Spinach Ricotta Gnocchi

This started off with a healthy dinner in mind, but headed rapidly south when i started adding the cheeses!   Oh dear, not expecting miracles at my weigh in tomorrow, it's been a bit of a naughty week with the highlight being Sunday when I spent the afternoon parked on my bottom bits outside a wood fire pizza oven in satan's garden tasting a sample of every pizza making it's way out of the embers.  It was a true gastronomic apocalypse.

Anyway, back to tonight's dinner.  Spinach gnocchi made out of frozen spinach (thawed and drained) mixed with ricotta, parmesan, egg and flour.  Shaped into balls, simmered slowly in boiling water and then placed in a baking dish and smothered in tomato sauce and more parmesan.  Sounds good, tastes good too!

Ingredients for gnocchi
500g bag of frozen spinach
250g ricotta cheese
100g grated parmesan
2 eggs
150g flour
freshly grated nutmeg
salt and pepper

1 Bottle of your favourite tomato pasta sauce (I like the one with four cheeses as you don't have to add to much more cheese)
Grated parmesan to scatter over the top

Method
Thaw the spinach and squeeze out all the water.  Chop spinach finely before mixing it with the rest of the gnocchi ingredients in a mixing bowl.  Put in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Remove gnocchi mix from fridge and form into small balls.  Dust each ball with flour and place on a baking sheet.  Once you have shaped all the gnocchi, poach the balls for about 5 minutes in boiling water.

Once the gnocchi has been poached, remove from saucepan with slatted spoon and place in a baking dish. 

Cover the gnocchi with your favourite pasta tomato sauce and sprinkle over parmesan.

Bake at 180 for 30 minutes and serve with a green salad.

Crunchie Munchies

These delicious bicuits take me back to my childhood. Growing up in Africa these were a staple pantry item, but I'd actually completely forgotten about them until I stumbled across this recipe, baked them for my kids, and then started having flashbacks to friends birthday parties around swimming pools eating crunchies and sipping kool aid.

Crunchies

Grease a 20cm x 30cm baking dish

Mix together the following ingredients in a mixing bowl

90g flour
180g oats
125g dessicated coconut
pinch salt
125g sugar
2.5ml cinnamon
125g melted butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
5ml bicarbonate of soda
30ml milk

Press into baking dish and bake for 15-20 minutes at 180 degrees

Cut into squares

Bella Biscotti

I love biscotti especially with a cup of real coffee or accompanying a chocolate mousse. This recipe is so easy, and is much tastier than the variety you get in coffee shops. I have included milk chocolate in this instance as I am baking them for children, but you can add different flavour chocolates like dark, or white, you can roll the biscotti mix in the kneading stage in a tablespoon of instant espresso powder for a coffee flavour, or add nuts like almonds.

Biscotti

1 1/2 cups of flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2/3 cup of castor sugar
60g butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
250g slab milk chocolate

Preheat oven to 180 degrees
Mix the flour, baking powder and castor sugar
Cut in the melted butter
Beat the eggs and vanilla
Add to the flour butter mix to make a dough
Sprinkle flour on clean work surface
Knead the dough lightly before flattening dough on surface an inch thick
Chop the chocolate in 1cm square pieces and push into flattened dough
Roll the dough into a sausage shape approx 30cm long
Place on greased pan and flatten with the back of a spoon
Sprinkle top with castor sugar and bake for 30 minutes
Cut log into slices 1cm thick
Place slices on a greased baking sheet and bake for another 5 minutes
Allow to cool before indulging in one or two or the whole lot

Bake a Cupcake

Finally getting back into the swing of things after a lovely hiatus on the South Island of New Zealand where we survived on the red wine, dark chocolate and french fry diet. Was very pleased to see my kitchen again as campervan cooking is rather challenging.

Tomorrow my eldest son is finally having his kindergarden graduation. To celebrate this momentous occasion, he has to arrive armed with treats for all his friends. His suggestion was to bake cupcakes which ended up being a fun activity for both him and I, although I must confess I don't think I'd ever attempt more than 4 dozen at a time because just dealing that amount of sugar is a bit disturbing, let alone the colouring and decorations.

Cupcakes are the easiest things in the world to make, and there is no limit to what you can put on top of them in terms of colour and decorations. You can keep it simple by simply icing the tops, or add cherries, sugarcraft or any edible naughty you might like.

To make cupcakes in a food processor mix together 2 eggs, 125g soft butter, 125g self-raising flour, 125g castor sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, 3 tbsp milk. Divide evenly into 12 cupcake paper cases placed in a 12 muffin baking tray. Bake for 15 minutes on 170 degrees C. Remove and allow to cool. Cut the tops off to level the cupcakes. Mix icing sugar with a little water to a thick icing consistency. Add colour of your choice and ice the tops of the cupcakes. Decorate to your hearts content and enjoy.