I am pretty much a one-trick pony in the kitchen. If it has yeast, I’m good. Which is not to say I don’t have my share of failures and faux pas with bread, but I’m not afraid of it.
About a year and a half ago I joined the Daring Bakers, which once a month takes me out of my yeast-bound comfort zone and into the world of cakes, pies, and other foreign objects. Sometimes the results have been quite lovely, sometimes not so much, but I always learn something, and I have to say I have felt pretty damned proud of myself for being so damned Daring twelve times a year.
But at least with Daring Bakers, it’s, well, still baking. Now I have a whole new reason to hyperventilate:
Daring Cooks.
If it’s true that I don’t bake cakes, it’s doubly true that I don’t cook. Therefore, there is only one way to explain my willing membership in this new cadre of Daring, knife-wielding people: I am insane. Either that or I can’t stand the thought of not being part of this action, as fear-inspiring, embarrassing, and painful as it is bound to be.
I really hope our fearless leaders Lis and Ivonne don’t decide to start the Daring Sword Swallowers any time soon.
Now about the first Daring Cooks challenge: Ricotta Gnocchi from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook.
My first thought: Maybe this won’t be so bad. I have made gnocchi before and it’s been actually good.
Second thought: But this one has no flour in it, and no potato; it’s just you and the cheese.
Third thought: Uh oh.
And uh oh turned out to be exactly the appropriate thought. The advice in the recipe was to use a pound of fresh ricotta and drain it overnight. Well, I did that, but I should have known right away it was still too wet, because it was much gloppier than the ricotta in this video of Judy Rogers demonstrating how to make the gnocchi. But I Daringly (read: Stupidly) forged ahead, adding the rest of the ingredients, and ultimately wound up with an incoherent batch of goop that I somehow formed into incoherent blobs of goop that, upon boiling, turned into hot incoherent blobs of goop.
Now it’s one thing to be embarrassed, it’s quite another to be completely and utterly defeated on my debut as a Daring Cook. I was going to have to have a second go at this, or just hang it up and resign before I even started.
So, armed with more wet ricotta, I made it my mission in life to drive every last extraneous drop of water out of that stuff. I lined my strainer with paper towels as I had before, but instead of just lazily plopping it over a bowl in the refrigerator overnight, I replaced those wet towels with fresh ones every couple of hours. Then I took the mass of somewhat drier cheese and rolled it up in paper towels several times until it seemed, well, dry. Finally, I weighed out 8 ounces of this dry cheese for half a batch of gnocchi (as opposed to my first batch, where the cheese was weighed before draining).
And I’ll be damned if all that draining and drying didn’t do the trick. I didn’t really get the hang of the shaping, which looks so easy in the video, and my gnocchi therefore had something of an albino morel mushroom appearance to them. But with nothing more than a little butter and parsley, and eyes closed, those wrinkled pillows made a pretty good dinner.
So I got lucky on Round One. At least it was dough, sort of. Of course you will also want to see how lucky skilled all the other newly-matriculated Daring Cooks are too.
Now please please please don’t let next month’s challenge involve meat. And no, I’m not vegetarian.
Your gnocchi looks fantastic!
Cheers,
Rosa
In the end, if it’s edible (and hey, tasty! score!) you’ve done well. Good job!
Practice, practice, practice!
Yay, you did it! They look great, and what a lovely serving bow.
Bowl.
Mine was still probably too wet, and I let it drain for two days. I should at least tried the squeezing and rolling. Your gnocchi look great, though!
Love that silver platter! Lovely looking gnocchi!
YAY, Susan cook…. I can not believe that you don’t cook, really?
Anyway, that gnocchi is a prove that, YES, Susan Can Cook!
xoxo,
elra
Looks really good Susan! When it says dry I guess it means really dry!
Susan, the gnocchi look fantastic!!! I can’t resist a challenge either 🙂 I sure hope there’s no sword swallowing, but if there is – i’ll see you there 😀
I think what I like most about your blogging style, Susan, is the willingness to share the full emotion of the kitchen with us – but I suspect that cloak of self-effacement is hiding a great cook!
Dare on, girl!
Right on, Susan! I’m so glad to see you’re a Daring Cook, too. These look like they were a real success – but I’m with you, no swords, please!
And thanks again for the bread advice the other day! It worked really well.
Those look awesome though! I’ve never seen gnocchi made without flour or potato, but these sound intriguing. I’m with you though – give me yeast and I’m a happy girl, give me meat… Umm, yeah 🙂
I’ve made ricotta gnocchi. Good stuff!!
I think it was Julia Child who said that the good thing about cooking is that one can always eat one’s mistake.
Pshawww! They look amazing. I think you did a stellar job! You should see mine,… frown.
I made this, too. I think I’ll join you at the crazy farm for people who compulsively join food making groups!
“I really hope our fearless leaders Lis and Ivonne don’t decide to start the Daring Sword Swallowers any time soon.”
Oh gods, I hope not too!
I think the best part of this first Daring Cooks Challenge is reading the entries}:P
SUCH a funny post! Susan, you cracked us up. (especially after I read A’s long-ass comment on your last post- anything bread and the man stands up. uff!)
Anyway- I think your gnocchi looks fantastic. We struggled 😐 to keep it firm!!
Oh my, my, this is pretty…and it’s amazing. I opted not to dare myself into the cooking arena, just yet, but once these kiddo’s are tied-up and married, I’m coming into the classroom.
Kudos to you, Susan. I think I would have tossed that recipe into a file (#13) and just claimed it as a no-go, no-show. Oops…did I just say that I would have given up and chucked it all? Well, I suffer panic for you if the next recipe involves meat. If it’s chicken in this house, it’s either raw, or burnt. Beef, flame grill it over the gas and count 7 minutes per side. Pork, bake it until it no longer oinks.
Road kill has a better chance in my hands.
It didn’t have yeast and you pulled it off beautifully – kudos!!!
Your gnocchi look really great. Congratulations.
Susan, clearly you do cook, and well. The gnocchi look lovely and your solution to the too wet cheese was brilliant! Yay for the first Daring Cooks challenge!
Ah, gnocchi. I was going to guess dumplings. Same difference.
well done for signing up! and for trying again after your first disaster. i’m glad you liked it after all that effort. i can’t wait to see what next month’s challenge will be…
susan, i have a huge crush on you. you are amazing in the kitchen!
Love the way you are comfortable with the one thing that makes most of the rest of us break into a cold sweat! Your gnocchi look fab.
Nancy
They look dumpling-tastic. And, congrats on making that best blog list–was it the London Times?
Your gnocchi look phenomenal…so light and fluffy! I love seeing what other bloggers did with the challenge. Great job!
You would join the Daring Cooks but not the BBA Challenge? (Or did you?) Traitor! 🙂
Jude: Ouch!
Mine was way to wet too but I had no choice—i was serving it for dinner so I added flour. Here’s looking to the next challenge!
Oooh, is this still open to joining? Your dish, as with all your photos, looks wonderful, Susan!
BTW, a tip for straining:
Take your yogurt, cottage cheese, ricotta, or whatever wet dairy product you happen to be using and put it in a piece of cheesecloth. Gather your corners together and twist it, almost as if making a vise out of the cloth. Squeeze what you can from it.
Once you have gotten all you can out of it, then take it and place it cheesecloth and all in a strainer. Put the strainer over a bowl, making sure that the cheesecloth itself will be up out of any liquid that will be pressed out. Put another bowl or small saucer on top of your wrapped dairy package and then place something such as a 16oz can of beans in the bowl. This will gently press out more moisture overnight.
I use this technique for making Greek-style (super thick) yogurt and also for making paneer-style cheese.