Duck, Duck, Chicken!

Chicken Ragu and Home Made Gnocchi

Many of my recipes are inspired by something I’ve been served at restaurants or a friend's table. It is the challenge to recreate a dish in my own way that I find so intriguing, but sometimes my inspirations don’t turn out anything like what I first envision. This recipe is the result of several mistakes and a lot of persistence. My muse for this recipe came while having dinner at a nice restaurant on Polk Street in San Francisco. On the menu was a ricotta gnocchi served in a pork ragu. I have always wanted to try making gnocchi and a simple ragu seemed like just the thing for a first attempt at gnocchi.

My original idea was for a potato gnocchi in a duck confit ragu. I figured the duck would make a fine substitute for pork. Both are rich, flavorful, and fatty meats. Since this undertaking was planned for a weeknight I thought starting with confit would save a lot of time where pork would take many hours to braise and become tender enough for ragu. I still think my intuition was reasonable, but I made some crucial mistakes in my approach and hastily procuring the ingredients. I knew this the moment I opened the hermetically sealed vacuum bag containing two dry overcooked duck legs almost completely devoid of fat. The ragu wasn’t going to work out. No amount of braising would bring this foul back from its state of cooking induced rigor mortis.

My next mistake was thinking that since I’ve become very good at making fresh pasta the gnocchi were going to be a cinch. Wrong! I way underestimated the amount of time necessary to roll out a full recipe of gnocchi. While I rolled out the gnocchi I allowed the ragu to simmer uncovered. This required several additions of wine and chicken stock to keep the ragu from turning to paste. As the liquid reduced the flavors became far too rich and unbalanced. As for the potato dough, I lacked a crucial piece of equipment. I used a potato masher which left chunks of potato in the dough that made for an irregular texture. A potato ricer would have produced a much more uniform texture. The potatoes were also too wet which required too much flour to bring them into a dough. This gave the gnocchi the wrong texture and taste of doughy raw flour instead of a firm texture with distinct potato flavor.

I served the gnocchi that night, but I wasn't satisfied with the results. I may have taken on too much at once. I gave some more thought to my attempt: I still had half a batch of gnocchi in the freezer. All was not lost. Later that week I decided to try again at the ragu. This time I aimed to correct the balance of flavors. I decided to use chicken in place of the duck. Minding the cooking time for the sauce and keeping it covered made all the difference. The gnocchi were of the wrong texture, but still edible. The ragu, however, was delicious!

This will not be my last post concerning gnocchi. I'm still looking for a better source of duck confit. I still need to procure a potato ricer, and get more practice making the dough and rolling out the gnocchi. While not everything went as planned I did end up with a recipe that I feel quite proud of and have made several times since. While producing an incredible dish is always the ultimate goal in my culinary adventures it is the lessons like these that serve to humble my skills and remind me of why I find cooking so fascinating.

(Recipe for Chicken Ragu follows)

Sometimes I Impress Myself

 

Sometimes I even impress myself. This time I understood what it means to make a dish where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. 

I started with a vague idea of what I wanted to make: fresh pasta. I made my trip to the farmers market looking for ingredients that would inspire something truly extraordinary; after all I had an audience this time. I stopped by a tent at the farmers market that sells wild mushrooms. Many of the wild mushrooms seem fairly exotic to me. One variety I found particularly intriguing was the Hedgehog mushroom. The ones pictured in the link must be a bit more mature than the ones I bought, I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of the mushrooms I ended up with. These mushrooms are quite delicate with thin stems and a nice golden color on the cap. When I asked the farmer if I could taste a small piece he informed me that eating uncooked wild mushrooms is a very bad idea. Apparently some wild mushrooms can be poisonous when eaten uncooked. I'm so glad I asked. He described the Hedgehog as similar to Chanterelles with a little more sweetness.

When I returned home I looked for a simple pasta recipe that made use of mushrooms and some of the other produce I picked up. I consulted one of my favorite cook books Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home by Mario Batali. I found a recipe for Fettuccine with Oyster Mushrooms, Sweet Garlic and Arugula (page 204). This recipe was a perfect place to start. I just needed to make a few substitutions including the Hedgehog mushrooms for the Oyster Mushrooms. Luckily I also bought Arugula as a backup salad option.

The dish was spectacular!

My Recipe for Fettuccine with Hedgehog Mushrooms and Arugula follows

Stinging Nettle Pesto

I've been having such a good time at the Grand Lake Farmers Market lately. I've never shopped at a farmers market so consistently. I've become a lot more adept at negotiating the stands and finding the best produce each has to offer. I am really, truly, starting to see for myself which fruits and vegetables are in season. I was so used to shopping the big grocery stores where things come from all over the world and everything is sold all year. I never really knew which things belonged together. Using fruits and vegetables that are in season has completely changed the way I feel about my food. Fruits and vegetables that ripen in the same season I now find naturally complementary. The farmers market has given me the opportunity to branch out, get creative, and appreciate where and who my food comes from. It would seem like an epiphany, but the chefs I revere have been saying this for years.

Last week I visited the Grand Lake Farmers Market and bought some of the usual things (for this time of year), carrots, chard, broccoli rabe, and oranges. I actually wasn't feeling inspired until I had already made most of my rounds. Then, on the Grand Ave. side, one of the tents was selling Stinging Nettle or Nettles. I've had contact with Stinging Nettle, as a boy, while playing near creeks in Tilden Park. If you are unfamiliar with Stinging Nettle, they have little hairs all over the leaves and stalk. The hairs are very fine and hollow. They penetrate skin quite easily and deliver a histamine that causes a stinging sensation and rash. Nettles are not to be touched!

I was recently at a party talking to strangers (also something from my childhood that I wasn't supposed to do, that I do now). They were telling me about forging for mushrooms in Tilden Park. One of them said she also collects nettles there. I had no idea that this plant was edible; I was very intrigued. She explained that blanching them would break down the chemicals in the plant that caused the stinging and that nettles are really quite good. Nettles have a bright green flavor similar to that of baby spinach. But, where to get them? I don't have a lot of time to go forage for nettles. I've never seen them in a grocery store.  There they were, ready to take me on my next culinary adventure. This is why I love the farmers market!

A recipe for Stinging Nettle Pesto and Home Made Fettuccine follows