Sweet Potato Soup

I found this delicious recipe on another food blog called Very, Very Good.

View the full recipe here --> Sweet Potato Soup with Nutmeg, Maple Syrup, & Bacon

I followed this recipe exactly- with the exception of using a Dutch oven instead of a stock pot. It was very sweet and yummy. Can you ever go wrong with BACON?

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Sage Brown Butter Sauce

Rarely do I ever blog so quickly after making a dish, but I am so excited by this one I can hardly stand it.  Yesterday, I was day dreaming about food (as I so typically do, umm... pretty much all day long) and I saw that another blogger had recently took on the challenge of making gnocchi for the first time.  Now, I like gnocchi, but I won't typically order it at a restaurant for my entree.  It's a heavy dish.  But I've always wanted to make it.  You know, just to see if I could.

But what kind of gnocchi?  What sort of sauce?  A few weeks ago, I had an amazing dinner at a restaurant in the North End called Carmen.  The food was nothing less than spectacular.  It's a charming, tiny restaurant, totally unassuming in it's location away from hustle of Hanover street.  The wine list is nicely priced and the atmosphere is the perfect setting for an intimate meal.  I was immediately drawn to the Short Rib Ravioli with Sage Butter Sage, to which I ordered and savored every bite of.  It was one of the more memorable dishes I have had in a Boston area restaurant in months.  What I remember standing out was the brown butter sauce.  I'm such an addict for sauces of any kind, so I really wanted to lick the plate.  But again, manners, nice restaurant, blah blah blah.

A sister has got to be proper, yo.

Anyways, inspired by this amazing meal, I decided that at a later point, I would put short rib ravioli on my list of kitchen endeavors, but for tonight, it would be sweet potato gnocchi with a sage brown butter sauce.  Upon researching the intrawebs for a recipe, I realized that I pretty much had all ingredients on hand... except for a sweet potato.  Really?  Could it be this easy?

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Sage Brown Butter (as adapted from Epicurious)

• 1 pound red-skinned sweet potatoe, rinsed, patted dry, pierced all over with fork
• 1 cup fresh ricotta cheese, drained in sieve 2 hours
• 1 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese (about 3 ounces)
• 2 tablespoons (packed) golden brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons plus 2 tablespoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 2 1/4 cups (about) all purpose flour
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter
• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh sage plus whole leaves for garnish

Apologies in advance... I turned on my Nikon last night only to discover a dead battery.  And then tried my Sony p&s.  Dead.  Clearly, I overshot in Thailand.  So where's a girl to turn to?  i4.  Clearly.  Let's get after it.

 

Start by piercing your potato and popping it into the microwave for 5 minutes a side.  Because this was a very large sweet potato, I ended up cutting into after this and popping the middle sections back in for another 3 or so.  Then allow to cool.

 

Once cool, remove skins and mash in a mixing bowl.

 

 

Add in ricotta cheese.  I'm really not sure what purpose the sieve had for draining.  I did this step, but if you don't, I can't imagine it would change the recipe all that much.  Barely anything "sieved" out of mine.  Mix well.

 

 Add in parmesan, brown sugar, salt and nutmeg.

 

Again, mix well.

Now, it's time to add in the flour, 1/2 cup at time.  Don't pack the flour into the measuring cup, spoon it.  I am just learning this now and I think it's why all my baking sucks (things get too dense).  Slowly mix in the flour until it starts to flour a soft dough.

I decided that a soft dough meant that it wasn't that sticky anymore.  I ended up with about 2 1/4 cups flour in total.  I think one could get away with less.  I wonder if my gnocchi were too "doughy"?  Either way, feel it out.

That was a serious work out, all that dough mixing.  I did a cardio strength training class just before making these... so let me tell you, my arms were burning.    Now, divide the dough into sections.  I did about softball sized chunks.

It's time to get messy.  Throw some flour down on a clean surface and start rolling out your dough to form a long rope.  Roll back and forth in fluid motions and it will start to form a good shape.  Keep moving your hand through the rope. 

What a mess.  It's worth it though.  Cut into 1 inch pieces and set aside.  Now take a fork and run the tines over the little gnocchi pillows.  I imagined this would be easy.  It wasn't.  The dough was resistant.  I had to press hard.  Which then flattened and made ugly little gnocchis.  This is partly why I think I might have used a bit too much flour.  But again, it's all about trial and error.  Fork tines are superficial.  They don't affect the way it tastes, so don't worry your pretty little self about it too much.

Now, heat up a pot of salted, boiling water and throw these bad boys in.  They have little self timers on them.  When they rise, you know they are done.  I let mine rise and then boiled for another minute or so. 

Look at that?  Perfect looking gnocchis!

Now, heat up a skillet on medium high heat and toss in your butter.  Pay attention, this is going to happen fast.  Swirl your butter in the pan as it heats, watching very closely.

And then suddenly, it will be golden brown.  Toss in sage (they will bubble) and remove from heat.  If you keep on the heat, the butter will get very dark and will begin to break down.  You'll see ash like looking pieces in it.  This will not taste good.  The good news is, you can start over very easily!

