Gnocchi Bake

This recipe was inspired by a magazine that I swore I would never, ever use for recipes: Family Circle. The last few times I have tried a recipe that looked good from that magazine turned out bland to terrible. This one looked to have promise, but I knew that I would have to diverge from the printed recipe. Oh, another reason I dislike Family Circle? They ask for your name and email just to look at a recipe. Because I like you, dear reader, I will not link to their site.

Gnocchi is one of my favorite forms of pasta. I even tried to make it once, but the result was akin to water-based mashed potatoes. Not good at all. Luckily, I found a package of sweet potato gnocchi at my local grocery store. They are so tender out of the package that there is no need to boil them. The past few times I have cooked with them, I just tossed them into a pan of sizzling butter, cooked for a few minutes, then topped with Parmesan cheese. Fantastic stuff.

Normally, I would shy away from doing any kind of baking in the middle of summer, but this one was pretty quick, and ended up not heating up the house very much. The meal, though, was very well worth the slight bump in temperature.

Diced pancetta really, really made a great base for this recipe. Once the pancettawas cooked, onions and garlic go in next, and they just dance in the fat left over from the rendered pancetta. After that a can of tomatoes and some fresh thyme go in, and they just soak up all the goodness. Next I tossed in the gnocchi, and let it absorb the fatty tomato mixture for a few moments, then topped it with grated Parmesan cheese. The oven was set to 350, and I baked the gnocchi casserole for 25 minutes. It turned out really well.

The end product is nice and gooey, and easily portionable with a spatula. Every ingredient melded together really well, and I was very impressed. I will be trying this one again. The best part was the minimal clean-up. One pan, one cutting board, one knife and one casserole dish (excluding plates, I suppose).

Gnocchi Bake

2 packages of your favorite gnocchi (sweet potato is mine, to be sure)
1 package chopped pancetta (bacon would work great too, but this was just super convenient)
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 can diced tomatoes (drained)
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1-1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese (divided into 1 cup and 1/2 cup)

Preheat the oven to 350

Heat a skillet to medium heat, and add the chopped bacon or pancetta. Cook until crisp, about 5 minutes. Remove from skillet, reserving the residual fat in pan.

Toss the onion in and cook for 3-4 minutes on medium heat, stirring fairly frequently, then add the garlic and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Next, add the drained diced tomatoes and the fresh thyme. Cook for 5 minutes, or until most of the moisture has evaporated. Toss in the gnocchi. It should help soak up the rest of the juice and/or fat. Finally, add the 1/2 cup of Parmesan and remove from heat. Stir the Parmesan and crispy pancetta until incorporated.

Spray a casserole dish with non-stick spray, and add the contents of the skillet. Press down evenly, and top with the extra cup of Parmesan. Cover with foil and place in the oven. Cook for 20 minutes, remove foil, and cook for an additional 5.

Let cool briefly before enjoying.

Grillin: Red Potatoes

Usually with a hamburger, I would make sweet potato fries. That requires cranking the oven on, and that is simple not something that I wish to do any more than necessary this summer. So I decided to get some red potatoes, cut them up and grill them. Grilled chips, kinda.

They turned out surprisingly well, and I only lost one do the great Grate God. The trick that I discovered is to discard all the small potato rounds, and stick to the large ones. The small ones will burn up and fall through, so they are pretty much worthless. Seasoning the potato rounds is of paramount importance. I seasoned generously with salt and pepper, and the resultant grilled potato rounds were really tasty. They take on a nice smokey flavor, and the texture from the blistering and charring is pretty unique.

As for condiments, the status quo would be ketchup. Going in an opposite fashion, you could easily use sour cream or Greek yogurt. Hell, you can even mix in some spices into the Greek yogurt and end up with something quite wild. Next time. There is always next time.

Grilled Red Potato Rounds

5-6 red potatoes
olive oil
salt and pepper

If you have a mandolin that cuts a bit narrower than a quarter inch, that would work well. The only mandolin I have cuts so thin, you cannot even see what you just sliced, so I used a sharp knife and tried to cut the potatoes as uniformly as possible.

Discard any pieces that you think will too easily fall into the grates. Toss the potatoes rounds into a large bowl. Season generously with salt and pepper, and drizzle a good amount of olive oil. Give them a good stirring so they get a decent coating of oil.

Turn grill on to medium heat, and spread potatoes into an even layer on the grill. Try to flip them once they start to brown and blister. Remove once both sides are slightly browned and blistered.

Serve with generous amounts of ketchup, sour cream or fancy Greek yogurt.

Pour Me: Deviant Dale's IPA

Not another canned beer review! Bottles for life, bro. I wouldn't be caught dead drinking out of a can, like some kind of animal.

