finefortips

I don't know how I missed it, but there it was, sitting at the bottom of the white plastic bin where I store my potatoes and onions…a single russet. A single potato is never a good thing. Do you wait to buy more, and hope it blends in? Do you waste all that gas and heat, cooking one single potato? One of the few practical uses for these rogue spuds is to make a small batch of potato gnocchi. Let me disclose right up front that I really don't like gnocchi that much. They're "Aight" as Randy Jackson might say, but I never go out of my way to eat them. However, I love to make them. This is an interesting recipe to make , and just about the most fun thing you can do with a single potato (assuming you lost your Mr. Potatohead parts long ago). There is no such thing as an exact recipe for gnocchi. If you don’t like cooking by feel, and need exact measurements before attempting to cook something, this recipe is not for you. Potato sizes vary, the starch/water contents ...

When I'm cooking corned beef, watching it simmer in the aromatic broth, I'll sometimes close my eyes and picture the delicious plate of food I have coming. The funny thing is, it's not the sliced corned beef and cabbage I'm dreaming of, it's the corned beef hash I'm going to be making with the leftovers. There are certain dishes I would never talk someone into trying, or argue on behalf of its virtues. It's one of those, "there are two kinds of people in the world" things. Either you really love corned beef hash, or you don't eat it. It's not a dish for the indifferent. Now, th at the non-hash people have stopped reading, let's talk crust. As you well know, what separates a great hash from a transcendent hash is the "crust." You can't rush a corned beef hash crust - it's built slowly, over medium heat, with multiple turnings and pressings, the meat and potatoes crisped and caramelized in the combination of butter and b...