Gnocchi with Sage Cream Sauce

Nov 15, ’10

After the sixth egg, I just knew I had to finally get a real Italian to teach me how to knead pasta dough properly. I had wasted enough flour and eggs trying to make my own while following written instructions and videos online. For one reason or another, I just couldn’t get the dough to roll into one; it kept breaking into shard-like pieces. I had no idea how it should feel under the bottom of my palms and had no basis of comparison since I’ve never made my own pasta before.

I’ve been trying to get in the recreational pasta class at the Institute of Culinary Education, but every time I checked their calendar, the class would be full. They never sent out any emails to announce when new classes opened up so I couldn’t even try to sign up earlier. Another search for pasta-making classes in New York City revealed Rustico Cooking in the midtown area. I signed up and spent half an afternoon in an open-loft kitchen with a few couples and, thankfully, some who came on their own. It turned out to be a very productive afternoon and a great–and more affordable–alternative to ICE or the French Culinary Institute.

During our three-hour class, we watched and followed founder and chef Micol’s instructions on how to make gnocchi, cavatelli and tagliatelle. I felt the mashed potato and the flour in my hands when making the gnocchi: I kneaded, rolled and cut the dough. I left the class feeling like I could do the three recipes on my own.

This is my first attempt in trying to replicate the gnocchi-making technique I’ve learned in class. I bought my own potato ricer and dough cutter for this recipe. I didn’t really want to buy any more toys for my kitchen, but the potato ricer is one of the most amazing gadgets I’ve ever come across: mashing potato will never be the same.

I think the dish turned out well even with my made-up sage cream sauce. Admittedly, my gnocchi wasn’t as light and fluffy as Micol’s, and I’m not sure if it’s because I used yellow potatoes instead of the recommended Yukon gold, or if I didn’t get the precise cup and a half measurement for the flour. But I can at least say that I’ve done it myself–there’s really no going anywhere from here except better pasta.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds of yellow potatoes
1 1/2 cups of unbleached flour, plus more for kneading
1/2 stick of butter
4 sage leaves
1 cup of heavy cream
1/2 cup of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, grated
salt
pepper

1. Make the gnocchi. In a large pot, cover the potatoes with water and let boil under medium fire, until fork tender. Drain, peel and mash onto a clean counter surface using a potato ricer. Mix with flour and knead until smooth.
2. Cut dough into small chunks and roll each chunk into a thin snake-like shape. Cut into one-inch pieces to make gnocchi. Gather all gnocchi on a lined bake sheet and sprinkle with flour to avoid sticking.
3. Make the sage cream sauce. In a heavy skillet, melt the butter. Add the sage leaves and fry. When leaves are lightly browned, add the cream and the cheese with some pepper. Stir continuously with a whisk until well combined.
4. In the meantime, cook the gnocchi. Put a pot of water to boil with some salt. Add the gnocchi and wait for them to float to the surface. Scoop the gnocchi using a slotted spoon and transfer to a sieve and then to a plate. Pour enough cream just to slightly cover the gnocchi.

Related post/s:
My first attempt in making gnocchi wasn’t too successful
Sage ice cream recipe

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Porchetta with Fennel

Nov 8, ’10

I don’t know how a planned dinner for three in my Harlem apartment turned into a pre-holiday dinner for seven, but that happened one Sunday night as soon as Mother Nature confirmed it was autumn in New York City. Our friend Marisol, who moved to Florida for work earlier this year, was in town for a meeting. Grabbing the opportunity to see her before the holiday craziness begins, I invited her over for dinner with Lily. Since the three of us were the only single ones in our group, I figured they would be the easiest to make plans with on short notice. It turned out that even the new moms who live in New Jersey were able to make some time to come over for dinner, tiny babies included.

I bought two boneless pork shoulders that were already tied up. After distributing the seasoning on the pork, I simply rolled and tied the pork back up; the tied-up pork should resemble a log. Adjust the cooking time to 2 hours if you’re feeding a large group like I did because the meat will compete for the oven’s heat. If you see the pork drying up halfway through, you’ll need to add some more broth in the roasting pan, so keep extra broth handy. If you think the ends are good enough to eat, feel free to remove the pork from the oven and slice off the ends after it rests; put back the rest of the pork in the oven to cook the middle part. By the way, refrain from opening the oven when you check–I just turn the oven light on when I need to take a peek at whatever I’m cooking. This saves the oven from needing to heat again.

