Sweet Potato Gnocci

I will be the first to admit Gnocci is time consuming, but it is also pretty simple. We split up dinner responsibilities in our house by cooking a big pot of soup on Sunday, which we eat through the week, and then we each take a night to cook. Basically, I only cook a big dinner once a week, so taking a little time to go overboard isn't a big deal.

Okay, so here's what you do:

• Bring a pot of water to a boil and simmer three large sweet potatoes (unpeeled) for about 40 minutes

• Peel the potatoes (the skins should slide right off) and mash them up, either with a potato masher or in a food processor
• Add two tablespoons of lemon juice, a dash of salt, and some spices of our choice. I used some ground cloves, ground ginger, and a little cinnamon. 
• Add white flour, about a cup at a time, and mix as you would bread dough until you get a a consistency that holds together without being stiff. 
• Knead out on the counter a couple times, but avoid over kneading, you don't want to develop gluten or you will get chewy stiff dumplings. 
• Bring a pot of salted water to a boil
• Roll out your dough into a snake and cut up into dumplings. Mash the sides with a fork to form gnocci's characteristic ridges. 
• Drop dumplings in the water a few at a time. When they are done they will rise to the surface of the water (about 1 minute)
• move them to a bowl and douse them with a little olive oil so they don't stick together. Alternatively, brown them in a pan with butter and some sage and thyme. 

These are great served just with oil or butter, or you can serve them with a little tomato sauce (although that can be a little too sweet for me). Enjoy!

Egg Drop Soup Noodle Bowl

Yeah, it's top ramen. I'm in college, whatever. Some nights (like tonight) I'm just looking for a quick meal before I head to the library for the rest of the evening. Ramen alone, though, won't hit the spot. The soup above is high in protein, carbs and iron--great energy and study food! This was made using a packet of thai kitchen rice noodle packages (ginger and spice, or something like that) but could be made the same way with a top ramen package or truly from scratch with rice noodles and broth.


Bring a cup and half of water (or broth) to a boil. Just as the water begins to simmer throw in a couple handfuls of baby spinach (if you're feeling fancy bok choy!) and, if you like, a chopped green onion or two. Just as the water begins to boil put in your noodles and let boil for two minutes.  In a separate bowl break an egg and scramble it with a fork. Begin stirring your noodles and leaves so you get a steady swirl and slowly pour in your scrambled egg so it cooks as it hits the boiling water. Continue boiling for about a minute. Remove from heat and add your broth packet. Yummm!

Bread!

At our house we eat a lot of bread. A lot. The thing about bread is that it's cheap to make, expensive to buy, and the stuff you buy at the store in plastic bags generally has lots of preservatives and sugars. If you take an alternative route towards buying bread at a local bakery you can plan on a healthier product, but also to spend around $5 a loaf. At our house one of those loaves disappears in a couple of days, so we could easily plan on $15 a week for bread.

The common misconception is that bread is difficult and time consuming to make. It takes me about 15 minutes to make bread dough, which I stick in the fridge overnight, take out when I get up in the morning to finish rising, go to the gym and cook it when I return while I shower and get ready. Voila! I have fresh bread to take to school with me. As a college student this works well with my schedule, but it would be just as easy to make dough in the morning and cook it after work to have fresh with dinner. This is our daily bread recipe, taken from Mark Bitman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian:

2 teaspoons salt
1.5 teaspoon's active dry yeast
3.5 cups of flour (plus some for kneading)
about 1.5 cups of water

Activate your yeast in about a cup of lukewarm water and let it be while you mix your salt with 1.5 cups of flour. Pour in your water/yeast mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until well mixed. Continue adding flour a half cup at a time, and water a Tablespoon at a time until all the flour is added. You should maintain a nice doughy consistency through the whole mixing process--not sticky, but not so dry it falls apart. If it's too sticky add more flour, if it's too dry add more water but be careful, a little water goes a long way. Spread a thin layer of flour on your counter, dump out your dough and knead for about 10 minutes. These ten minutes are where I wind down and put away all my stress from the day before I go to bed. Cover your dough and stick it in the fridge.

In the morning, punch down the dough and let it warm up before you bake it. The dough will take about an hour to warm to room temp in the morning. If I'm in a hurry I turn on the oven to about 100 degrees and set it in the oven to finish rising. When you're ready to bake your bread preheat the oven to 425 (make sure you didn't leave your rising dough in there!). This is the secret to the best crust: fill a cookie sheet with water and set it on the lower rack of the oven to steam the oven. When you knead dough you release gluten, and when gluten reacts with water (steam) the proteins clump together and form a crust (yum!). If you have a pizza stone, stick it in the oven to warm up, if not, oil a cookie sheet and set it aside.

Shape your dough into a ball by rolling the edges under and pinching them together on the bottom of the roll. When the oven is finished heating, make a few slashes on the top of the dough with a sharp knife (this will allow steam to escape while your loaf is breaking so the crust doesn't crack) and put it in the oven for 35-45 minutes. It's done when you can tap on the crust and it sounds hollow. If you like doughy bread tap it on the top, if you like your bread well done all the way through pick it up and tap on the bottom.

Adaptions:

Whole wheat: If you're making an entirely whole wheat loaf, add 2 heaping tablespoons essential gluten, which you can get in bulk at most natural food stores, to get a light, airy bread. Otherwise, limit how much whole wheat flour you use to 1.5 cups or less.

7 grain or oats: substitute up to 1.5 cups of flour for 7 grain flour or oats. A tablespoon of gluten helps in this situation too.