I was intrigued when I saw a recipe for Spinach Gnocchi in the New York Times Health section. It sounded like one of those too good to be true recipes...good intention but bad result. Not True!These turned out really tasty and, although labor intensive to make, worth the work. I modified the recipe slightly.
Time: about 30 minutes, active plus 2 hours rest timeYield: 4 servings
Ingredients:- 10 ounce box of frozen spinach, defrosted and wrung out in paper towels until very dry
- 1 TBSP olive oil
- 1 TBSP butter
- 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
- 1/3 cup AP flour, divided
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese, plus more (coarsely grated) for serving
- Marinara sauce for serving
- Salt and pepper
Method:- Saute the spinach in the oil and butter with the nutmeg and a pinch of salt and pepper.
- Once warmed, add half of the flour and all of the ricotta and stir briskly for 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat and beat in the Parmesan and eggs.
- Let cool briefly and then cover and place in fridge for 2 hours.
- Place a large piece of parchment down on the counter and put a large pot of salted water on to boil.
- Warm the marinara sauce to a gentle simmer.
- While the water comes to a boil, flour your hands and the parchment well and take handfuls of the dough and roll out into tube shapes.
- Snip or cut the tubes into 1 inch pieces (they are sticky, use plenty of flour).
- Drop the gnocchi into the gently boiling water in batches and set the timer to 4 minutes once they rise to the top.
- Once each batch is cooked, keep warm in an oiled bowl (I kept mine in the microwave, turned off).
- When all are ready, serve topped with sauce and the coarsely grated Parmesan.
These turned out much better than I had hoped and were very satisfying. I had expected them to fall apart in the water and to taste doughy-neither was true! They keep well in the fridge to be warmed gently in sauce the next day.
Printable recipeOriginal recipe
I hope you have a safe and happy New Year and may 2013 be everything you desire, and more!
I hope you're having a peaceful and pleasant holiday season! Growing up in the south, biscuits were a table staple. There were more biscuit recipes than beehive hairdos! Mayonnaise biscuits, butter biscuits, rolled biscuits, drop biscuits,... and one of my favorites, cream biscuits.
These yummy little cream biscuits, spread with some jalapeno (or raspberry) jam, nestled around a piece of ham, and sprinkled with some lemon salt are sure to be a favorite. I served them for both brunch and as an appetizer for a dinner party this holiday. They can be made ahead of time and served room temperature or warmed briefly in the oven. Be sure to use the biscuit cutting technique as described so the biscuits can rise properly and pull apart beautifully when you are ready to add the ham slices.Time: 30 minutesYield: 24 small biscuits
Ingredients:- Your choice of ham (I used a Kirkland ham steak)
- Jalapeno or raspberry jam, yellow mustard for serving
- Biscuit cutter, small
- 2 2/3 cups of AP flour (plus more for your hands and the counter)
- 2 2/3 tsp baking powder
- 5/8 tsp table salt (not kosher)
- 2 tsp sugar
- 2 cups cream
- 1/4 cup milk
- Sprinkling salt (kosher or other large particle salt; I used lemon salt)
Method:- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Line half-sheet cake pan with parchment or baking mats.
- Mix together the flour, baking powder, table salt, and sugar and then stir in the cream.
- Turn out on well floured counter and sprinkle top of dough and your hands well with flour.
- Knead until well mixed and coming together into a ball, about 1 minute.
- Reflour counter and pat dough out to 1/2 to 3/4 inch deep circle, flipping dough over frequently as you pat it out so it doesn't stick.
- Using a biscuit cutter, or a small glass with a sharp edge, press down briskly through the dough to form biscuits. Don't twist the cutter, just straight down and then pick it up. The biscuit will either stay put or be in the cutter-you can gently flick it out. If you twist the cutter or use something not sharp, the biscuits will puff up like rolls instead of rising nicely. If you reshape the dough for additional cutting, try to handle it as little as possible, just push it together gently and continue cutting. The second pass biscuits are never as "good looking" as the first pass and you may have to cut them rather than pull them apart.
- Brush the top of the biscuits with milk and sprinkle on your sprinkling salt.
- Bake for 20 minutes, or until nicely browned.
- While biscuits cook, use the cookie cutter to cut out rounds of ham (you can glaze and pan fry the ham if you like).