These are phrases that I assume the last bastions of canphobes. They probably do not exist, but I like to think that I am still working on converting everyone to drinking canned beer. Why? because there are some fantastic, fantastic beers that are exclusive to cans (and kegs, I reckon). Deviant Dale's is one of the best.

IPAs are really quite popular, and like I said in a previous post, everyone and their mothers are elitists about the IPA they drink. I will not force my preferences on you, but I will tell you about how great this American IPA is, and if you choose, you can buy a 4-pack of tall boys and enjoy.

Deviant Dale's by Oskar Blues is fantastic out of the can, but for the sake of blogging it, I poured it into a frosty glass. It pours amber with a very frothy head (perhaps it was banged around in my backpack too much?). The head recedes pretty quick. The nose is pleasantly citrusy, but subtle for a big, bad American IPA. Sipping yields a nice, hoppy beer. For an intimidating name and can, Deviant Dale's is a fairly easy-drinking IPA. There is a nice blend of malts at the finish, and there is quite a punch from the alcohol content (ABV 8%), but drinking a whole tall boy is easily accomplished on a hot day. There is a slight tinge of sweetness, but that is easy to gloss over.

Deviant Dale's IPA is a really fantastic beer: it comes in a tall boy can, it tastes great, packs a bit of a punch and it comes in a can. I really suggest checking it out. Oskar Blues really has this whole canned beer thing down.

Let Them Eat Cake

Savory almost always trumps sweet in my book. Sure, I do enjoy the sweets on very limited occasions like Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I do not have severe cravings for brownies, cream puffs, donuts, or cake. If offered a delicious looking piece of pie, I will not turn it down, but my eyes will not roll into the back of my head with delight. No, I simple like my sweets in moderation. Maybe extreme moderation.

The exception is birthday cake. Really great birthday cake. Like this TARDIS birthday cake my wife had commissioned for my 30th birthday!

There was a serious amount of security that went into keeping this TARDIS cake top secret, and I had no idea what to expect. I was very impressed with the design, and my wife said that the baker was really quite proud of themselves. They should be. This cake was awesome. Apparently my wife got quotes from bakeries all around town, and one came back with a price of $180. For a birthday cake. Okay, well, that one was a 3D, standing TARDIS that probably opened up and had pies on the inside, or something. Well, I was really, really happy with this cake. It was chocolate, and was not overpoweringly sweet. It was just a really, really tasty cake.

Turning 30 ain't no big deal with someone that loves you enough to get you a TARDIS cake for your birthday. Hell, I hope to have another one in 30 years. Thanks, babe!

Insane Green Beans

Oversized green beans are oversize

It has been quite a while since we patronized the nearby farmers market. The previous visits resulted in binge buying things that look fantastic, yet they sit in the crisper for a week, then are unceremoniously tossed in the trash with the humble prayer of "never again!" Yeah, farmers market trips tend to be incredibly wasteful because they stuff we get is never incorporated into our menu for the week. It is sad. Real sad.

Interestingly enough, this trip to the farmers market was a total turn around. It was so hot that Saturday that I believe we just booked through and didn't stop to look at any vendors. Strangely, the one that I did spy had these amazing green beans. I grabbed a handful, shouted at the vendor "take my money!" and formulated a master plan as to how I would handle these impressive green beans.

Never before have I seen green (and purple) beans like these. All of them are over a foot long. They are firm, just like standard green beans, but have apparently been doping. Seriously, they are massive green beans. The only way I knew I could cook them we on the grill. So that was that.

Sure, I could have made a green bean casserole out of these monsters, but it would be like eating green bean noodles. Oh. Man. That does actually sound pretty tasty. I guess I gotta visit that vendor again. Soon.

For grilling vegetables, simplicity is best: olive oil, salt and pepper. No more, no less. So, when it came to seasoning these green beans, I just tossed them on a cookie sheet, drizzled generously with olive oil, and seasoned liberally with salt and pepper. I prepared the grill to medium heat, and once it was hot, I tossed these beans on. They cooked pretty rapidly, so once there was some light char and blistering on one side, I scooped them all up with a large pair of tongs and flipped them over. They only took about 7 minutes to cook to desired doneness.

The green beans probably could be hit with a pad of butter or some olive oil upon platting. Eating these things is a bit, uh, complicated. I am sure if you had a knife handy, you could cut them into bite-sized pieces. That said, I had no such took, so I twirled them like a spaghetti noodle. They were awesome. Make sure to eat them fresh: a subsequent visit to the vendor and an interruption in the menu resulted in grilling of week old giant green beans. They were not good at all. That is a good policy for good produce: eat it as fresh as possible.