Technically...it's a pasta....I think

Hey all,

I'm back after another long period of time. The reasons for why i was gone...well i'm not going to go into why. Just that I'm back is all you need to know yeh? Well anyway onto the recipe!


Tuscan Potato Gnocchi with Porcini Ragout:

1 pound/455 g Yukon gold potatoes, peeled
1 cup/115 g unbleached all-purpose/plain flour, plus extra for counter.
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for gnocchi.
1/2 cup/120 mL Chianti or other red wine
1/2 ounce/15 g dried porcini mushrooms.
One small onion, chopped
1/2 rib celery, chopped
4 ounces/on June 15 grams fresh cremini/brown mushrooms, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
14 ounces/400 g tomato purée/sieved tomatoes
one large bay leaf.
Salt
fresh cracked black pepper

1. Steam or boil the potatoes until they are tender and put them through a ricer or masher thoroughly while hot. Let them cool completely to room temperature--but do not refrigerate them.

2.when the potatoes are completely cool, move them to lightly floured counter. Add the flour, salt, and nutmeg. Working it all together, kneading to make a pliable, soft dough. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Reduce the heat just a little so the water is not at a full boil. Test the dough by pinching off and not get, rolling it in flour, then dropping it into the simmering water. We need floats, fish it out and let it cool. If the gnocchi fell apart, knead more flour into the remaining dough. You want to add the smallest amount of flour possible to get gnocchi that stays together. Too much flour makes them tough. Keep testing a gnocchi as you add flour.

3. Divide the dough into four pieces. Roll each piece out on the counter into a snake 3/4 inch/2 cm thick, using plenty of flour on the counter. It's about the same size and shape each by pressing across the time so forth to make traditional groups. Put them on a lightly floured baking sheet/tray. (The book mentioned that: at this point, you can cover the tray and refrigerate overnight.) Dropped 12 gnocchi at a time into the water.

4. Bring the wine to a boil in a small saucepan and add the dried mushrooms. Cover, remove from the heat, and let the mushrooms soften. When the mushrooms are soft, only about 10 mins; reserve the wine. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, warm the oil.add the onion and celery and sauté until soft. You should take a few minutes. Add the remaining wine rehydrating the mushrooms, and tomato purée and bay leaf. Bring sauce to a simmer and cook until it is thick. Season with salt and pepper

5. Sauce the gnocchi to taste and serve if you like lighter sauce there will be some delicious leftover sauce for another meal, and refrigerate for up to four days and repeat as necessary

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I don't think I used all the mushrooms in the recipe but I did use a fairly wide-spread from a dried mushroom mixture I think it had a few of the mushrooms mentioned but not all of them. Regardless, it was a good mix and added well to the recipe. Obviously due to my diets. I did not use regular flour and instead use my fake flour. Other than those changesI didn't change the recipe at all.

I must say this is a fantastic recipe. It was delicious. I wanted to eat everything at once but, my stomach got to full. At first I was worried the gnocchi would be to soft or I hadn't done it right and it wouldn't really hold together. But the gnocchi held up great even with my flour. I would have to say though, the shining part of this recipe is the sauce the ragout is freaking delicious. I would make that for any recipe. Just to throw on top of stuff. It is so good,and simpler than it looks to make.

Well that's it for now....look forward(or don't) to my next curious recipe!

Changes!

I've added a few basic pages to the site!

to begin with I added a suggestions tab where you can obviously make suggestions and i'll reply to them as soon as I can or you all can reply to each other making a sort of mini community(I'll still respond though..)

Also I've got a contact page up giving you ways to contact me through either Instant messengers or email incase you don't want your question/suggestion/whatever public

Finally I gave you all a way to find my Tumblr acct where i do less formal cooking things and there'll be more images of recipes i blog about. Check it out if you're interested. follow me if you like what you see.

Because I can't figure out how to mass message everyone who reads this or follows me...

Hello,
The Curiously Restricted Chef here. I've sent out a mass message to you all for a few things.

Primarily:

I want to apologize, I haven't been posting because i haven't been cooking recently. Things in the outside life have been pretty busy with the job search(Because unfortunately i cannot be paid for the blog's upkeep) and family issues. I assure you I want to do more for bot you all and for myself.(I love doing this stuff even if i don't get any comments from you all)

Secondarily:

The main apology out of the way I have a question for you all. Are there ANY changes you'd like to see in the blog?(really anything..worst i'll do is alter it to something i like....) For that matter what do you think of the image of the food at the bottom of the post.

