Potato dumplings with pesto

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been looking forward to taking part in the various food blog events online. When I first saw that the theme of the latest HHDD is gnocchi, I was really excited. I have never made it before and though I'm not necessarily a big fan myself, M is. So what better excuse than to give it a go? Here then is my entry for Hay Hay, It's Donna Day #14 - Gnocchi di patate al pesto, which translates to potato dumplings with pesto.

For my recipe, I turned to this book, a trusted reference on Italian cooking from which I have enjoyed everything I've had the chance to make so far. I've been wanting to try his restaurant here in London but haven't had the chance yet. Hopefully that'll be a post on this blog sometime soon!


I have to confess that after having read through the recipe, I was concerned about the results given that I have never made fresh pasta before. As it turned out, the process was even slightly more involved than I expected. Rolling the dough into ropes and then shaping each individual nugget takes patience! Since I was battling against the clock to have something ready in time for dinner, I was probably less conscientious in making the gnocchi as uniform as it could be. Despite that, the results (while probably not the best looks-wise) were still yummy.

Would I make it again? Maybe, but I might skip the part requiring that each piece be shaped by hand. The pesto, however, is a keeper.



Potato dumplings with pesto
From Made in Italy by Giorgio Locatelli

1/2 recipe quantity of potato gnocchi dough (see recipe below)
handful of green beans
1 large potato, cut into about 1cm dice
knob of unsalted butter
6-7 tbsp pesto (see recipe below)
2 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan
salt and pepper

Make the potato gnocchi as described below.

Blanch the beans in boiling salted water for 2-3 minutes until just soft. Split then in half lengthways.

Put the diced potato in a small pan of cold water with the butter. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer until just beginning to soften. Take off the heat and leave in the cooking water to finish cooking and soften a little more.

Bring a large pan of water to the boil, salt it and put in the gnocchi. Keep stirring until they rise to the surface (a minute or so).

While the gnocchi are cooking, lift the potatoes out of their water with a slotted spoon and put into a sauté pan, together with the pesto and the beans, over the very lowest possible heat (if necessary, hold the pan above the hob, so that the pesto only slightly warms and keeps its flavour and colour).

Lift the gnocchi out of the cooking water carefully, using a slotted spoon or spider, and put them into the pesto.

Add the Parmesan and toss the gnocchi in the sauce very briefly to coat, adding a little of the cooking water if you think the sauce needs loosening - but don't leave the gnocchi on the heat for longer than a minute, or they will start to break up. Season if necessary and serve.

Serves 4

Potato gnocchi dough

1 kg very starchy potatoes
2 small eggs, lightly beaten
about 320g plain flour
pinch of salt

Leave the potatoes whole, still in their skins. Cover with cold water and bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer until soft (about 45 mins-1 hour depending on the size). Put the potatoes into a warm oven to dry.

While the potatoes are still hot, peel them and put them through a fine sieve. Put them in a bowl or on your work surface, make a well in the centre, then add the egg, a pinch of salt, and about 3/4 of the flour. Mix well and, as soon as the dough comes together, stop - only adding the rest of the flour if you really feel that you need it.

Dust your work surface lightly with flour, then take your dough and flatten it down with the palms of your hands into a rough square about 1.5cm thick.

With a knife, cut the dough into strips about 1.5cm wide. Dusting your hands with flour, roll each piece lightly until it is cylindrical.

Take 2 or 3 cylinders at a time, lay them next to each other, then cutting through them all at the same time, trim off the ends and cut the rest into pieces (1-1.5cm in width). Repeat with the rest of the cylinders, until you have lots of little nuggets of dough.

Lightly dusting with flour all the time, take a fork and push each piece of dough on to the prongs, so that it rolls itself up and is marked with lines. Try to make them all the same size so that they will all cook evenly. As you make each one, roll it on a tray dusted with flour.

