've never cut one up before, I normally cook them whole then eat the flesh off the leaves with butter. I think I left too much leaf attached next time I'll probably just do the disk bit from the base and cut everything else off but the video supplied seemed to show a bit more left than that.

Anyway I couldn't get anything like cuttlefish or squid, in fact the person in front of me asked about squid and was told they are out of season here. Our fishmonger only sells fresh fish, no frozen and being in the middle of England we are a little limited. I ended up with prawns, a few lagustine, scallops and some other fish who's name I had totally forgotten by the time I got home!

To start the recipe you make a slowly cooked tomato and veg sauce called Sofregit which is then used to flavour the dish once the rice and fish is cooking. I liked the Sofregit quite a lot and it is a good base for other dishes I would guess. For rice I used risotto rice as that was the closest I had on hand.

As well as the main rice dish we made some Allioli on the side. Alloli is basically garlic combined with oil to make a very strongly flavoured paste.


The Allioli was very interesting to make, I'd have liked to know approximately how much oil to add as having never made it before I really didn't know when to stop. We love garlic and it was certainly strong! Mine came out a slightly grey white, other peoples came out some very different colours depending on the olive oil used and so forth. In fact Audax got a very dark green version see his blog for a chemistry lesson on why I found it fasinating.

The dish was quite nice though I think I may have been to light on the seasoning as it was blander than I expected, next time I will be heavier handed with thsoe things it says a touch of and also the packets of saffron we get here aree tiny and from the colour of other people's dishes I'm guessing they used more than I did. The allioli certainly added to it very well.

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Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes
Recipe with additions from Olga

Cooking time: 45 minutes
Equipment:

• 1 Chopping Board
• 1 knife
• 1 medium saucepan
• 1 Paella pan (30 cm/11” is enough for 4 people. If not available, you may use a simple pan that size)
• 1 Saucepan

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 4 Artichokes (you can use jarred or freezed if fresh are not available)
• 12 Mushrooms (button or Portobello)
• 1 or 2 Bay leaves (optional but highly recommended)
• 1 glass of white wine
• 2 Cuttlefish (you can use freezed cuttlefish or squid if you don’t find it fresh)
• “Sofregit” (see recipe below)
• 300 gr (2 cups) Short grain rice (Spanish types Calasparra or Montsant are preferred, but you can choose any other short grain. This kind of rice absorbs flavor very well) – about 75 gr per person ( ½ cup per person) Please read this for more info on suitable rices.
• Water or Fish Stock (use 1 ½ cup of liquid per ½ cup of rice)
• Saffron threads (if you can’t find it or afford to buy it, you can substitute it for turmeric or yellow coloring powder)
• Allioli (olive oil and garlic sauce, similar to mayonnaise sauce) - optional

Directions:

1. Cut the cuttlefish in little strips.
2. Add 1 or 2 tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan and put the cuttlefish in the pan.
3. If you use fresh artichokes, clean them as shown in the video in tip #7. Cut artichokes in eights.
4. Clean the mushrooms and cut them in fourths.
5. Add a bay leaf to the cuttlefish and add also the artichokes and the mushrooms.
6. Sauté until we get a golden color in the artichokes.
7. Put a touch of white wine so all the solids in the bottom of the get mixed, getting a more flavorful dish.
8. Add a couple or three tablespoons of sofregit and mix to make sure everything gets impregnated with the sofregit.
9. Add all the liquid and bring it to boil.
10. Add all the rice. Let boil for about 5 minutes in heavy heat.
11. Add some saffron thread to enrich the dish with its flavor and color. Stir a little bit so the rice and the other ingredients get the entire flavor. If you’re using turmeric or yellow coloring, use only 1/4 teaspoon.
12. Turn to low heat and boil for another 8 minutes (or until rice is a little softer than “al dente”)
13. Put the pan away from heat and let the rice stand a couple of minutes.