- Cool briefly, then pull each biscuits in half and pop a piece of ham inside.
- Serve, or let cool completely and then cover and keep at room temperature for a few hours until ready to serve. If longer than that, keep in fridge and take out far enough ahead to allow them to come to room temperature. Can reheat in 200 degree oven for about 10 minutes if desired.
- Serve with your choice of jams (we loved it with jalapeno jam, raspberry jam) or simple yellow mustard.
At the dinner party, I served these with some champagne. Perfect!
Printable recipe
Before I made this recipe I thought "no way can brown rice make a creamy yummy risotto." Guess what? I still feel that way. However, this rice dish was tasty and I was happy with all the veggies and the good nutrition in the recipe and that it was under 250 calories per serving.
Yield: 6 servingsTime: 1 1/2 hours
Ingredients:- 1 TBSP olive oil
- 1/2 C onions, chopped finely
- 1 C short grain brown rice
- 5 C vegetable stock
- 3 C baby spinach
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 C sliced mushrooms
- 4 cups roasted, cubed butternut squash
- 2 ounces Parmesan cheese, shredded
- 3 tsp finely diced basil, plus more for garnish
- Salt and black pepper to taste
Method:- Prepare butternut squash (cut in half, roast for 45 minutes in 400 degree oven, cool, peel and cube; can be done ahead of time).
- Heat 1 TBSP olive oil over medium heat in heavy saucepan and add onions when hot.
- Cook onions for 3-4 minutes then add rice, stirring frequently.
- Cook onions and rice for 5 minutes.
- While onions and rice are cooking, heat stock to a simmer and keep on low heat while cooking risotto.
- Add 1 cup at a time of stock to the rice/onion mixture and stir frequently while mixture simmers/low boil (about 40 minutes to add all stock).
- Check rice for tenderness and if not tender, add additional liquid and keep stirring.
- While rice is simmering, heat 1 tsp olive oil in a separate pan and cook mushrooms for about 10 minutes over medium heat.
- Once rice is cooked, stir in salt and pepper to taste, and add basil.
- Stir in cheese then spinach. Stir until spinach is wilted then add mushrooms and squash.
- Serve garnished with basil leaves.
Like any risotto, it's labor intensive so don't plan on making this unless you can hang out right by the stove to do all the stirring!
Printable recipeModified from Original recipe
You know those days? The ones where you have good intentions but get derailed by either how busy you are, how good your book and the couch are working for you, or the lack of what you need at the store? Here's one of my favorites for those situations...
Dorots. Frozen chopped herbs (and there is also garlic and ginger which I haven't used) in 1 tsp. servings. Lifesavers when you don't have the fresh stuff available for whatever reason (and no judgement from me if the reason is the book and the couch!).
They're not perfect-won't work for caprese salad for example (but I have something that works there which I'll share another time). And I wish the ingredient list didn't include dextrose and corn starch, but I'm guessing the small amounts are needed for longevity and freezability?
Anyway, they work SOOOO very well for things like stirring in to soups, casseroles, or in this instance, spaghetti sauce I had made a few weeks ago and put up in the freezer. I had good intentions of going to the store for some fresh basil and a bunch of other stuff we needed after getting home from our Thanksgiving trip. Didn't make it. However, a last minute stir in of two little Dorot cubes of basil took the sauce from good to great.
Look in the freezer section at your grocery store...fresh is (almost) always best, but these are a great tool to have on hand. (This post in not sponsored by Dorot).
Hope you are going to have a great Turkey Day! Just a few teaser photos from prep day in the kitchen.Above...all the fixin's for our dressing-good bread, onion, celery, apple, chestnuts, herbs, salt and pepper, stock; ready to be baked tomorrow.
And I hope we can stay out of this until tomorrow...Chef Dennis's amethyst topping bubbling away-cranberries, blueberries, sugar, lemon, cornstarch. Topping for cheesecake tomorrow.
The green beans are washed and prepped; the butternut squash is peeled and cubed; and the potatoes are washed and cubed-soaking in water until tomorrow. Oh, and of course, Tom the turkey is all ready to go!
And finally, maybe most importantly to ensure a well rested and energetic cook tomorrow...reservations at the local tapas place for dinner tonight! What are you prepping today? Happy times in the kitchen!
