Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Pumpkin Gnocchi

I haven't posted about food in awhile.  I think I was making recipes that I've already posted about before and...honestly?  It's hard to make a meal in a tiny kitchen while trying to take fab pictures by yourself.  And Drew's been getting home late and sometimes you just wanna make dinner without a camera strapped to your back when you have raw chicken all over your hands, ya know?

Well that stops now.  I bought two cans of pumpkin puree from a woman who sells American food at the American Women's group and had been wanting to try some pumpkin recipes.  I made some pumpkin muffins when Moll and Mere were here, and after a lot of research, I decided to make some Homemade Pumpkin Gnocchi tonight!  Homemade pasta or anything of the sort naturally intimidates me, but that's what living here is all about: conquering fears.  In the kitchen and everywhere else in life. Or something.

Let's get started!  

The Cast of Characters: pumpkin, salt, pepp, garlic powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, flour, and I think it calls for all spice but I didn't have any.  Whoops.


Measure out 2.75 cups of flour...



And a "little big of nutmeg and all spice" the recipe says - which to me means a couple of good shakes...



Half a teaspoon of cinnamon...


And a little bit of lemon zest, even though this particular recipe didn't call for it.  Other recipes I saw DID call for it so I went for it cause I'm CRAZY.


Now take your can o' pumpkin and dump that in the flour mixture!



Begin mixing it up (I used a spoon at first and then switched to my hands) and add more flour as you go, if needed.




Then on a floured surface, divide the dough ball into 6-8 pieces.





And proceed to take each thick piece of dough and roll them out into long "ropes" that are less than an inch in diameter.  I had to use lots of flour for this part and it was a little tedious but it alllll turned out OK in the end.


Then....start cutting the ropes into 1-inch pieces and flour the sticky surfaces if you need to.



Bowl full o' floured gnocchis.
Heat up a pot of boiling salted water...


And drop the gnocchis into the water slowly, a handful at a time, and give them a stir.  



They'll float to the top when they're done!  Though I kinda kept testing mine but taking one out of the water and cutting into it to check the doughiness factor.  It usually took about 4-5 minutes per batch, though I think the time varies.


Then remove the cooked gnocchis with a slotted spoon and put in a bowl to cool/wait.


So while all that is happening, you can also prepare your sage and your brown butter sauce.  I checked out lots of recipes for gnocchi and lots of people cook it with sage and this butter stuff.  So I thought I'd give it a whirl.

Some people "fry" their sage in olive oil and let it get nice and crispy, and others just let it soak in the melting butter sauce to get soft and flavor the butter.  I did BOTH!  Half fried, half soaked.  I'm an innovator.


So if you want to fry it, just heat up some oil (I used EVOO) in a pan to a hot temp...


And lay those leaves in there!  They'll start dancing and sizzling and crisping up right away.



And then take them out after 30 seconds or a minute and let them cool on paper towels.  They should be crispy.


To make the simple brown butter sauce, you literally melt a shit ton of butter in a pan, add some salt, pepper, chopped garlic, sage, and any other flavorings you want!



And you heat it up and stir it up until it turns...brown.  Duh.  This pic below actually looks like I may have burned the butter...but it was still delicious.

Speaking of burning, don't stir your sauce/scrape the bottom of your pan with a metal spoon and then place the spoon directly on your tongue to try to taste the butter sauce.  You will char your poor tongue and you won't be able to taste anything and you'll be in major pain anytime you speak or eat for close to a week.  Hypothetically speaking.   


Also, if you want a delicious side, you can chop up some Brussels sprouts, stir them up with olive oil, salt, pepper, chopped garlic, garlic powder, lemon zest, some lemon juice, and parmesan; pour them in a baking dish, and bake them for 30 minutes anywhere between 400 and 450 degrees.  


They pretty much crisp up/char in the oven, but it makes them SO GOOD!


Back to the gnocchi: pour your brown butter sauce in all its glory over the gnocchi, and throw in your fried, crispy sage.  A little parmesan cheese never hurt anyone either.


Stir it up and prepare to fall in love!


SOOOOO good.


The finished product.  Happiness on a plate.


It was damn good and it went pretty well for my first gnocchi experience.  Drew was a little weirded out that we didn't have some sort of thick meat sauce to go with the pasta but really liked it nevertheless.  It's the perfect meal for a cold Christmasy/fall/winter night!

You can look at the recipe I used here, and you can look at another more complicated one here, and you can see the recipe for the Brussels sprouts I adapted from Ina Garten here.

Happy eating!

Monday, December 17, 2012

London, Baby!

I forgot to mention it, but Drew and I jetted off to London a week ago for a quick weekend holiday trip!  We really wanted to do some of the German Christmas markets but we needed someplace close and fast so we'll save that for next year - plus, London had lots of Christmasy things so we didn't miss out!

