Chocolate Flourless Cake for Passover

I always thought it would be hard to make this chocolate flourless cake, but then I realized that the ingredients that go into it are surprisingly simple.  Just Chocolate, Eggs, Vanilla and Sugar!  Sure, you have to separate the eggs and whip them up so they are light and airy, but even that was easier than I ever expected. 

Pancakes for Dinner?

I think so!

Corned beef sandwiches.

What are a few of my favorite things to cook? Challah and Corned Beef! I thought it would be fun to pair the two together for a delicious dinner.

I cooked the corned beef according to the package directions. Each sandwich had two slices. The meat is so good that I didn't add any sauces to my sandwich, there was enough delicious moisture!

I have made this challah dough dozens of times. Normally I split the dough in two to make two loafs, or make one big loaf. This time I pulled out little pieces of the dough to make knots. I let these knots rise a bit before putting them in the oven. I made 6 knots this time, but there was enough dough to make 10-12 rolls.

I cooked these for 20 min at 350 degrees. I skipped the egg wash because I didn't want to waste the excess egg. A lot of the definition was lost when the rolls cooked up, but they had a shape that was perfect for mini corned beef sliders. Yum!

Sweet Potato Gnocchi Fail - But a nice creamy sauce

I realized that I had never shared the pictures of my failed sweet potato gnocchi attempt (mentioned in the previous post.)

A couple of the dumplings held their shape, but I had to rescue them from the boiling water with a slotted spoon. Whoops! I am not sure what was off about my recipe, but I will add more egg and flour next time. I think the sweet potatoes soaked up more liquid than the russet potatoes normally do.

I cannot find my notes on the sauce, but I started with some thickened flour and butter, added heavy cream and some powdered sage. I may have added a tiny bit of brown sugar. The sauce was fantastic, too bad it was like soup with my gnocchi!

Fried Gnocchi

A while back I tried making some sweet potato gnocchi. I had some sweet potatoes that were going to go bad, and while making normal gnocchi I mixed some mashed sweet potatoes into half of the mix. I also decided to try freezing the dumplings for the first time.

Unfortunately, this first attempt failed. When I tried to boil my sweet potato gnocchi they lost their shape and clumped together. I still had some dumplings in the freezer, so I needed to try something else.

I thought that the dumplings would keep their shape better if I fried them. I heated up some canola oil on the stove in a frying pan. I didn't want to use a ton of oil, so the oil was just deep enough to cover the bottom of the pan.

I let the gnocchi brown on one side (5-6 min) before flipping them over. This was careful work because there was a lot of oil splattering. Next time I am going to use a deeper pan! Thank goodness I had a splatter shield to protect me.

The gnocchi come out looking like mini tater tots.

The next big question was an important one... how do I serve fried gnocchi? I thought that I would turn this into a kiddy dinner by serving it with a side of manara sauce. (Well, salad isn't very kiddy, but I wanted to counteract all of that starch and oil!)

Keith had some other ideas, and while I was trying to not get burned (or to set the house on fire) he was setting up our table with candles!

Gnocchi is one of Keith's favorite meals. I will need to try something else next time I try sweet potato gnocchi, but I now know that frying them is a decent save.

Chicken Shrimp Coconut Curry

Sometimes you have a bunch of ingredients laying around, and have no idea what you can make with them. I had some potatoes, carrots and onions laying around that needed to be used up quickly. (I didn't feel like making gnocchi again!) I found a can of coconut milk in my pantry and the idea of curry started forming.

Ingredients

• 1, 13.5 oz can coconut milk
• 1 cup water
• 1 chicken bullion cube
• some chopped baby carrots, chopped
  
• 2 russet potatoes (pealed and chopped)
• 1/3 sweet onion, diced
• 1 chicken breaste, cubed
• 8 shrimp
• +3 Tblsp brown sugar
• 20oz can of pineapple (drained)
• 8 tsp curry powder.
  

Instructions

• Combine milk, water and spices with potatos, carrots and bring to a summer. Cook for 5-10 minutes until the veggies soften. (covered)
  
  
  
• Add onions, chicken, shrimp and pineapple chunks and simmer covered, stirring occasionally until the meats are cooked
  
  
• remove from heat, serve over rice.
  
  
  
  

Initially when I tasted the curry, I felt there was something missing. There was something different from what I've had in similar curries at restaurants . I finally realized... SUGAR! The little bit of brown sugar listed in the ingredients brought this curry from ordinary to extraordinary!

Matzah ball soup

I have a huge backlog of pictures and recipes that I need to write up and post. For now, I thought I would share a delicious picture of some matzah ball soup.

I made the chicken soup from scratch. I don't know what normally possesses me to make two chicken soups, but I like to have a lot to put in the freezer. I added some rosemary and thyme to the soup base and it gave a nice fragrant twist.

Hopefully I will be able to be back with regular ChemEats posts in the near future.