Makes about 1kg

Pesto

2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons pine kernels, toasted
250g fresh basil leaves, picked
2 tbsp pecorino or Parmesan, grated
300ml extra-virgin olive oil
tiny pinch of salt

Either in a food processor with a sharp blade or using a pestle and mortar, start with the garlic and salt. Smash the garlic, then add the nuts and crush them, but try not to overwork them.

Drop in the basil leaves a few at a time and work them in as quickly as you can.

Then add your cheese and finaly the oil, until you have a bright green paste.

Makes one small jar

The fleeting days of summer

Summer is almost over. Or, if like me, you live in London, it never really came. In any case, there's not much time left to savour the sunshine, warmth and produce that summer usually brings. One of my favourites is berries - something I did not grow up eating in Singapore but which I have come to love. Just last weekend, I came across some blackberries and lingonberries growing in the wild while walking through a trail in Gothenburg and I must say they were the best, juiciest berries I've ever had.

In an attempt to recreate that sensation and to savour the fleeting days of summer, for dessert tonight I made rhubarb consommé with summer berries. While berries are perfectly great on their own, I find that a simple rhubarb soup dresses it up just enough to make it a dessert that you can serve when you have friends over. Yet the soup is still light enough to not overpower the dish leaving you with a fresh, light taste of fruit. Perfect for serving after a summer BBQ!

Presto Pasta Nights: Penne with tuna in tomato sauce

I apologize for having been delinquent in updating my blog. I've been thinking about posting for a few days now but events have transpired against me. The worst of which was that I actually broke my laptop last Wednesday night. It was stupid really - I tripped over the laptop power cord and my computer came crashing to the floor. Now every time I try to boot it up, I get the blue screen of death instead. I guess its a sign that I should get that new Mac that I've been wanting but in the meantime, I'm blogging from M's computer instead.

Since I started this blog, I've been thinking that I should take part in some of the many food blog events going on - Sugar High Fridays, HHDD, etc. Well, what better time to start than the present! So today I present my very first entry to 'Presto Pasta Nights' hosted by Ruth: Penne with tuna in tomato sauce. While I enjoy spending time in the kitchen whipping up fancy meals, sometimes, on a weeknight, that's the last thing I want to do. Hence, its always handy to have a few staples in the repertoire that can be done in a flash. This is one of mine and is adapted from a recipe from this book.Don't be fooled by its simplicity, its a winner everytime!


Penne with Tuna in Tomato Sauce
Adapted from Cook with Jamie

Olive oil
1/2 red onion
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tin plum tomatoes (400g)
300g of yellow fin tuna in olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
250g penne (I use wholewheat)
Juice of one lemon
Grated parmesan cheese

1. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and cook the onion and cinnamon until the onion is softened, about 5 minutes.

2. Increase the heat and add the tomatoes, tuna and a pinch of salt.

3. Bring to the boil then let simmer for 20 minutes. Adjust the seasoning to taste.

4. At the same time, cook the penne until al dente.

5. Drain the pasta, then toss with the tuna and tomato sauce together with some lemon juice and grated parseman.

6. Mix and enjoy!

Serves 2

Shanghai Blues: A place for dim sum in London

One of the things that I miss most about Singapore, besides my family, is the weekly dim sum brunch that I used to have at either Crystal Jade or Lei Garden. Over the last seven months, I have been searching high and low for a good dim sum place and have always been vaguely disappointed by the various places that I've been to. These places include a michelin-starred place, some places in Bayswater that seem popular with the Asian crowd and several others here and there. Don't get me wrong, some of these were actually quite good and I would absolutely go again but I guess I've been looking for a place that would match up to what I could get back home.

About a month ago, while looking through some restaurant guides for a weekend brunch, I chanced upon Shanghai Blues, a modern Chinese restaurant in Holburn that also served dim sum. Most of the the reviews I read were favorable so I booked us a table, hoping that this would be the place that I was searching for.