We got in by 8:30pm on Friday night, and took the train across the city to Putney where our friends (that we were staying with) live.  We ate a lovely Italian dinner and were in bed by midnight, hoping to get a good night's sleep for the full day ahead.  The next day, we basically walked the entire city and ate and drank our way through it.  As per usual.

Note: There may be way too many pictures on here for one post but I didn't feel like dividing it up.  Sorry.

First stop: Borough Market!  Our friends told us this place was a food lover's paradise and they were RIGHT.  We spent a few hours there just wandering through the stalls and sampling various things.


Buying a donut/cinnamon twist!  It had been too damn long.
Yummy pastries

Pretty wreaths
Our friends had also told us about these famous grilled cheeses at this awesome German food stall there, where they basically heat up slabs of cheese under a hot bar thing and then they scrape off the cheese onto your sandwich (made with Poilane bread) and they add leeks and garlic!  Heaven.  I was obsessed.

Slabs of cheese heating up!

Sandwiches with an inch of shredded cheese on Poilane bread, waiting to melt all over my face.
HELP!
Nom nom nom.
Delish!  Obsessed!  Too good for words!
(Side story: Drew and I were splitting the sandwich but he didn't love it as much as I did so I asked if he wanted anymore of it before I finished it off and he said no.  I took one more bite, mentally preparing myself for the very last bite of this cheesy goodness, when Drew said "Actually, maybe I'll have one more.." and proceeded to take my last bite of my favorite sandwich out of my hand and put it into his mouth before I could say a word.  I. WAS. LIVID.  DO NOT come between a girl and her grilled cheese.  #fatkidproblems)

Fresh bread
Crafty home goods
Bowls o' avocados for €1!!  BARGAIN ALERT!  The ones in Ireland are like €3 each.  Damn.
Busy bustling bozos

Sausages and salamis and what not

HUGE pan of paella!  Yes please.

Fresh veg.
Roasted duck for sandwiches!

We got one.  Couldn't resist.

He approves!

And we finished off our market adventure with a glass of mulled wine.  Just what the doctor ordered.
So that was fun.  Then we walked out of the market and over to the River Thames and walked alllllll along it, saw several hot spots, and passed through a fun German-like Christmas market thing.  Even though we weren't in Germany.

The Globe Theater!  Where Bill Shakespeare used to hang out.

The Tate.  Ugly building but cool museum.

Book fair!

Some sort of Mexican tree thing that reminded me of my sis-in-law Lauren, cause she has lots of this type of stuff!

Festive German/English market on the South Bank.

Ornaments!

Holiday stall-topper.
The London Eye!  More like the London Eye SORE, am I right?

Big Benny Boy and Parliament.  Beauts shot.

Oh hey!
London Eye from across the river

Wesminster!

The money shot.
After taking several pics and wandering around those big landmarks, we walked over to Trafalgar Square and then to Covent Garden to check out the shops and other festive things.



This whole city was PACKED.  Everywhere.
Reindeer topiary.
And then we went to Harrod's!

Pretty interiors.



Fresh seafood


Oh baby!  Gimme.

Egyptian escalator
Pretty exterior

Drew loves trains and tubes and anything underground!
We mainly came to London for this huge festival/market in Hyde Park, which was party carnival/fair, part Oktoberfest, and part Christmas Market.  We avoided the carnival part and mostly hung out in the beer tents and walked around the stalls with our Bailey's Hot Chocolate.  Very fun, festive, crowded, and freezing.
Beautiful sunset in Hyde Park!

Another cute German food/beer stall.

Hot Choco with Baileys

King's Road for din - all lit up!
Cath Kitson for Moll.
We stopped by our friends' Christmas party and then went home and crashed.  We had no plans on Sunday because we'd mostly walked everywhere on Saturday (and because we're coming back to do more touristy things in May) so we had a Sunday Roast with our pals and stopped by the Natural History Museum on the way to the airport.

Ohhhh yeah.  Shropshire roast chicken with veg and Yorkshire pudding!

Dinos at the museum.
Triceratops!  This thing was huge.  Yikes.

Speaking of huge, this blue whale was ridiculous.  It took up the whole room!  If I saw a real one I think I'd pee myself.
Medusa!  Lookin' cray.

People skating and enjoying the holidays outside the museum.  Ah.  Lovely.
We really enjoyed our time in London, even though it was super quick and more crowded than we even knew what to do with.  It got us even more in the holiday mood and we had a nice time with our pals!  Can't wait to go back.  And...did I mention I'm home in 5 days??  AHHHHHH.  I need something to distract myself.  Alright, off to...pack.  Too soon?