Butternut Squash Gnocchi with Roasted Vegetable sauce

Today we took on something rather adventurous... Gnocchi!! This is a pasta alternative made with potatoes or other root type vegetables that is usually boiled and tossed with sauce or flavored butter.

Butternut Squash Gnocchi - Intermediate and time consuming

What We Used:

• 1 butternut squash, steamed and peeled
• 2-4 cups flour
• salt and pepper to taste
• onion powder
• 2 eggs

We cut and gutted the squash, then quartered it (it was pretty small) and tossed it in our lovely steamer. Once it was done cooking, it was set aside to cool. I got my brother to peel it for me while I was busy with the sauce, then he mashed the squash and set it to cool a little further. We mixed in two eggs, the spices, then started adding flour until we had dough the same consistancy as pasta dough.

After that, I cut the dough into small pieces and we rolled them into roundish shapes and squished them with a floured fork. This part is actually best done with a pot of boiling water on hand to put them in right away. *sigh* Unfortunately, I didn't think of that at the time and some of the gnocchi ended up sticking together in a glob.

We added the gnocchi to boiling water and waited for them to float to the surface, indicating they were done. Then they were scooped out and set aside. I oiled them a bit in preparation of baking them and to keep them from sticking together.

I baked the gnocchi at 375 until they were crisp and golden in color on either side, then served them with meatballs and the sauce.

Roasted Vegetable Sauce - Easy

What We Used:

• 1 orange pepper
• 1 yellow pepper
• 1/4 onion
• 1 clove elephant garlic ( or about 6 cloves of regular, my current garlic is on steroids )
• 4 tomatoes
• corriandar
• basil
• oregano
• onion powder
• oil

To start with, I gutted the peppers and cut them into quarters, laying them in a baking dish and sprinkling them with oil. I cut an onion into quarters, removed the skin and pulled the whole petals off. I halved the tomatoes, cutting a shallow X into the bottom half to make sure the skin peeled back properly.

I put the garlic in the middle of another baking dish, put the tomatoes around it then tossed the onions in. Both dishes went into the oven at 350 degrees until the tomatoes were soft, the garlic was tender and the onions were crisp around the edges. The peppers took a little longer. I pulled them out when the skins were beginning to turn black and set both pans on the stove to cool.

Once they were cool enough to handle, I pulled the skins off the peppers and tomatoes, cut everything into large chunks and tossed it into a pot along with the spices. It simmered until the meatballs and the gnocchi were finished baking.

Verdict?



VERY good! The sauce complimented the slightly sweet gnocchi perfectly! And my curry meatballs were great with the whole dish. This is something I'd definitely do again!


~Sam

Wednesday Movie Night: Big Trouble

Sam's turn for the movie of the week, and her choice was 'Big Trouble', a comedy that quietly snuck in and out of theatres in the aftermath of September 11th (September 21st 2001 was the original release date, but it was pushed back to 02 because of a scene involving smuggling a bomb onto an airplane... so no one has really heard of it.)

"A chain of events starts with the arrival of a mysterious suitcase in Miami. Arthur Herk, a corrupt business owner, wants to get his hands on the case. At the same time, two hit men want him whacked. Tired of his constant fixation on drinking and television, Herk's wife Anna and daughter Jenny decide to find new love interests in divorced dad Eliot Arnold and his son Matt. To add more complication, two thieves decide to steal the case and lead a Miami police team and two FBI agents on a wild goose chase."

So the food of the week was miami cuisine... Which for us meant Key Lime Pie, cuban sandwiches, and Arugula pesto.

Unfortunately, Key Limes aren't in season up here... So lame lame Jess made Lime Out of a Box.

Sam, on the other hand, was still delicious.

Pasta with Arugula Pesto

What We Used:

• Fresh baby Arugula ( not sure about how much, I used about half a 142g package )
  
• 1 cup pecans
• 1 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
• 1/2 clove elephant garlic
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley
  
• 2 cups macaroni

Okay, well, this was supposed to be an easy thing to make, but it took a little bit more effort than I remember. First things first! Prep your ingredients, make sure you have them all on hand and get your food processor ready.

Start with some of the arugula, put the pecans on top to weight the leaves down (I found it a little hard to get the right consistancy at first) and start grinding them up. Add the garlic, the parsley and the olive oil, and more arugula if you need it. After that, add the grated parmesan!

After everything is ground up nicely, taste it. Add salt and pepper if you need/want to.

Cook your pasta, and toss it with some of the pesto, using however much you like! Add more parmesan as a finisher and voila!

Cuban Sandwich

What We Used:

• 1 loaf french bread
• Grainy deli mustard
• pickles (bicks garlic baby dills)
• roast pork deli meat
• old fashioned ham deli meat
• swiss cheese

It's fairly quick and easy. Slice the french bread open like it was one enormous kaiser roll. Slather some mustard on the bottom layer, then a layer of sliced pickles, a layer of roast pork, a layer of ham, then finish off with swiss cheese. We put the top back on, sliced it up into portions, then due to our lack of panini press we just put portions into a hot frying pan and pressed on it with a second pan until the cheese was melted.

Anyway... time to get back to work. I have a key lime pie in a box that needs making.

-Jess and Sam

Ye Olde Late Post

The camera is down, so apologies... no pictures while it's being sent in for repairs.

Friday night was a little rainy, and Sam was a bit uncertain about what we should make for dinner. Of course, I decided to shout out one of my old stand-bys: Mac and Cheese. With a twist, of course. My goal was to not use ketchup on top (something I'm notorious for.)

