Wow – so that’s how gnocchi is supposed to taste/feel?! I never realised what I was missing out on – and maybe you don’t either…
Real gnocchi, the kind you make with your own two hands, should be soft yet with a distinctly toothsome texture, light yet surprisingly filling, subtle yet distinctly flavoured. The key to this recipe, it seems, is an egg, and being very gentle with your dough – whatever you do, don’t overmix it or it will be tough and unpalatable!
Sadly, I am not responsible for this particular recipe (although I have an original creation coming up!). Once again, this comes from the divine Maggie Beer cookbook, Maggie’s Kitchen (buy it, now!).
I know there’s a lot of butter in this recipe, and I actually think it could be reduced by up to half without losing much of the flavour. However, remember that the butter is the sauce – don’t try to substitute margarine, I promise it will not be the same. This dish also reinforced by recent and ongoing love affair with sage. My what a wonderful herb it is, particularly browned in a little butter. We now have a little sage plant growing in our garden (thank you David!) that frequently finds itself rather short on leaves!
Ingredients - 750 grams Waxy potatoes
- 2 Eggs
- 2.5 tsps Salt
- 125 grams Plain flour More as necessary
- 170 grams Cold unsalted butter, chopped
- 1/3 cup White wine Maggie uses verjuice - like grape juice
- 1 bunch Sage leaves
- Drizzle Olive oil
- 12 larges Prawns, peeled, cleaned, tails intact
- pinch Sea salt
- pinch Black pepper
Directions
- Steam unpeeled potatoes. We did this in the microwave, which takes far less time than the stove, but if you're a purist do it on the stove. The potatoes should be cooked through, but not falling apart. Note, it's very important you don't boil the potatoes - this will add to much water, and will ruin your gnocchi.
- Peel and mash potatoes in a bowl. Use a ricer if you have one, but a fork seemed to work adequately.
- Add eggs and salt to the potatoes.
- Place flour in a rectangular shape on the bench.
- Spread the potato/egg mixture on the flour. Quickly mix to make a dough. Maggie suggests using a "pastry scraper", but a spatula works just as well.
- Our potatoes seemed to be quite wet, so we had to add additional flour. Just keep mixing gently until the dough comes together. You need to be able to gently roll it out, but it can still be quite loose. If you're not sure if it is combined well enough, try dropping a piece in boiling water. If it doesn't come apart you're doing it right!
- Now, divide the dough and gently roll into rough logs. You can cut the pieces, and press with a fork. But I just rolled little rounds.
- Preheat your oven to 200* (fan-forced, slightly higher if conventional).
- Bring a pot of salted water to the boil. Cook the gnocchi in batches - don't overcrowd the pot or it won't cook effectively. You will know it's done when it floats at the top. Remove and strain.
- Meanwhile, spread 150g of cubed butter in a large flat baking dish. Scatter the sage evenly on top. Put in the oven and bake for 5 minutes until the sage begins to brown and cook.
- Increase the oven temperature to 230*. Put your cooked gnocchi in the baking dish with butter and sage. Bake for 5 minutes.
- Turn over the gnocchi (you can use tongs), then drizzle with 1/4 cup of wine and return to the oven for 3 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat the remaining butter with a splash of olive oil in a frying pan until nut-brown. Reduce the heat to medium and add the prawns. Cook until pink and cooked through. Be careful not to overcook or they will be tough. Season with salt and pepper. Remove the prawns and deglaze the pan with remaining wine.
- Pull out your gnocchi and add the prawns. Toss to combine and add the prawn juices.
- Serve and enjoy!
- Side note - I added broccoli, to make me feel slightly more virtuous. I simply added the broccoli to the gnocchi water for two minutes and then tossed through with the prawns at the end.
In English, it translates to casserole-roasted chicken with bacon, onions and potatoes – far less pretty!
This was my second attempt at a recipe from Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”. I do not normally mind time-consuming recipes, so long as the end result is worth it. My one comment so-far on the recipes is that often they involve steps that seem fussy or unnecessary. But maybe I’m just doing it wrong?
This recipe is a bit more time consuming – each element has to be prepared before being combine in the casserole. However, I think it’s worth doing for the potatoes alone! I’ve suggested a few shortcuts that I think wouldn’t compromise the end result too much.
The chicken remains succulent and tender through this method of cooking. The potatoes are little ovals of deliciousness – they literally fall apart on your fork, but have been infused with the butter, bacon and herbs. I ate the lion’s share of potatoes when I made this…but I do love my carbs! The juices in the pan would be great mopped up with a thick slice of rustic bread.
Overall, I think this recipe is worth the effort. It’s French cooking at its best – simple ingredients, slow cooking and LOTS of butter.
Details
- :
30 min - :
240 min - :
4 h, 30 min
- 3 mediums Bacon rashers, diced
- 1 tbsp Butter
- 1 whole Chicken (vary your cooking time according to size)
- 3 mediums Onions, whole and peeled
- 10 smalls Potatoes, peeled and cut into large thick ovals
- 3 tbsps Butter
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1 medium Herb bouquet with 4 parsley sprigs, 1/2 bay leaf, 1/4 tsp thyme, tied in washed cheesecloth
Directions
- In a large casserole dish (I used our dutch oven. Whatever dish you use must have a lid) saute bacon in 1 tbsp of butter until very lightly browned. Remove to a side dish but leave the butter/fat liquid in the dish.
- Add some oil to the pan (this will stop the butter from burning).
- Brown the chicken in the hot fat. Start by putting the chicken in breast down. Brown for about 3 minutes. The butter should be hot but not burning.
- Turn the chicken on on side - Julia recommends using wooden spoons or a towel. I can vouch from experience that metal tongs are far from ideal!
- Continue browning by first turning the chicken on its back then onto the other side. You want the chicken to be nice and golden all over, particularly on the breast and legs. The process takes between 10 and 15 minutes.
- Remove the chicken to a side dish and then pour the fat out of the dish (I don't know how necessary this is - if your butter isn't burnt I don't see why you can keep that as it will have lots of flavour.
- Preheat the oven to about 160*C but remember this depends upon your oven. Our oven was not very hot so we needed to turn the temperature up further.
- Whilst the oven is preheating, boil and salt a pot of water. Drop in the whole onions and boil for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside. As I used normal onions rather than baby ones, I cut them into quarters at this point.
- Put your potatoes in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil. Drain immediately. This just par-boils the potatoes and removes some of the starch.
- In your casserole dish heat the 3tbs of butter, or add a tbsp to your existing butter mixture, until foaming. Add the drained potatoes and roll them around over a moderate heat for about 2 minutes - this helps evaporate the moisture.
- Move the potatoes to the edges of the pot then salt the browned chicken and then place it breast up in the casserole dish. It will rest amongst the potatoes.
- Scatter the bacon and onions over the potatoes. Add the herb bouquet (I didn't bother with the cheesecloth, just added the herbs in whole and picked them out at the end).
- Baste all the ingredients with the butter in the casserole dish, cover the chicken with alfoil and then put the lid on the casserole dish.
- Heat the casserole on top of the stove until the contents are sizzling, then place in the middle level of the oven and roast (Julia suggests this will only take about 1hr20 mins - as I said, ours took nearly 3!)
- You should keep an eye on the chicken and baste with the juices a few times. The chicken should be done when the juices run clear.
- Serve with green beans and carrots.
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05.04.10 | 
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