Entries by Erik Brett Cannella

We can all agree on something: I am not a writer. I am however a decent cook and hate having food go to waste. With that said, Adrianne and I cooked for a series of events over the last few weeks and found ourselves with a refrigerator full of ingredients. Nothing in this treasure trove of cooked and uncooked items was enough for a meal by itself.

Time to play the refrigerator game. It’s a combination of tetrus and concentration. One must recall the previous items peered at whilst not causing the moved items to crash onto the floor—Causing the utterance of what will most likely be my final words “mother-fucker”.

This mornings foray provided me with inspiration for 2 items.

The chick pea soup

!/2 can of chick peas
Ziploc bag of grilled and marinated sweet peppers
Some onion, carrot, celery and parsnip
A little vegetable stock
Tomato chutney

I cant recall the exact amounts but basically just make soup and add a little sherry vinegar dried chilies and thyme.

The gratin

3 peeled potatoes
1/2 onion
a bit of pancetta
Italian Parsley
Cup of grated Comte cheese
Goat cheese
1 1/2 cups of parsnip and celery root soup
touch of cream
olive oil and butter melted

Form the gratin by sautéing the pancetta and onion in a little of the butter. When cooked add the soup and cream,warm and turn off the heat.

Thinly slice the potatoes and start to layer them in a buttered casserole dish . Season with salt and pepper a touch of nutmeg between each layer. Sprinkle each layer with a bit of both cheeses and parsley and continue on. When finished with the potatoes and cheeses add the liquids top a bit of cheese. Bake at 400 for about an hour or until a knife easily pierces the potatoes.

Eat.

I’m in love with a woman who stubbornly loves instant mashed potatoes (Potato Buds). I’m a chef. Something had to give.

So when I opened the refrigerator, a bowl of left over mashed potatoes slid out. I figured I’d try to make gnocchi.

Traditionally, gnocchi is a pasta made by mixing mashed baked potatoes, eggs and flour and forming little pillows by hand. The potatoes alone take an hour to bake in the oven.

In my hand, I saw an opportunity to make gnocchi without heating an oven in the middle of the summer.

I made cracked and egg into the bowl of instant potatoes, added salt and whisked everything together until smooth.

Then I added flour a bit at a time until a dry dough formed and let it rest in the refrigerator for a half hour and set a pot of salted water on the stove to boil.

After it rested, I cut the dough into strips, which I then rolled to form half-inch diameter ropes on a floured cutting board. The ropes were then cut into half-inch pieces and dropped into the boiling water.

Stir gnocchi once and let cook. The gnocchi are done when they float to the surface.

Drain.

I served them with a fresh sage butter sauce with parmesan cheese and grated lemon zest.

They worked. They were light. They were fluffy. They were an excellent equalizer between a bizarre food fondness and chef.

Traveled to my brother's house the other day and picked some herbs from his garden. There is something satisfying about picking herbs as opposed to buying them in plastic containers at 3 bucks a pop.

Fresh picked herbs from the garden don't come with plastic containers, so to store the herbs properly, one is left to their own devices.

To properly store fresh picked herbs:

Roll the herbs up in a paper towel
Label the towel with a permanent marker
Moisten the towel with cold water
store in a plastic bag (unsealed) in the refrigerator
Re-moisten when necessary

They'll last for a week and are infinitely useful.