Sofregit (a well cooked and fragrant sauce made of olive oil, tomatoes, garlic and onions, and may at times
different vegetables such as peppers or mushrooms)-

Cooking time: aprox. 1 hour
Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 5 big red ripe tomatoes, chopped
• 2 small onions, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped (optional)
• 4 or 5 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 cup of button or Portobello mushrooms, chopped (optional)
• 1 Bay leaf
• Salt
• Touch of ground cumin
• Touch of dried oregano

Directions:

1. Put all the ingredients together in a frying pan and sauté slowly until all vegetables are soft.
2. Taste and salt if necessary (maybe it’s not!)

Allioli (Traditional recipe)
Cooking time: 20 min aprox.
Ingredients:

• 4 garlic cloves, peeled
• Pinch of salt
• Fresh lemon juice (some drops)
• Extra-virgin olive oil (Spanish preferred but not essential)

Directions:

1. Place the garlic in a mortar along with the salt.
2. Using a pestle, smash the garlic cloves to a smooth paste. (The salt stops the garlic from slipping at the bottom of the mortar as you pound it down.)
3. Add the lemon juice to the garlic.
4. Drop by drop; pour the olive oil into the mortar slowly as you continue to crush the paste with your pestle.
5. Keep turning your pestle in a slow, continuous circular motion in the mortar. The drip needs to be slow and steady. Make sure the paste soaks up the olive oil as you go.
6. Keep adding the oil, drop by drop, until you have the consistency of a very thick mayonnaise. If your allioli gets too dense, add water to thin it out. This takes time—around 20 minutes of slow motion around the mortar—to create a dense, rich sauce.

José's tips for traditional recipe: It's hard to think that, when you start crushing the garlic, it will ever turn into something as dense and smooth as allioli. But don't give up. It's worth the extra time and effort to see the oil and garlic come together before your eyes. Just make sure you're adding the olive oil slowly, drop by drop. Keep moving the pestle around the mortar in a circular motion and keep dreaming of the thick, creamy sauce at the end of it all.

Olga’s Tips:
(1) In Spain, rice is not stired as often as it is when cooking Italian risotto. You must stir it once or twice maximum. This tip is valid for all Spanish rice dishes like paella, arròs negre, arròs a banda…
(2) When cooking the alternative style you can change the cuttlefish or squid for diced potato.
(3) If you can’t find cuttlefish or squid, or you’re not able to eat them because of allergies, you can try to substitute them for chicken or vegetables at your choice.
(4) Sofregit can be done in advance. You can keep it in the fridge or even freeze it.
(5) For more information on how to clean and remove the heart of artichokes, please watch this video
(6) To watch how Jose Andres cooks this dish click here.
(7) For more information on how to clean and remove the heart of artichokes, please watch this video
(8) To tone down the taste when you do it by hand in a mortar, then add an egg yolk. If you want to tone it down in the alternative way use milk or soy milk. Anyway, the best alternative way is the original oil and garlic alone.
(9) Allioli must be consumed during the preparation day and preserved in the fridge before using it.
(10) For help on conversion on metric to imperial, visit this page.

Daring cooks go Molecular !

Until this months challenge I had never heard of molecular cuisine (sort of the science of cooking) but I am now fascinated by it, the science geek in me wants to know more plus gluten free baking has a healthy dose of chemistry to learn if you want to get your head round mixing your own flour mixes. Over the winter when there is less growing of vegs going on, and indeed less weeds to keep in check, I may well check out some of the forums on the subject.

Anyway on to the challenge. Sketchy, from Sketchy's Kitchen set us a challenge to recreate a dish from Grant Achatz, found in the Alinea cookbook - page 230. This dish looks very obscure and strange to start with and before this the only chef I'd really come across doing such things was Heston Blumenthal who has recently done a couple of wonderful and very mad programs on british TV.

