Gnocchi x gnocchi

Gnocchi di patata ? Gnocchi di polenta ?

That’s the Daring Cook’s challenge of this month : potato gnocchi.

Todd, who is The Daring Kitchen’s AWESOME webmaster and an amazing cook, is our September Daring Cooks’ host! Todd challenged us to make light and fluffy potato Gnocchi and encouraged us to flavor the lil pillows of goodness and go wild with a sauce to top them with!

As I had already made some and I wanted a fresher Summer version, I tried to combine polenta gnocchi and potato gnocchi recipes :

It’s gluten free. I didn’t add flour. I cooked the polenta, and made mashed potato. I mixed about 60% potato, 40% polenta. Flavored with salt, nutmeg, black pepper, a little olive oil. Let cool a few hours.

Prepared a sauce (tomato, garlic, olive oil) and stir-fried peppers and onions with garlic and rosemary.

Formed gnocchi with the chilled dough, coated them in sauce.
They can’t be boiled or they would fall apart (yep, I tried). It’s not a problem, they can reheated in the sauce.

Actually, I ate the second serving not reheated and the dish is as good hot as cold. It’s great for this hot season.

Sesame buns for hummus dipping

You were not expecting those fast-food buns ? Supposing I’d eat them, I wouldn’t boast about it on my blog. And that wouldn’t be at home. These are not sophisticated but home-made and so much better.

Quick sesame buns.
Mix flour, buckwheat flour, rice, bran, baking powder, water, salt.
Coat with sesame seeds, a little olive oil.
Bake and eat !

And they are really tasty.

I had some leftover hummus in the freezer. Added tahini (sesame paste).

Shishinto sweet peppers and paprika are baked, half-way to grilled.

Basil and harissa. I dip bread, veggies, leaves in the hummus.
Fun lunch plate :

Geographically variable veggies, and salading those so-niu-men

That was my general impression, arriving from Europe and shopping for fruits and veggies in Japan : the scale and shape of familiar veggies has been modified.
West vs East.
Paprika sweet chili/pepper vs shishito sweet chili/pepper.
They are relative, close relatives, but…

Well, first look at my noodles… I had boiled a bundle yesterday, then I thought I’d eat only half. So before it turned into a block of glue, I quickly coated the hot leftover with a salad sauce (olive oil, sudachi lemon juice, shreded mint, salt, pepper, a few scraps of garlic)

They were well flavored the next day.

With more toppings.

Would you exchange the 4 big ones against all the small ones ?

You’d be cheated, ask the double of the greens to get the same weight.
The shishito (lion peppers) are tiny. They surely all originated from Peru in the night of times, before being introduced to Asia and Europe. But the small green have become “Japan’s traditional” sweet peppers, they are a must for a classic tempura.
The others retain their “Western” image.
In old-fashioned shopping streets, there are a few shops that only present the “traditional veggies” and try to offer the same products as they did when they opened the shop in 1750, well, maybe only 1950. I have not any other country as meticulous in preserving old traditions.

In trendy shops, that’s all the contrary, they have new “models” every week, either Japanese farmers create new varieties, or they go all over the world to find unusual plants. Often, I was very happy to see some French products appearing here for the first time. But they were proposed only during a few weeks, and never again. Like what ? Oh, one day, they had 12 kinds of mint. The one you see is a small leaf peppermint. But one day, I got green and white mint like in my granny’s garden, and nana mint like the one for the tea in North-Africa, and others. Since then, they have only one mint. 2 months later, they proposed 12 colors of tomatoes… Well, I wouldn’t want to eat the same things all the time anyway.