Although I found the restuarant location to be slightly out of the way, my first impresions were positive. The decor is decidedly modern and although a little on the dark side, evokes a feel similar to that of E&O and Yauatcha. I was a little worried when I noticed the place to be fairly empty despite it being 12:30pm but took comfort in the fact that many of the diners that were there were Asian.

After being shown to our table, I started perusing the menu. The menu is fairly extensive and offers a mix of traditional Chinese dishes such as xiao long bao and har gow (shrimp dumplings), as well as more inventive creations such as barbecued chilean sea bass rolls. Since M and I were both longing for the flavours we used to get back in Singapore, our order consisted of mostly traditional dim sum offerings including xiao long bao (shanghai soup dumplings), shanghai chilli dumplings, pan-fried turnip paste with XO sauce, cha siu bao, cheong fun (rice noodle rolls) and kai lan in oyster sauce.

The dishes arrived in fairly short order and soon we were tucking into the spread that lay before us. From the first bite, I was decidedly impressed. On the whole, the food was flavorful and tasted authentic. In particular, the xiao long bao was exquisite - probably the best I've had in London thus far. The skin was not too thick, which I've found that they often are here in London, and the soup inside was delicious and just the right temperature. The shanghai chilli dumplings, another favourite of ours in Singapore, were also yummy with the right amount of kick in its spice. I was further impressed when I had my first bite of the pan-fried turnip paste - it was even better than what I've had in the past in Singapore. While the turnip cake in Singapore tends to be of a fairly dense texture, the Shanghai Blues rendition had a crisp exterior with a meltingly soft interior. Not all was perfect, however. I was somewhat disappointed by the cheong fun - usually one of my favourite dim sum dishes - as I found the ratio of noodle to filling somewhat overpowering. All in all, though, Shanghai Blues definitely ranks as the best dim sum I've had to date in London.

I just returned for my second visit this past weekend (which is when I had the chance to take these pictures you see here) and had another good dining experience. This time I also got to try the aforementioned barbecued chilean sea bass rolls and the salted chicken and peanut congee. Again, both were delicious and I'll be having them again the next time I go. Is Shanghai Blues better than Crystal Jade back home? Probably not, but unless I find something better, Shanghai Blues is going to be my go-to dim sum place here in London!

Shanghai Blues
193-197 High Holborn
WC1V 7BD
0207 404 1668/9

A grown up chicken pot pie

I always find it challenging to use all the ingredients in my fridge before they go bad, so whenever I'm planning what to cook, I always try to find recipes that will use as much of the stuff that I currently have and that requires minimal new purchases. Today was no different. The most important thing that I wanted to use was some chicken stock that I spent four and a half hours making on Saturday night. Several options came to mind immediately. I could make a mushroom risotto perhaps, or maybe a chicken noodle soup or maybe chicken pot pie, which I have to admit I really like.

With these options in mind, I started searching on Epicurious. Always a good option when I don't have access to my cookbooks. After surfing for a few minutes, I came across the perfect recipe: Chicken and vegetable pot pies with cream cheese crust. Now for those of you turning up your noses because you think of chicken pot pies as using frozen peas and carrots, this one is different. Instead of peas and carrots, it uses more sophisticated ingredients such as sundried tomatoes and shiitake mushrooms. I definitely wanted to see if this grown-up twist on a childhood favourite would live up to the original. Besides, I had a tub of cream cheese in my fridge that I needed to finish.

Prep for the dish was not all that involved seeing that I had already completed the hard part - the stock. All it required was chopping of some ingredients and using the food processor to whip the dough together. After sauteing the onions, peppers and shiitake mushrooms, I was ready to make the filling. That was also a breeze and soon I was assembling my pot pie and ready to put it in the oven.

The hardest part I find (as is always the case when I'm baking) is waiting for it to finish. I guess I like instant gratification. Thankfully, M came home at this time and chatting with him make the time fly by. Before I knew it, it was done!

So, was it worth it? Absolutely! M and I both loved it and it'll definitely be going into our dinner rotation.