The dish is basically fish pouched in butter served on beans and slices of banana. Sounds pretty basic so far doesn't it ! However then you add multiple powders, dried and ground up ingredients, things that would normally be put in a sauce to go with the fish. Many people were very thrown by this part but taking a deep breath I looked at it and realised that while there was a bunch of prep none of it was hard in and of itself. As it happened I had just started experimenting with drying and indeed grinding things to powder just a few days earlier and had just done some lemon peal which turned out to be one fo the ingredients.

In the end I did 5 powders and used four of them. We were given various ways to do the drying. A dehydrator - something I'd love to own but don't. Microwave - quick but less good flavour wise on the couple I tried or the oven on a very low heat which is what I opted for on most for mine. They they were crushed in a mortar and pestle and sieved though a fine sieve.

The powders I did were

Parsley -(bottom left) Oven was slightly better than microwave but fundamentally both taste like dried grass which is pretty much the same as shop bought dried parsley

Oregano - quite bitter tasting and I didn't use it in the end, again oven better than microwave.

Lemon peel - (bottom right) just plain peel dried, the recipe called for candied peel but I had already done the plain so that is what I used. Smelt divine and tasted like sherbet.

Red Onion - (top right) Fantastic flavour, lovely pink colour. I very tempted to do more for flavouring things

Capers - (top left) Ones in vinegar, washed and dried. Another very flavoursome one.

To make up the dish the powders were piled on the plate and then swirled. The green beans were cooked in a Beurre Monte, which is basically butter emulsified with water first. The fish was also cooked the same way. The recipe stated skate but I used Pouting which is a nice and fairly cheap white fish.

Some slices of banana were placed on the plate then green beans and finally fish. It was topped with ground dried banana flakes.

So what was it like?? Funny dry powders? Actually it was amazing. Not at all dry, partly due to the butter things were cooked in. The powders exploded flavour, well part from the parsley but even that added colour. All together the flavours worked fabulously and it got a very good reception from Tom, once he got over the fish bone he is jinked to find however hard I try!!

I really recommend trying this it is worth the faff of making the powders and they in themselves are an interesting experiment.

Daring chinese Dumplings

I was extremely happy when I checked the hosting list and found out Jen from use real butter would be hosting this month. Jen is one of those bloggers I am in awe of, not only is her food to die for but her photograph skills are fantastic and her positive attitude has seen her through some very rough times but she still manages to post inspiring posts we can all learn something from.

I was even happier when I found out she had picked Chinese dumpings or pot stickers as the challenge recipe as I have been considering doing them since I saw a post she did about them ages ago but had never got round to it.. I have made a fantastic soup she posted several time though.

She even found a gluten free version for us though it used wheat starch in it which some were not convinced about. It always seems strange to me to use something that is that close to gluten as it was once part of the same grain but several companies making gluten free items over here use it so I am willing to believe it is gluten free. That said i don't have any and I DO have far too many other flours, so I have tried a different mix of flours to make my wrappers.

Filling Ingredients

I ended up making wrappers with a mix of tapioca and corn starches with brown rice flour. This is the recipe Jen suggested and in the main I followed it but I used 1/2 a cup each of Tapioca starch, cornflour(corn starch) and brown rice flour. The wrappers behaved fairly well and I really like the idea of putting between two bits of baking parchment and pressing flat with a pan it is SO much easier than rolling. They did taste a little stodgy when steamed but not unreasonably so and certainly I liked them well enough to think about trying again with a different flour combination probably a bit less tapioca (the original recipe was only 1/4 cup of that) and possibly more bulker type flour. I used a very English combination of bacon, onions and eggs for the filling but it still went very well with Jen's dipping sauce..

I also did some pot-sticker versions with strawberry inside for which the dough worked much better and I could certainly serve them again without getting complaints!.

To see other versions visit the Daring Kitchen.

recipes

Wrapper Dough (based on this recipe)

1/2 cup each of cornflour(corn starch for americans), tapioca starch and brown rice flour.
1/2 tsp salt
cup of boiling water
1 tsp oil

Mix the flours and salt together in a bowl and then add the oil and boiling water, stir together with a wooden spoon or other none heat retaining utensil (guess how I know that metal is a bad idea!). Once the dough has come together turn out onto a floured surface and kneed till it is smooth, soft but not sticky. I needed to add a bit more cornflour to stop it being sticky and I kept the knife and my fingers coated in corn flour while working with the dough.