Ingredients:
1 boneless pork shoulder, about 3 pounds, trimmed
salt
pepper
fennel fronds from one fennel bulb, roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
rosemary from 3 stalks
1 tbsp fennel seeds, grounded
2 tsps red pepper flakes
2 cups chicken broth

1. Preheat the oven to 300º. On a large cutting board, untie the pork shoulder and lay flat. Season the pork liberally with salt and pepper.
2. In a small bowl, combine the fennel fronds, garlic, rosemary, fennel seeds and red pepper flakes and sprinkle two-thirds of the mixture over the pork. (Reserve one-third of the mixture.)
3. Roll the pork up tightly. Using butcher twine, tie the pork every few inches. Season the outside of the pork with the reserved herb mixture and salt and pepper.
4. Place the pork in the center of a rectangular roasting pan and pour the chicken broth around it. Roast the pork until well browned and an instant-read thermometer registers 150º, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Remove to a chopping block and let stand for 10 minutes before slicing. Serve immediately.

Related post/s:
Serve this porchetta with my favorite Brussels sprouts salad

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Coconut-Fish Curry

Oct 27, ’10

I have been craving Indian flavors ever since I came back from Portugal. For our last night in Lisbon, we had dinner at a Goan restaurant and celebrated our stay there with our last bottle of Vinho de Verde. For the first time in a long time, I connected what I learned in school with my travels and remembered how Vasco da Gama traveled far through strange waters to look for those spices favored by the royal families of the Age of Discovery. He brought back to Portugal the exotic flavors from India and influenced trade–and Portuguese cuisine–forever. It wasn’t all smooth: he wanted all Muslims expelled from a Hindu land. Today in Goa, India, a city is named after him.

For this recipe, I tried both cod and albacore fish fillets and steaks. The albacore was more firm and withstood the simmering, but since cod fillets are easier to find and has a sweeter flesh, I’m using it here. (If you use albacore, or another firmer fish like monkfish, add 5 minutes to cook the fish through without overcooking.)

May I also mention that buying 1 stalk of lemongrass and two chiles from Whole Foods cost me a mere 16 cents? The scale couldn’t even register the chiles because they were paper-light, so the clerk just weighed all three items together. (The lemongrass goes for a ridiculous $9.99 per pound! It’s about $1 for five stalks in Chinatown.) It was my record: least expensive grocery tab ever!

Ingredients:
3 pieces of cod fillets
juice from 1 lime
salt
4 cloves of garlic
a small knob of ginger, peeled, thinly sliced
oil
small red onion, thinly sliced
1 lemongrass, chopped in 1-inch pieces, smashed with your knife handle
1 Thai chile
a dash of turmeric
half a can of coconut milk
parsley, finely chopped, optional

1. A few minutes before starting to cook, pat the fish dry with paper towel and transfer to a shallow bowl. Season with lime juice and salt and leave standing for 15 minutes. (You can do this the night before; just cover and store in the fridge.)
2. Using a mortar and pestle, grind garlic and ginger to a paste. Set aside.
3. In a large skillet, heat some oil and sauté onions until soft. Add lemongrass and the garlic-ginger paste and sauté until brown. Toss in chile. Season with turmeric and mix well. Add the coconut milk and the fish and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes, turning the fish halfway through. (Smash the chile here for extra spice.) Sprinkle with parsley before serving with warm rice.

Related post/s:
Kona Blue kampachi with coconut cream sauce
Fish with coconut milk, the Filipino way

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Macha Green Tea Pound Cake

Oct 25, ’10

I’ve never heard of blue eggs until I saw them from Holton Farms’ Web site the last time I ordered my CSA produce. Curious, I ordered a dozen even though they cost $7. After some research, I found out that the blue eggs come naturally from these Chilean chickens called Araucana that look like they have handlebar moustaches coming out of the sides of their faces. They’re super cute, but the eggs look even more beautiful and delicate.

I used two of them to replicate this green tea pound cake recipe from About.com. I edited it after trying it two times. Because there is no liquid involved, I thought it was wrong to say that you have to “pour the batter” in a pan–it was more like transferring each glop with my spatula than pouring. I also cut the sugar in half because I wanted the green tea flavor to stand out. Forty minutes made it too dense so I stuck with half an hour the next time and thought it came out just right.

When I brought the end product to work, everyone liked and ate it, but I made sure they knew it was a pound cake and not a sponge cake so that they’re not taken aback by the density of the bread. If you’d serve this warm and straight out of the oven, dust with a little bit of confectionary sugar to pretty it up.

Ingredients:
1 stick of butter
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup flour, sifted
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp matcha, or green tea powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
a small knob of butter for greasing the loaf pan

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Meanwhile, in a large glass bowl, melt the butter in the microwave for 1 minute. Cream with a spatula and slowly mix in the beaten eggs. Combine well.
2. Gradually add the flour with one hand while the other is making sure everything gets incorporated. Do the same with the sugar, the green tea powder and the baking powder. Transfer to a buttered loaf pan and gently pat even with your spatula.
3. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven–the remaining heat should cook it in place–and let stand until it’s cool enough to serve.