Tertiarily:

Please comment! any comment I'll love and cherish. as well as it may improve more than the blog or my cooking. And Suggest things in your comments. I you've always wanted to try...I don't know, Orange chicken. I'd be more than happy to find a recipe to alter (as closely as possible)into something that would work. Or suggest an ingredient you want to see in the next recipe. I know one of my posts kinda has me outright denying Eggplants, but if you love the acursed things i'll find a recipe that uses them or can have them subsituted in. Really, i Know this is my blog and i get ultimate say, but i LOVE input. It's no fun if nobody cares what i make  or write about.

I think that's all i wanted to get off my chest. I hope to have a new post for you all soon.

Sincerely,
~The Curiously Restricted Chef

Flavors of india...meet my kitchen...

Hey All,

I made this recipe last week. However, seeing as I'm not making a recipe this week I'll post it today.

Indian-spiced green beans and potatoes::

1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound green beans.
2 tablespoons canola oil.
1/4 serrano pepper, minced (with seeds)
1 tablespoon finely minced fresh ginger
4. Small red potatoes, unpeeled, cut into 6 wedges each
4. Small plum tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1. in a small bowl, mix coriander. Cumin, turmeric, garam masala and salt. Set aside
2. Cut green beans on diagonal into three-quarter inch pieces.heat oil in a large wok or skillet over medium-high heat. Add pepper and ginger. Stir for 30 seconds. Add beans and potatoes. Mix in set aside spice mixture. Stir for 2 min. over high heat.
3. Add tomatoes, and reduce heat to medium, cover and cook for about 12 min. until potatoes are 
4. tender and tomatoes are broken down, stirring occasionally mix in lemon juice.

 
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the replacements and additions made this recipe are more a result of interest and necessity than me going "oh if I take this out. What can I put it in?"   As a result, IMHO they are somewhat bland. First let me start with the addition, I added 2-3 medium-sized carrots(the big fat ones, not babies) and cut them into about even sized pieces (even size when compared to the other chunks of stuff). What this did was just added it to the end of time of cooking for 12 min. This is because carrots take 5 to 10 min. more time to tenderize  than potatoes do.  The garam masala was something I didn't have, however, I did have tandoori masala so I  use that instead. I have absolutely no clue how this changed what the recipe tasted like,but it still had an Indian flair so I guess it still worked. As well as I didn't have the full amount of Coriander required so i filled in dried cilantro for what i didn't have(It's wasn't a direct substitution so i'm not sure how to categorize it) but again it didn't seem to mess with the flavor too much.

This is a great recipe with simple prep. I poured mine over white rice(I should be doing it over brown..[Buuut...I wanted white{In hindsight brown would have been better}]) and it went wonderfully. The potatoes were probably the best veggie followed by the carrots and then the green beans. Not to say they weren't all great but i just think the Potatoes were a bit better(I'm also biased to potatoes[took a lot of will power to not make potatoes appear in every recipe i make on here{Yes, EVERY ONE}]).

Well that's it for now....look forward(or don't) to my next curious recipe!

The Recipe-less Post

Yep, as the title suggests this post has no recipe tied to it. It's more an announcement than anything else.

I'm now taking pictures of the foods I make. However, until I can decide upon a design for the posts here the images may not show up here right away. You see, I have a tumblr Acct and one of the blogs on this account(Tumblr) I made to promote this blog of mine, and until now i had no real idea as to what to do but now i do(So HA!)

End result of the whole picture thing will most likely be a smaller image at the bottom of my posts while full size images will be on the tumblr blog.(That's the off the top of the head idea tho[subject to change{Probably a lot of change}])

Eggpl- Oh no...not eating that..

Hey Everybody,(in the back of my head. I hear you all saying "hey Dr. Nick")

It's time for the second post I owe you all (I swear I'm not trying to make the backlog of posts a recurring theme) I don't have much to say to lead up to this so I'll… Just get to it.


Braised Eggplant Szechuan-style

two medium eggplants trimmed.
4 tablespoons sunflower oil.
1 1/4 inch piece of ginger root, peeled and minced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 red chili trimmed seeded and minced
1 sweet red pepper poured seeded and chopped
sea salt and black pepper.
2 green onions, trimmed and thinly sliced on the diagonal.
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds to garnish

chop the egg plants into 5/8 inch slices then halve the slices to give half moons

for the sauce, mix all the ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.

