Gnocchi with chicken and vodka sauce

My gnocchi instructor and daughter-in-law, Chinal Zakrajsek

 I trust all you Moms were spoiled rotten on Mothers' Day yesterday, and you okes went to some trouble.

 I went all out.

 But, if the truth be told, I had no choice, two weeks ago, the Old Crone declared she would be doing no cooking on Mothers Day and, if we okes wanted to eat, we'd need to pull out our fingers and get off our butts.

 Fortunately, I am blessed with a daughter-in-law of Italian heritage who is a fabulous cook and baker and she came to my rescue.

 "I'll teach you to make gnocchi with chicken and vodka sauce," Chinal said.

 "Err...okay..."

She sensed my hesitation. Until yesterday, I'd neither seen nor tasted gnocchi.

 "Gnocchi is very easy to make, but difficult to get perfect," Chinal said.

 An hour or so later, the kitchen looked as though it had been hit by a flour-blomb but the gnocchi and sauce was done and it was delicious. I did my best to shamelessly take the credit but neither the Old Crone nor my 81 year-old mother was buying that.

 Afterwards, the Old Crone tried but failed to make me feel better when she declared: "You did a very good job cleaning up!"

 Pffft!!

Chinal's Gnocchi with Chicken and Vodka sauce

Ingredients:

(serves 3-5)  

                     
350 grams of flour
1 Kg sweet potato (we used regular potatoes as not everyone likes sweet potatoes)
1 egg
1 tsp salt

40g grated Parmesan cheese

Gnocchi is very easy to make, but difficult to get perfect. It takes practice.  This is a simple recipe for practice.  I use sweet potatoes because of the flavor, but regular potatoes are even easier to work with.

1.   Boil potatoes with skin on. (The skins help keep the water out. You don’t want your potatoes to be saturated. )

2.   Once boiled, dab with cloth to absorb any water. Peel and mash the potatoes. They should be soft enough to use a fork for mashing.

3.   On a clean counter-top, well dusted with flour flatten, the mound of potatoes into a 1-2 inch thick layer. Spread the flour on top for a second layer; sprinkle the salt and parmesan cheese on top of flour. 

 

4.   Scoop out the center, creating a little hole in the center. Drop the egg into the "well".

5.   Scramble the egg in the center, once it is whisked, use your hand to combine the ingredients. You may need to add flour to get a dough-like consistency, but do not add too much. (Too much flour will make the gnocchi hard and dense.)

6.   Knead the dough to form a loaf (Don’t over-knead. It will make them chewy)

7.   Once you have a loaf, slice lengths. Roll the lengths in flour and roll them out.

8.   Slice the rolls to make 2 - 4 cm (1 -2 inch) pieces. Size is up to you.

9.   Shake off excess flour and drop the pieces into salted boiling water.

10.  Once they all have floated to the top, they are done and ready to strain

11.  Let them cool down before serving. You can reheat, but letting them cool down will allow them to firm up. (If using regular potatoes you don’t really need to let them cool.)

12.  In a separate pan fry finely-diced chicken breasts.

Vodka Sauce

(serves 2-4)

I love Vodka Sauce. This one is a little different from the traditional style. I find this sauce is very good for Gnocchi. The flavor works really well with sweet potato too.

Ingredients:

1 Can tomato puree (Use diced tomatoes for a chunky sauce)
½ of 1 onion (diced)
½ cup Vodka (or in our case, Soju)
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp basil
1 tsp thyme
2 tsp sugar
½ cup cream
¼ cup of butter

1.   Pour tomato puree into small pot
2.   Fry onion and garlic in butter in pan until golden brown and add to tomato puree.

3.   Add the vodka to pot with tomato puree.

5.   Add cream

6.   Add basil, thyme and sugar. Cook for 30 minutes on low heat, stirring once in a while. (Add black pepper to taste at the end if you like a little kick)

7.   Cover your reheated gnocchi with the diced chicken and pour the sauce over it.

(Warning:  First time Gnocchi eaters; you won’t be able to eat as much as you think you can eat. Give yourself a smaller portion, trust me, they are filling.)

Please be cool and share!