Gluten-free gnocchi

Saturday - ANZAC day - was a beautiful day of remembrance. 

We stood together to remember and peacefully reflect. 

After the dawn service - which I watched in the comfort of my pajamas (thank you, TV one) - Ross and I went for a walk in the botanical gardens - coffee in hand - and enjoyed the solitude. It was a day of quiet thankfulness. 

And with a free day ahead of us, we decided it was a also a good day to cook something new and exciting. 

ANZAC biscuits would have been an obvious choice of something to try - I have never made a gluten-free version, and I am keen to find some good gluten-free biscuit recipes in general. But I decided to do something different - more because I didn't think to get the ingredients at the supermarket than anything else. 

Inspired by the latest edition of cuisine magazine and this recipe, I decided I wanted to try and make gluten-free gnocchi. So last night Ross and I made potato gnocchi with sage butter sauce - put simply, fried potatoes in butter.

I concocted a gluten-free formula for the gnocchi. The quantities below make three filling, delicious servings.

750g (4 large) potatoes

50g of ground cornmeal flour

50g of rice flour

50g of potato starch

1 egg

1/2 tsp salt

We decided we wanted to be really radical and saute the gnocchi - rather than just boil it - and add bacon (because there obviously was't enough calories involved already).

I peeled my potatoes and popped them in a big pot to boil. Then, while the potatoes were cooking, I chopped some bacon, fried it and set it aside to add later. I also chopped a handful of fresh sage and minced two cloves of garlic.

Once my potatoes were cooked, I tipped them into a colander and left them for a few minutes to completely drain.

I mashed the potato, mixed the flours and salt together and then added them to the potato. The next step was adding the egg. I had to stir the mixture quite a lot to make sure it was evenly combined.

I floured a surface with potato starch and kneaded the mixture until I had a nice, soft dough. To keep the mixture manageable, I split it into three parts and rolled each potion into a long tube about 2cm wide. I cut the tubes into 2cm pieces and attempted to make the pieces look pretty by denting one side with a fork.

While I was still cutting up the gnocchi, Ross - because it was definitely a two person job by now - brought a big pot of water to the boil and started cooking the gnocchi in three batches of about 15 each.

It took a minute, or sometimes even less, for the gnocchi to float to the top of the water, indicating it was cooked. Ross would scoop them out with a slotted spoon and place them on a plate ready to be sauteed.

We had quite a production line going from the bench, to the pot, then into the frypan to be cooked until crisp and lightly golden.

When Ross was frying the last batch of gnocchi, I started on my sage butter sauce. I melted 125g of butter in a pan (to be clear, this recipe is not for the faint hearted) then added my crushed garlic and cooked it in the butter for 5 minutes. Once this was done, I removed the pan from the element, added my chopped sage along with 1/2 tsp salt, and stirred for about minute.

Lastly, we combined the gnocchi, bacon and a handful of grated parmesan with the sage butter sauce and let it warm through. It was a little hard to mix the bacon evenly while still being careful with the gnocchi. 

On reflection, I would probably just add the bacon to the sauce next time, then place the gnocchi in bowls and pour the sauce over top. I'm keen to experiment with a lighter sauce next time as well. 

All the dish needed was some extra chopped fresh sage and a few shards of shaved parmesan to garnish and we were ready to eat.

And the result was even better than I had imagined. 

If you have never tried gnocchi before, I absolutely recommend giving it a go - gluten free or otherwise. It took longer than we expected to make it, but the result was definitely worth it.

The tasty golden nuggets were divine. And, with the rich sauce, they made a dish that was hearty yet exquisite.

Gluten-free potato gnocchi with bacon and sage butter sauce.

Long Xiang

Last night was a nice, quiet Friday. Ross and I had a relaxed dinner with Ross's brother, Andrew, at one of my absolute favourite restaurants: Long Xiang.

Long Xiang is a sweet, unassuming restaurant that will surprise you with it's delicious simplicity.

What it lacks in pretence, it more than makes up for in flavour - serving classic Chinese dishes that will keep you coming back for more.

Ross and I love going with a small group and getting a number of dishes to share (one dish and a rice per person is a good amount). They are BYO, licensed and also do takeaways. 

We often go to Long Xiang for quiet weeknight dinners. It's an especially good option if things are busy at work. And, as one of Wellington's best options in terms of value for money, it's probably cheaper than cooking!

