Jim's Night: Gnocchi, from a French point of view.

Our official menu tonight:

French Bread with garlic parsley olive oil ...and Taleggio?

Spinach Gnocchi

Baby Arugula Salad

Polenta and Roasted Squash

Vanilla Bean Cheesecake with Walnut Crust

Appetizer

It's Jim's night and as usual, he has graciously provided us with appetizers, something Deb and Brian often forget.  This might be our favorite appetizer, yet. Even though Brian and I are not big fans of Brie, we LOVED a cheese that Jim bought with which looked a lot like it, called Taleggio. Wait a second... no, scratch that...I just looked up Taleggio on Wikipedia and our cheese doesn't look anything like it. Ok, so the store lied to Jim. We have no idea what cheese this is. Do you?  We love a mystery cheese, apparently. Geez, maybe it IS Brie. Maybe this is what really good quality Brie tastes like. Hmm. Anyway, besides that, Alex made us a parsley infused garlic oil dipping sauce which was perfect for baguette dipping.

Spinach Gnocchi
The recipe said it was the perfect pasta to make for beginners. "30 minutes to prepare" it promised. Ha, we say. Getting the right consistency is a nerve wracking challenge. If you knead it too much or roll it too much, it can be tough. It can be too oily, too floury. "So did you get the right texture?" I asked. "We hope so." is all they can reply.

It should be noted that "to prepare" apparently doesn't include the hour of chilling time in the middle, just the actual chopping/grating/mixing bits.  Tricky, tricky recipe!

Brian here, taking over
the blog while Deb
takes Rommy out for a walk.
 Hellooooooo, loyal readership!

Making the gnocchi
This is our biggest countertop challenge, as to roll out each piece they want us to cover a flat surface with flour and roll our little proto-gnocchi-nuggets through it.

Interestingly (to me, at least), the gnocchi balls at this stage looked like little green dessert truffles.  The first batch tasted VERY healthy...so healthy that Steps Must Be Taken.   A sprinkling of grated cheese across the top and a tomato sauce are suggested, as is just coating them in breadcrumbs and turning them into arancini, as is just plain ol' sauteeing them in butter.  The decision was to toss them in butter/olive oil/paprika/rosemary mixture, saute them, THEN toss them in an improvised sundried tomato/cream of porcini & white truffle/butter sauce (YES. I KNOW), and sprinkle pecorino cheese on top.  If Paula Deen was a vegetarian, this would've been the solution she came up with.


...And I'm okay with that.

Here we are in our action poses:

The polenta is going to be basted with the olive oil-garlic mixture also used on our bread, then broiled, cooled, and turned into nummy medallions.

Roasted Squash
There's cubed squash going into the oven, roasted with olive oil and Herbs de Provence, AS I TYPE.  (The excitement is palpable.)  When they're all cooked we'll combine them and drizzle them with a balsamic reduction, bam!  (Or, wait, that should be the French variant.  Le Bahm!)

The balsamic drizzle is an old friend at this point; your old friend with a big truck who never seems to mind when you need to move an appliance, as long as you kick in for gas and maybe a burger.  Everyone needs a drizzle like this.

While there's a slow moment I'll take this time to grade our "mise en place" tonight, which....well, we're able to mostly contain the prepping to the kitchen.  Not exactly Michelin standards, but we've done far, far worse. (And probably will for my meal next week.) Plus, extra points for having a flashlight in the middle of the prep area, in case of a blackout.  B+!

The polenta and gnocci recipes are from 'Cooking School Provence', by the way.  Authors: Gui Gedda and Marie-Pierre Moine.  The squash is a Supper Club Original, and was kept in the oven just long enough to become crispy and caramelized.


Baby Arugula Salad

Arugula, like rising sea levels, happens.  (Is that negative, you ask?  Not if you're a whale, it's not.  An arugula-eating whale. Yes.)  If the salad is the star of your meal, Jim avers, you've either done something wrong or you're having a meal of nothing but salad.  We'll have a parsley-parmesan dressing with it.  We have some grated carrots for it, some cucumbers, and some CSA Mystery Mixed Greens. (They're green, local and organic...what, you want names, too?  

Vanilla Bean Cheesecake with Walnut Crust
There's been a little confusion with the sour cream topping for the cheesecake--the directions call for it to be poured/brushed across the top, then put in the oven for just 5 minutes.  As far as we can tell, the 5 minutes did noooothing....it was a delicious schmear of glop when we put it in, and it's a delicious schmear now.

('Delicious Schmear' is also the stage name of a Tel Aviv stripper, btw.)

This recipe was found on FoodandWine.com

To our surprise, as the cheesecake cools it sinks a little in the middle, souffle-style. It's not that attractive looking in this photo, but 3 out of 4 cooks loved it.

	Alex	Brian	Deb	Jim
Appetizer	B I thought it was great, but hard to good grades to things that you had no hand in cooking.	A Delicious and a cheese that would make you proud to be in a cave in Italy	B+ Good bread. Totally loved the mystery cheese and the garllic oil infusion was excellent. But the oil was all we made	A Good bread, excellent cheese...whatever it was
Polenta	B  I feel like I learned a lot about polenta. It's really easy to make and broiling it gave it crispness. Lots of potential with this recipe.	A-  Without the cheese it would have been not as good. Cheese=goodness	A- I thought it was awesome, but it needed a sauce...some mushroom.	B I thought it needed something. Maybe more balsamic drizzle.
Spinach Gnocchi	B-  I think I learned a lot about it. You have to make it delicious before you boil the balls. We should have added more salt.	A  We went through a lot of hoops for this. We went a few miles off course from what the recipe called for (out of necessity. to make it tasty)	B+ They were so damn healthy until we sauteed in butter and drenched in cheese. I feel like we could make these and put them in tomato sauce and they would be delicious.	C- As "gnocchi" they were a dismal leaden failure. As "Spinach meatballs" they might have had some potential. But this recipe needed a lot of help.
Roasted Butternut Squash	A-   On the whole, it was great, but we still have room for improvement. The flavors were good, but safe.	A   Surprising what a high point it was considering how easy it was.	A-  They were good, but we have had this dish before. Very healthy, though. Just squash and balsamic vinegar!	A   Delicious.
Cheesecake	A  Really good. Flavor, texture perfect, presentation just ok	A Really tasty. Only reason it's not an A+ is that it was missing caramel or chocolate on top.	B-  I don't get the love. To me, it tasted like a vegan cheesecake, but it wasn't! All the fat and cholesterol for a vegan flavor? Odd.	A+  Strawberry coulis would have made it better. The sour cream might not be necessary.

Farscape, Season 1, Episode 21: Bone to be Wild. 

Brian: There was actually a lot more plot advanced than I expected there to be. It started off with a Monster of the Week sort of feel.

Deb: I loved it, especially the bonding between Aeryn and the Leviathans.

Alex: I liked the "who's the bad guy feel".

Jim: I liked it. I hope we meet Imle again. 

Farscape: Season 1, Episode 22: Bad Timing.