Related post/s:
Maeda-En Shiki Matcha Green Tea Powder is on Amazon.com
Holton Farms is where I get my CSA produce from

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Day 1 in Portugal: Overnight in Sintra: Casa Miradouro

Oct 19, ’10

Good thing Daddy knows how to drive stick!, the Dr. beamed proudly as we took another sharp turn on Sintra’s curvy roads. It took us at least an hour to find Casa Miradouro from Lisbon. We drove through the narrow stone streets of Sintra with its numerous forts, monasteries and castles and we kept getting lost because of the tight turns we always had to take. We squeezed past tour buses as they were finishing up for the day, halted to quick stops to read the rua signs and re-oriented ourselves several times to find our room for the night.

The Dr. is not big on asking strangers for driving directions–no surprise, he is a guy after all–so I had to go to the tourist office alone to ask Onde Rua Sotto Mayor? The guy at the desk just assumed I spoke Portuguese and proceeded to tell me how to get to where we needed to be in his sh-sh-sh language. All I understood was the word for left, izquierda, because it was similar to Spanish so we went back on the road and turned left on the road across from the office. We will later learn that most of the locals choose to speak French rather than Spanish which is a curious thing to us because Spain is right next door. Almost everyone we met would switch to Parlez-vous Français? whenever we started talking to them in English or Spanish. Thankfully, the Dr.’s French lessons in high school paid off again. (The first was in Cuba, and then in Tunisia.)

Getting lost was worth it when we finally found Casa Miradouro because it was a haven from the bustle of the town center. Charlotte, the proprietress of Casa Miradouro welcomed us to her home as it started to rain. It had been cloudy when we touched down Lisbon with some sunshine peaking through the clouds and I was a bit chilly from my lack of sleep on the plane and felt a cold coming in, but suddenly felt relaxed as soon as we entered the house. The first floor had several salons for entertaining, each one set up with a different style of furniture. Design books were on the modern coffee tables. Cathedral ceilings with ornate details and ceiling to floor curtains gave the rooms an airy feel.

In our room, double doors opened towards the garden with a Juliet balcony that overlooked the town. Our queen-sized bed was covered in plain white sheets and two separate twin down comforters. (How come I never thought of that? No more blanket-stealing during cold nights in bed!) Blue and white tiles in the style of azulejos, an ubiquitous Portuguese touch, lined the bathroom walls. Hot water was aplenty!

After cleaning up, we felt settled enough to take an afternoon walk in the town and check out our surroundings. We walked up and down small hills, through narrow alleys and past bakeries and souvenir shops. We stopped by Lojo do Vinho for a couple of glasses of wine before we walked to the unfortunately named GSpot for dinner. Charlotte had recommended two different types of restaurants and we opted for the more experimental one since we knew we would have the rest of the week to eat local fare.

After a bottle of wine, foie gras, clams with squid-inked orzo and a mediocre sirloin steak, we set out into the drizzly night and walked back to Casa Miradouro. It felt like we had Sintra to ourselves; this fantasy land of castles looming above us. I could only think of Prague where I felt the same way at night but this was less gritty and more peaceful.

Charlotte was up; we assumed she was waiting for us to get in because she turned off all the hallway lights as soon as we bid her good night. We had a nightcap of Port at the bar in one of the rooms and talked for a bit before heading to our bedroom. A few hours later, I woke up with a crushing headache. Sintra’s lights from our balcony made me pause in the dark when I got up to go to the bathroom. Headache be damned, I was falling in love with Sintra’s nighttime lights and couldn’t wait for the next morning when we would begin to see the rest of the country.

The next morning, we enjoyed a very civilized breakfast in the basement. The Dr. and I have never been the best bed and breakfast guests because we’ve never really had good free breakfasts wherever we’ve stayed. The coffee is always weak, the bread cold and the butter like they serve it on airplanes. To our surprise, Charlotte prepared a spread of salmon, prosciutto, salami and ham with an assortment of pastries and fresh fruits. French-pressed coffee and freshly-squeezed orange juice completed our morning. We checked out, reloaded our stuff in the hatchback and drove to São Pedro to visit the Sunday flea market before we started our long drive up north.

There was an assortment of colors at the Feira Grande de São Pedro. A cart selling only leitao, roasted pig, was in the middle of the square amidst a barrage of clothing, housewares, fig and olive plants, live finchess and other types of food. I watched a group of older ladies pull a tray of freshly-baked bread from a stone oven and bought two pieces only to discover sausage slices stuffed inside. We just ate, but happily ate again. Besides, lunch was still two hours away.

Related post/s:
Casa Miradouro Web site
Day 1 Portugal Road Trip photos on Flickr: Belém
Day 1 Portugal Road Trip photos on Flickr: Sintra

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