This is what burnt butter looks like.  It's not golden brown.  Yuck.  This was my first attempt, my second attempt was much better. 

Add your drained gnocchi to the brown butter sauce and saute the gnocchi on medium high for just a few minutes.  You want to warm them back up and you don't want the butter to further burn. 

Amazing... if I don't say so myself.

This was ridiculously easy.  I saved two other chunks of dough to be frozen and finished at a later date.  These little gnocchis aren't healthy by any means, so I must eat them in small moderation.  The plate above had probably about 1,000 calories.  Yikes.  The good news is they are filling.  And easy as hell to make!

Kale, Potato and Onion Frittata

I've never made a frittata before, so when I stumbled across this recipe from Epicurious, I thought it would be the perfect thing to chef up on the weekend.  Vegetarian + Kale + (relatively) Low Calorie = yes please.  I'm not sure what the difference is between a frittata and a quiche is?  Maybe that a frittata doesn't have a crust on it?  Either way, I love the basic idea of it - you can really be creative and chef up any sort that you're feeling that day.  Asparagus, goat and arugala?  Sure!  How about we add some proscuitto in there as well?  I was feeling vegetarian, so I went with something that included my latest love:  Kale.

Kale, Potato and Onion Frittata (as adapted from Epicurious)

• Vegetable oil cooking spray
• 1 yellow or white onion, sliced
• 1 pound kale, trimmed, blanched 3 minutes in boiling water, drained, squeezed and coarsely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 cups boiled diced potatoes
• 3 whole eggs
• 3 egg whites
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika (preferably smoked) - I used cumin because that's what I had on hand

 While the ingredient list is relatively short, there is some prep involved.  With the Kale, make sure you remove the spines - you can easily do this by folding along the spine and slicing down the side of it.  Blanching is easy, but once it's cooled, you really have to do a good job of squeezing out all the excess moisture.  I then coarsely chopped.    I also subbed out sweet potatoes because I love their flavor.  You'll need to boil and chop these ahead of time as well.  Once all your ingredients are prepped, you're set to go.

 

 

Fire up the oven to 400 degrees and coat a skillet with cooking spray.  Saute your onion for about 5 minutes, until translucent.  Add in your kale and garlic, keep moving for another 5. 

In a separate bowl, mix eggs, egg whites, 2 tbsp water and the paprika (or cumin, or whatever your little heart desires) and whisk well.

Add the potatoes to the skillet.  Here you can go two ways, you can fire up a bigger cast iron skillet and add the egg mixture OR you can do what I did and add the egg mixture straight into the frying pan you used.  Basically, now you combine all the ingredients together in a way that works for you.  I didn't include any pictures because this baby was FULL.  It was messy.  I had to be extremely careful not to get this mixture all over the stove.   

(Seriously, I need to invest in bigger cookware.  Fancier cookware.  The issue is, where the heck will I put it?!  Sigh... the life of living in a studio....)

Cook the mixture on medium heat for about a minute and then transfer to your greased baking dish.  I used this 9 by 9. 

 

Transfer to the oven and bake for about 6 to 8 minutes until the eggs are set and the center is slightly runny.  Then broil the top for about a minute.  It should look a little something like this when done.


 

All set!  I ended up topping mine with a bit of freshly grated parmasen cheese and then I devoured as a perfect Saturday lunch.  I froze two portions and ate one the next day.  I have to be honest, I think it tasted even better than next day!

 

What sort of frittata makes your mouth water?

Sweet Potato Soup

I have fallen in love with sweet potatoes. This is one of the best soups that I have ever made. The sweet potato and rosemary combo were perfection.

I don't have TV, but sometimes I watch chefs from the Today Show. Most Today Show segments are posted on their website. There is even a tab for recipes.

I have made a lot of Giada's recipes, and they are always very flavorful.

I decided to make Creamy sweet potato and rosemary soup.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 large shallots, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
Kosher salt
Black pepper
2 stems fresh rosemary
2 pounds (about 2 to 3) sweet potatoes, peeled, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
6 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
3 tablespoons maple syrup

Confession: I had to Google "shallot" when I was grocery shopping. It's a little embarrassing. I had no idea what it was or that it was even a vegetable. I am so relieved to be part of the "I Know What a Shallot is Club" now. Whew!

First I started by melting the butter and oil in the pot. Chop up the garlic and shallots and add them to the pot. Then, add the chicken broth. Some of the broth that I used was from the freezer. Add the sweet potatoes (OMG YUM) and rosemary. Sprinkle in some salt and pepper. I'm guilty of over seasoning everything.
Boil. Reduce heat/simmer and spend the next 20 minutes watching Modern Family. It's my new favorite show.

The aroma filled my little apartment.
Next, I was supposed to remove the rosemary. This was tricky. As you can see, the rosemary needles fell off. I was able to individual pick out each rogue rosemary needle. It was a pain in the a$$.

After removing the rosemary, either blend or use a food processor until it's smooth. I used my food processor, and it took several batches.

After it's all blended, whisk in the maple syrup (Umm hello! YUM) and mascarpone cheese. Return to low heat and season again.


Serve with crackers.