Divide into 3, roll into 8 inch rolls and then cut into 6. You can keep them covered with plastic wrap so they don't dry out if you like.

Take a large piece of baking parchment or greaseproof paper, fold over and put one of the pieces between the sheets not too close to the fold. Press down on this with a pan.. you should get one circular wrapper.. You are aiming for 4 inches plus but be careful as to thin and you can't seal them without it breaking.
Then you need to spoon some filling into the middle, keep it small. Then fold over the rest to make a package. You are best off refering to other other recipe for this or indeed other Daring cook blogs as I didn't take any photos of this part and was very rough and ready in how I did it.

Once you have parcels either arrange on some cabbage or lettuce in a steamer and steam for about 6-7 mins or heat some oil in a pan, arrange them in a single layer in the pan, cook on each side till a bit brown (about 3 mins) then add 1/2 cup of water and cover, cook for 3 more mins on low then take off the lid and cook till the water is gone and the wrappers are browned.

Jen's dipping sauce:

2 parts soy sauce
1 part vinegar (red wine or black)
a few drops of sesame oil
chili garlic paste (optional)
minced ginger (optional)
minced garlic (optional)
minced green onion (optional)
sugar (optional)

Combine all filling ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix thoroughly (I mix by clean hand). Cover and refrigerate until ready to use (up to a day, but preferably within an hour or two).

I added the garlic and ginger from the optional bits and really liked it though I think I was a little heavy handed on the sesame for some of those in my house, next time I will make sure it is a drop or two!

First Daring Cooks Challenge ! - Ricotta Gnocchi

For those that don't know Daring Bakers now has a sister.. Daring Cooks for all those out there who prefer none baking recipes. The posting date for Daring cooks is halfway between the Baking ones to give those of us doing both more chance to manage it without going mad !

As this is the first month there could be only one set of hosts the two who started the whole thing in the first place Lis and Ivonne from La mia Cucina and cream puffs in Venice.

For our first challenge they chose Ricotta Gnocchi!

As they said" a recipe from the stunning cookbook by Judy Rodgers, named after her restaurant, The Zuni Café Cookbook."

I like this challenge, for a start with the exception of the dusting flour it's naturally gluten free, secondly I have been meaning to try Gnocchi for ages, you see I never even heard of the potato sort before I went gluten free and all the pre-made ones have wheat flour in them so I've never had gnocchi at all but had been wanting to have a go at them for a good while now and I'd never even heard of ricotta gnocchi till we were presented with the recipe !

This was one challenge I got on with and completed within days of it being posted, before I did the Baking challenge I've already posted in fact but I have had to hang on till now to tell you all about it which was a struggle as it is a great Gluten Free dish !

I even made the ricotta myself from scratch partly so I could show my five year old what curds and whey are, he remembered the nursery rhyme without probing too and asked if that was what Miss Tuffet was eating ! He thought it was fascinating but refused to actually try the cheese. I though it was very tasty though. I got the instructions from the Daring Baker forum posted by Libby and they were very simple. I used organic milk and it was very creamy and tasty, more so than most shop bought I've tried..

Home made ricotta

5 cups milk
2 tbs lemon juice

Boil milk till foamy. Remove from heat. Add lemon juice. Let sit for 5 minutes. Strain through cheesecloth and press for several hours to remove water. Yield: 1 cup cheese.

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As for the gnoochi, the recipe as we were given it is below.

The mix was very soft but I did not find shaping the dumplings difficult though I disagree that putting them in the fridge helped firm them up I just found that it made them more sticky. The amount from this recipe made enough for three of us for two meals so one cup of cheese would be enough for one meal for us. It did however allow me to try freezing the dumplings and I am pleased to tell you that worked very well, though they needed another liberal coating of flour to be move able and to stop them sticking to the plate they defrosted on.