The hardest part about going to Long Xiang is deciding what to have. They cater for gluten-free and vegan diets and the options are enormous. As those of us with dietary restrictions well know, too much choice is not a dilemma we are faced with often!

The lemon chicken, orange beef and sweet and sour pork are all fabulous. Plus we usually try and have a stir fry dish to get a good serving of vegetables.  

But, actually, what makes this restaurant truly special isn't the food. It is the beautiful couple who greet you with a smile when you walk in the door. Yvonne and Charlie are such lovely hosts - it almost feels like you are being welcomed into their home. 

Long Xiang provides simple, traditional cuisine with authentic and friendly service. And last night was no exception.

We had a delicious meal of lemon chicken, orange beef and pork and cashew nut stir fry before heading home to play Settlers of Catan. As it turned out, I really needed the energy for the game. Andrew absolutely annihilated us!

  

Lemon chicken, orange beef, and pork and cashew nut stir fry.

  

My food bag

This week was a great week to start my blog. Ross and I are doing our second ever My Food Bag.

Our first My Food Bag was a Christmas gift from Ross's parents. We loved the food the first time around, but we had some trouble getting our bag delivered. When they arrived to drop off the bag, they rang my cellphone but the call never went through (for reasons that are still a mystery to me). Our bag was taken back to the depot and we had a very underwhelming dinner on the first night (never underestimate having a bag of frozen oven fries in the freezer). 

I suspect that the company was still experiencing some teething problems at the time and when I contacted them about it, they were very apologetic and offered us 10 percent off our next bag.  

So, this week we were ready to give it another whirl.  

My Food Bag is a great option for anyone wanting some more variety in their cooking. We get the gourmet option, which feeds two foodies for four nights with pretty decent sized portions. I'm pretty sure Ross and I are the target market for the gourmet bag - young urban professionals who can't always be bothered searching books for new ideas and co-ordinating recipes with seasonal produce and supermarket specials (we are both economists, after all!). So the whole concept is really right up our alley. Really the only downside is that it creates a few more dishes than we are used to. 

On Sunday night, all I have to do is pop downstairs when the buzzer rings - slippers, trackpants, the whole get up - to pick up our bag. Well, it's two bags really, but I'm not going to complain about overachieving. 

We unload our bags full of tasty and nutritious food. There's always lots of vegetables, which makes me happy, and the meat is always high quality. Invariably there's an ingredient in there that I haven't cooked with before. This week it's eggplant. I look at it suspiciously and hope that I can make something erring more on the side of tasty than rubbery - I have had varied experiences eating eggplant in the past. 

The exciting range of ingredients in our bag.

Our first meal was a Panang fish and vegetable curry. We like our food quite spicy, but you could adjust it to whatever heat you like. We often don't get enough fish in our diet, so this was an absolute treat. 

Panang fish and vegetable curry with rice.

For me, the highlight was Monday night when we had scotch fillet with balsamic tomatoes and parmesan mash. I wasn't sure what to expect of balsamic tomatoes, but they were off-the-charts delicious. And Ross cooked the scotch filet absolutely beautifully. 

Scotch fillet with balsamic tomatoes and parmesan oregano mash.

Compared with the last time we did My Food Bag, the meals were a lot simpler to make. The caramelised onion, camembert, courgette and mushroom pizzas we had on Tuesday were the ultimate in easy yet delicious. 

We had to replace the pizza bases that were supplied with gluten-free ones. Usually there are only one or two items that aren't gluten free and the recipes always say whether they are gluten-free, dairy-free or vegetarian, so we find it easy to adapt for us. However, at this stage, it doesn't seem like My Food Bag would be easily adapted for other dietary requirements. Hopefully the company will eventually be able to grow to a point where they can do a wider range of bags for different needs (and be able to deliver them to a wider range of regions).

Caramelised onion, camembert, courgette and mushroom pizza with pear and rocket salad.

The smoked duck salad on Wednesday night was something really quite different for us. The smoked duck was quite rich, so the salad and the tangy glaze provided nice balance. There were oodles of green vegetables. It was almost disappointingly healthy. Almost. 

We couldn't have the panko crumbs so our eggplant was simply fried in oil. And, guess what? It wasn't rubbery! 

Nailed it. 

Smoked duck salad with panko eggplant, apple and pak choy.

Good food

Good food doesn't need to be expensive. It doesn't need to be decadent. And it definitely doesn't need to contain gluten.

Here is a selection of some delicious gluten-free treats that I have had the pleasure of tasting in the last wee while.