Jess and Sam's Mac and Cheese with Chicken

What We Used

• 2 cups uncooked macaroni noodles
  
• 1 large head of broccoli
• 2 tbsp flour
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 cup cheddar cheese, cubed
• black pepper to taste
  
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• breadcrumbs
• seasoning salt
• garlic powder
• onion powder
• asian chili sauce

Sam was kind enough to set the pasta to boiling and cut the broccoli into small bits and set to steaming while I made the sauce.

I generally start my cheese sauce with a blonde roux: In a saucepan over medium heat I melt the butter then add the flour and mix until it's a golden bubbly thing that doesn't look like it contains flour anymore. This thickens up the sauce later.

Slowly I added the milk... Normally I would only use 1 cup, but in the end it was thicker than I liked so I used more milk to thin it. So it's a good idea to reserve some of the milk for this purpose. Once the milk was happily simmering, I dropped in the cheese cubes and stirred until it was all melted. That's about it. I added a little black pepper as well.

You can tell this sauce is done when it can coat a spoon, but isn't so thick that it makes stretchy cheese strings.

We were kind of going for a not quite overwhelmingly spicy breaded chicken to eat with this stuff, but didn't want to do buffalo chicken (which seems to be the standard faire for eating with mac and cheese). Sam butterflied the chicken and rubbed it down with the asian chili sauce, then rolled it in a mix of the breadcrumbs, seasoning salt, garlic powder, and onion powder. We then fried the chicken in grapeseed oil.

When the pasta was done, we strained it, stirred the broccoli and cheese sauce in, and topped it with strips of the chicken and a little grated cheese.

Basically the verdict was 'homg.'

Anyway, sorry for the late post... I really recommend this dish to anyone wanting some good comfort food... and if you have any interesting variations on mac and cheese, let us know!

-Jess

No Doctor Who night? Lasagna with Mr. Science!

Due to Wine-ing Philosophers taking up Carmen's time this Monday, we asked Mr. Science to guest star on the blog (he's been itching to make lasagna for a while now... what a good excuse!)

Lasagna A La Mr. Science



What We Used

Sauce

• 2 1/2 lbs lean ground beef (Mr. Science prefers extra lean, but admits you need some fat to help everything stick together)
• 5 or 6 roma tomatoes
• 2 cans tomato paste
• 1/2 yellow onion
  
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp oregano
• dash of marjoram
• dash of thyme
• 4 sticks celery
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley
• 3 brown mushrooms
• 5 white mushrooms

All the Rest of it

• 3 brown mushrooms
• 5 white mushrooms
• Lasagna noodles (We used fresh ones, not homemade, but fresh)
• A large tub of baby spinach, chopped
• A bit of butter for cooking the spinach
• 2.2 lbs Ricotta cheese (or two large containers)
  
• Mozzarella cheese, grated (we used a large block of it, you can use however much you'd like)
  

Saute the onions and garlic in a pot, then add the ground beef and spices. Brown the beef. Chop the tomatoes, mushrooms, parsley, and celery and stir them in. Let everything simmer for about 20 minutes then add the tomato paste.

Slice the additional mushrooms and set them to the side. Mr. Science says that adding in raw mushrooms to the layers gives you better texture and taste.

Chop all the spinach and fry in a pan with a bit of butter until the spinach is cooked. It will cook down a LOT, so don't be intimidated by how much you've got. Mix the spinach once it's cool with the ricotta cheese and set aside.

Once everything is ready to go, it's time to layer it. Mr. Science used a stoneware casserole dish for his lasagna, and greased it before beginning to assemble the lasagna. Assembly goes as follows...

1. Noodles
2. Sauce
3. Mushrooms
4. Noodles
5. Spinach
6. Noodles
7. Sauce
8. Mushrooms

... and etc, etc, until you've got all your ingredients used up! Top with cheese! Bake covered with aluminum foil in the oven at 375 degrees for thirty five to forty five minutes. Bake for five minutes uncovered or until cheese is browned.

Just as a note, using fresh noodles will actually cut down on cooking time, because you don't have to wait for the dried noodles to cook!

Verdict?

Super awesome! We all agree that it could've used...something. Egg in the ricotta layer? Eight more bulbs of garlic? salt? bay leaf? Dunno. But then again, that's the glory of experimentation!

Home Made Strawberry Shortcakes



What We Used

Shortcake

• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 tbsp baking powder
• 1 cup butter
• 1 egg
  
• 2/3 cup cream

The Rest of it

• Strawberries
• Sugar
• Whipping Cream
• Vanilla extract
  

Mix flour, sugar and baking powder in a bowl. Cut in butter with pastry cutter or a fork, then stir in egg and cream. Knead until it's one solid lump of dough.

Grease a cookie sheet, and place dough in 1/2 inch thick discs on it. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until slightly brown on top.

While the shortcake is baking, slice the strawberries into a bowl and sprinkle a couple teaspoons of white sugar over them. Set those aside. Whip the whipping cream with a little sugar and vanilla to taste. Cover and refrigerate.

When you're ready to eat the shortcakes, slice them in half like you would a bagel. Layer some strawberries and whipping cream on the bottom half, place the top half of the shortcake back on, then put a little more of the strawberries and whipping cream on top.

Verdict?

Tasty! The shortcake was just sweet enough, without being too overwhelming.

Anyway, good night for now, see you in the morrow and ecetera...

-Jess