Heat a large pan and add half of the oilTip in the ginger, garlic, onion and chili and stirfry over medium heat for 4-5 min., until the onion begins to soften. Stir in the red pepper and cook for another minute before adding the remaining oil and the eggplant pieces. Season lightly and cook turning frequently for 3 to 4 min.

give the sauce a stir and pour into the pan stir well, then turn the heat to low. Simmer for 8 to 10 min. or until the eggplant is just tender, giving the mixture a stir every now and then

transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle over the green onions and sesame seeds serve over bowls of steamed rice or Asian noodles.

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The replacements I made to this recipewere fairly subtle.(kinda) First I replaced the eggplants with yellow squash. Considering the size difference. I just put in a few more squash and eggplant. Not needing to cut the discs in half. Similar to the fact that I do not like raw tomatoes I can't stand eggplants, they're way too squishy and slimy for me every time I've eaten them. it was a simple switch in my head to exchange the eggplants for yellow squash and I'm glad I did. The other not so obvious switch in the recipe was instead of using sunflower oil for frying up. I used toasted sesame oil since toasted sesames would be eventually placed on the recipe as well. I figured it would be a subtle and permanent addition to the flavor and wouldn't be overpowering considering sesames aren't that strong to begin with.

This recipe is good, the first time. in my opinion it rapidly lost its appeal after I reheated the dish. And I do not know if that is because I didn't put sesame seeds on it the second time or I didn't add the green onions on top, but what I do know is it wasn't as good the second time around.  Maybe that is just me and the fact that I'm not really a big fan of squash or squashes, but I wasn't too ecstatic about finishing leftovers in the long run.


Well that's it for now...look forward(or don't) to my next curious recipe!

Mac'n Plus

Hey all,

again, it seems I owe you several posts at once. I'm on it as fast as I can. First let me start with a wonderful (and probably obvious) casserole dish.
Veggie Mac
 2 teaspoons butter.
1/2 pound elbow macaroni
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 tablespoons chopped green onions
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 cup asparagus, cut into 2 inch lengths
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes.
1/2 cup trimmed and halved snow peas.
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.

2. Cook the macaroni according to package directions until tender but still firm to the bite. Drain and transfer to a 2 1/2 to 3 quart casserole dish

3. Warm the oil in a saucepan. Add green onions, garlic and bell pepper and cook over medium-high heat until the vegetables are soft but not browned, 2 to 3 min. Add the basil, oregano, cumin, asparagus, tomatoes and snow peas cook for another 2 to 3 min., stirring until the asparagus and snow peas are tender but not overcooked. Mix the cooked vegetables with the macaroni in the casserole.

4. Melt the 2 teaspoons butter in a saucepan and stir in flour and cook for 2 min. Gradually add the milk and cook, whisking until the sauce is thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in the grated Parmesan cheese and pepper. Stir the sauce into the pasta and vegetables.

5. Bake uncovered for 25 min. or until lightly brown and bubbly.

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The first things I should mention I what I replaced. The obvious things that I replaced were the flour the milk, and of course the cheese. the other less obvious things that are placed were the snow peas and the asparagus, which were replaced with regular green peas and green beans. All these replacements didn't seem to change the entire recipe much. Even considering the state flour milk and cheese that I used. my best guess at the difference not having made this from regular would be that the white sauce made with the cheese, milk and flour would be a bit thicker (or thinner, its thickness is in question). The main reason for this conclusion is that the recipe at the top mentioned that you can easily mix and match vegetables to suit the taste of the young ones who may be eating this dish.

With that all said, this dish is wonderful. It's a bit heavy on the vegetables to noodles ratio, but that really doesn't matter. It tasted great. I think one of the best things about it. Besides the fact that my fake cheese worked wonderfully in it was the difference in textures between the vegetables and the noodles.. But, the sauce was great as well. At times it seemed like the whole dish needed a pinch of salt, but looking back to the whole recipe salt would maybe have harmed the final product and if it needed salt I should have added it when the vegetables were cooking. All in all, this dish was wonderful and well worth the  more than considerable time it takes to prepare and make.(I was getting really hungry within the last 5 min. of baking )


Well that's it for now...look forward(or don't) to my next curious recipe!