We had the gnoochi for two meals, once with a simple tomato, onion and bacon sauce and once on a bed of spinach with green beans and a vegetable rice dish as an accompaniment. Both were very good and others have fried them and even done sweet versions.

Pop over to the Daring Kitchen to see other versions, as this is the first month I am not sure if there is a blog roll as such yet but I am sure they will be posting something up, or you could join and start doing the challanges yourself. I know I've learnt a lot on the last couple of years doing the Daring Bakers and had a huge amount of fun and lots of great food !.

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Zuni Ricotta Gnocchi

Source: From The Zuni Café Cookbook.

Yield: Makes 40 to 48 gnocchi (serves 4 to 6)

Prep time: Step 1 will take 24 hours. Steps 2 through 4 will take approximately 1 hour.

Tips:

- If you can find it, use fresh ricotta. As Judy Rodgers advises in her recipe, there is no substitute for fresh ricotta. It may be a bit more expensive, but it's worth it.
- Do not skip the draining step. Even if the fresh ricotta doesn't look very wet, it is. Draining the ricotta will help your gnocchi tremendously.
- When shaping your gnocchi, resist the urge to over handle them. It's okay if they look a bit wrinkled or if they're not perfectly smooth.
- If you're not freezing the gnocchi for later, cook them as soon as you can. If you let them sit around too long they may become a bit sticky.
- For the variations to the challenge recipe, please see the end of the recipe.

Equipment required:

- Sieve
- Cheesecloth or paper towels
- Large mixing bowl
- Rubber spatula
- Tablespoon
- Baking dish or baking sheet
- Wax or parchment paper
- Small pot
- Large skillet
- Large pan or pot (very wide in diameter and at least 2 inches deep)

Videos that might help:

- Judy Rodgers Gnocchi Demo
- Making fresh ricotta demo
- Making ricotta gnocchi

For the gnocchi:

1 pound (454 grams/16 ounces) fresh ricotta (2 cups)
2 large cold eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon (1/2 ounce) unsalted butter
2 or 3 fresh sage leaves, or a few pinches of freshly grated nutmeg, or a few pinches of chopped lemon zest (all optional)
½ ounce Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated (about ¼ cup very lightly packed)
about ¼ teaspoon salt (a little more if using kosher salt)
all-purpose flour for forming the gnocchi (I used Dove Farm Gluten Free Plain flour)

Step 1 (the day before you make the gnocchi): Preparing the ricotta.

If the ricotta is too wet, your gnocchi will not form properly. In her cookbook, Judy Rodgers recommends checking the ricotta’s wetness. To test the ricotta, take a teaspoon or so and place it on a paper towel. If you notice a very large ring of dampness forming around the ricotta after a minute or so, then the ricotta is too wet. To remove some of the moisture, line a sieve with cheesecloth or paper towels and place the ricotta in the sieve. Cover it and let it drain for at least 8 hours and up to 24 hours in the refrigerator. Alternatively, you can wrap the ricotta carefully in cheesecloth (2 layers) and suspend it in your refrigerator for 8 to 24 hours with a bowl underneath to catch the water that’s released. Either way, it’s recommended that you do this step the day before you plan on making the gnocchi.

Step 2 (the day you plan on eating the gnocchi): Making the gnocchi dough.

To make great gnocchi, the ricotta has to be fairly smooth. Place the drained ricotta in a large bowl and mash it as best as you can with a rubber spatula or a large spoon (it’s best to use a utensil with some flexibility here). As you mash the ricotta, if you noticed that you can still see curds, then press the ricotta through a strainer to smooth it out as much as possible.

Add the lightly beaten eggs to the mashed ricotta.

Melt the tablespoon of butter. As it melts, add in the sage if you’re using it. If not, just melt the butter and add it to the ricotta mixture.

Add in any flavouring that you’re using (i.e., nutmeg, lemon zest, etc.). If you’re not using any particular flavouring, that’s fine.

