Topper's Grilling Advice!

[Blob Mckenzie]

Dude you have a pour diet yourself . You have poured many a meal down your gullet over the years .

[KeyserSoze]

Topper, how do you make gnocchi?

I've made it a few times, and it has been good but not great.

I Basically...
Peeled and boiled potatoes until fork tender.
Drained and mashed.
Mixed with egg and flour (apx 1 egg and 1c flour for every cup of potato)...rolled, cut, boiled until they float.

To be honest I don't even like gnocchi all that much, but I'd still like to know how to make it properly. Mine seem pretty heavy...not sure if it is because of the water absorbed from boiling vs baking/steaming the potatoes, or what.

[Topper]

Oh fuck. Gnocchi is an art. One of my jobs at the restaurant was to make the gnocchi, making great pillowy cloudlike gnocchi is trial and error. Their soft light texture is critical.

Your basic recipe is right but all spuds have different moisture contents. Have a pot of water boiling and try one before rolling out the batch, if it is heavy, add a little water, loose, add a bit more flour. Try again to see if it is right. The trick is to get it right ASAP so you don't overwork the dough, generate long gluten strands and have rubbery gnocchi.

Gnocchi is one of my son's favourite dishes. At the age of three he famously sent back a plate of bad factory made rubber ball turds being passed off as gnocchi in a restaurant.

For him, I put a lot of fine chopped rosemary in the dough and serve with a gorganzola cream sauce and pancetta. I'll make a large batch and freeze them. Spread them out on a parchment lined sheet pan, you can probly go three layers to a pan and then freeze them. Once frozen, dump them in a big ziplock.

They really need bold flavours. In the restaurant we served porcini gnocchi. I'd re-hydrate porcini, saute, squeeze out the excess moisture and blast in a food processor before adding to the dough. At home I have done the same with shiitake mushrooms.

In the restaurant I'd roast poatoes and then peel, make sure you prick the skins with a fork in several places. At home I boil spuds, then peel them. Start them in cold water. Mash with potato ricer or a mouli mill.

[KeyserSoze]

Thanks for the info....and LOL at your son sending the dish back.

What type of potato do you prefer to use?

Do you bother indenting them with a fork before dropping them into boiling water or just leave them with a smooth surface? I get the fork ridges will allow for sauce to catch, but pressing on them seems counter productive when you are looking for a cloud like end result.

Once they are done cooking, do you toss them straight into sauce? or saute/slightly brown them a bit in a pan with some fat before adding the sauce?

[Topper]

I use whatever spuds are in the pantry...idaho?

Roll out a long tube about as fat as your index finger, cut into 3/4 to 1" lengths (I use a pastry scraper) and then quickly roll and flick them off the tines of a fork to create the ridges on one side, dimple on the other.

If they are the proper consistency, they won't stand up to sauteing. Straight from the pot to the sauce.

[KeyserSoze]

Thanks!

[Puck]

Gorgonzola! Yum. It's possible that's why Gnocchi was invented - as the perfect gorgonzola vehicle.

[5thhorseman]

Hey Topper, back to the knives, what type of steel do you use to hone your blade? My wife just broke my ceramic and I need a replacement. I was in Britco in Langley today and found them priced from $35 all the way to $140!!!

[Topper]

From an earlier post

The best chef I ever worked with never used a knife steel. He'd pick up who's ever chef knife was lying around and used the back side of their blade.

I use a Global ceramic because my wife treated me to it one Xmas or B'day, but more often than not, grab one of the Wustoff's steels in the drawer.

I'd say go cheaper, but look for a good length that you can work with and very little and consistent taper so the blade-steel angle doesn't vary. Get one a bit longer than your blade.

A ceramic will remove material and sharpen your knife. They also need a good cleaning every so often. Run a bead of dish soap down the length of the ceramic, them jerk it off with a sponge and the filings will float off in the soap. Then give it a good rinse.

Diamond steels are similar in that they will remove material. I'd avoid the them as there doesn't appear to be a consistent sizing or grit to them like a ceramic steel.

With a steel, all you are doing is truing the ^ of the blade. With use, usually as little as an hour, the sharp ^ edge of the knife folds over. Using a steel daily re aligns that edge.

[5thhorseman]

Cool. Thanks Topper!

[5thhorseman]

Edit: Horseman - Have you ever used a Deba for breaking down a fish? I put my flexible boning/fillet knives to rest after I picked up a Deba.

I was just rechecking your comments on the steel to see if you'd mentioned anything about fine cut vs. regular cut (I ended up getting the latter) when I saw your edit.

I don't do much filleting. I usually get the wild salmon when it's available and cut it into steaks, which makes good serving sizes for the kids. But yeah, those Japanese knives look pretty cool. Would love to try one out some time but my knife needs are pretty basic right now. I break down probably 100+ chickens and ducks a year and a narrow bladed boning knife is good for getting the maximum out of the bird, especially when removing the breast near the wishbone area. We are majorly into ducks right now and probably eat more duck than chicken.

[2Fingers]

We have the knife all figured out but what about the frying pan?

There are so many things out there and some are gimmicky, we have a standard over not gas.

[Topper]

Thick base and heavy. It is the weight that retains the heat.

I have All Clad Master Chef Series that I bought in Guatemala many years ago and brought back to canada with me. This is the Master chef II set

A year ago my sister was buying a set of pots and pans for my niece and asked. My recommendation. Take a look at the Crappy Tire flyer and find a good set of pots and pans on sale in the $200-$300 dollar range. These are on sale all the time.

Look for three ply cladding, stainless steel cooking surface, well fitting metal lids, cast metal handles firmly riveted on.

Avoid glass lid, anything with a vent hole and handle made of anything but metal.

Something like this is perfectly fine for most home cooks. It is not clad on the sides, but has a thick base. Take a look and make sure the base is solid and it will be fine.

Stay away from something like this. True it is clad, but the lids are glass, have vent holes and the rims have shaped pouring spouts. That all means that the lid does not seal tight. I use pots for braising and slow cooking, you can't do that if the lid does not seal.

This often hits the sale flyer and when it does, go for it. Clad, stainless, metal tight fitting lids, but don't pay $850 for it.

For nonstick fry pans, I buy cheap ones at Ikea, replace them when they get dinged up. The ones I have been buying appear to be discontinued (365+) but this is similar.

[Topper]

.......... and then you can add cast iron and carbon steel........

[2Fingers]

what about this type of frying pan?

http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/herit ... nDblzbSmUk