Add the Parmigiano-Reggiano and the salt.

Beat all the ingredients together very well. You should end up with a soft and fluffy batter with no streaks (everything should be mixed in very well).

Step 3: Forming the gnocchi.

Fill a small pot with water and bring to a boil. When it boils, salt the water generously and keep it at a simmer. You will use this water to test the first gnocchi that you make to ensure that it holds together and that your gnocchi batter isn’t too damp.

In a large, shallow baking dish or on a sheet pan, make a bed of all-purpose flour that’s ½ an inch deep.

With a spatula, scrape the ricotta mixture away from the sides of the bowl and form a large mass in the centre of your bowl.

Using a tablespoon, scoop up about 2 to 3 teaspoons of batter and then holding the spoon at an angle, use your finger tip to gently push the ball of dough from the spoon into the bed of flour.

At this point you can either shake the dish or pan gently to ensure that the flour covers the gnocchi or use your fingers to very gently dust the gnocchi with flour. Gently pick up the gnocchi and cradle it in your hand rolling it to form it in an oval as best as you can, at no point should you squeeze it. What you’re looking for is an oval lump of sorts that’s dusted in flour and plump.

Gently place your gnocchi in the simmering water. It will sink and then bob to the top. From the time that it bobs to the surface, you want to cook the gnocchi until it’s just firm. This could take 3 to 5 minutes.

If your gnocchi begins to fall apart, this means that the ricotta cheese was probably still too wet. You can remedy this by beating a teaspoon of egg white into your gnocchi batter. If your gnocchi batter was fluffy but the sample comes out heavy, add a teaspoon of beaten egg to the batter and beat that in. Test a second gnocchi to ensure success.

Form the rest of your gnocchi. You can put 4 to 6 gnocchi in the bed of flour at a time. But don’t overcrowd your bed of flour or you may damage your gnocchi as you coat them.

Have a sheet pan ready to rest the formed gnocchi on. Line the sheet pan with wax or parchment paper and dust it with flour.

You can cook the gnocchi right away, however, Judy Rodgers recommends storing them in the refrigerator for an hour prior to cooking to allow them to firm up.

Step 4: Cooking the gnocchi.

Have a large skillet ready to go. Place the butter and water for the sauce in the skillet and set aside.

In the largest pan or pot that you have (make sure it’s wide), bring at least 2 quarts of water to a boil (you can use as much as 3 quarts of water if your pot permits). You need a wide pot or pan so that your gnocchi won’t bump into each other and damage each other.

Once the water is boiling, salt it generously.

Drop the gnocchi into the water one by one. Once they float to the top, cook them for 3 to 5 minutes (as in the case with the test gnocchi).

When the gnocchi float to the top, you can start your sauce while you wait for them to finish cooking.

Place the skillet over medium heat and melt the butter. Swirl it gently a few times as it melts. As soon as it melts and is incorporated with the water, turn off the heat. Your gnocchi should be cooked by now.

With a slotted spoon, remove the gnocchi from the boiling water and gently drop into the butter sauce. Carefully roll in the sauce until coated. Serve immediately.

Variations: For the gnocchi, you can flavour them however you wish. If you want to experiment by adding something to your gnocchi (i.e., caramelized onion, sundried tomato), feel free to do so. However, be forewarned, ricotta gnocchi are delicate and may not take well to elaborate additions. For the sauce, this is your chance to go nuts. Enjoy yourselves. Surprise us!!!

Freezing the gnocchi: If you don’t want to cook your gnocchi right away or if you don’t want to cook all of them, you can make them and freeze them. Once they are formed and resting on the flour-dusted, lined tray, place them uncovered in the freezer. Leave them for several hours to freeze. Once frozen, place them in a plastic bag. Remove the air and seal the bag. Return to the freezer. To cook frozen gnocchi, remove them from the bag and place individually on a plate or on a tray. Place in the refrigerator to thaw completely. Cook as directed for fresh gnocchi.