Saturday, May 8, 2010

Yam Gnocchi with Zang! Sauce

I thought I was the first one ever to think of making orange yam gnocchi, until a quick google image search proved me wrong. But oh well, I was so excited to have thought of it on my own that I couldn't wait to try it! Zang! sauce is made from a few of my most favoritest things (dried cranberries, olive oil, and of course macadamia nuts) and the clever name was conceived by my friend and housemate Aliyah Cline. I made this recipe using guidelines from a regular gnocchi recipe, but even with regular potatoes I found it needs a lot more flour than the recipe says because it always ends up too sticky and hard to deal with. So make sure you have a lot of flour lying around =]

FOR THE GNOCCHI:
2 pounds garnet yams
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cups flour (at least)

FOR THE ZANG! SAUCE:
Another 2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1/2 Cup dried cranberries
1/3 Cup macadamia nuts
2 cloves garlic, chopped
juice of 1/2 lemon

Preheat oven to 400. Pierce yam skins and bake for about 45 minutes, depending on size. If you can stick a knife all the way through with no "crunchy" feeling, then they're done. Let them cool completely, then peel the skins off with your hands (they'll come off easily).
Mash together the cooked and peeled yams, salt and olive oil. Add the flour in small amounts and mix it in. This is where it starts to get messy, so I like to take the whole project outside at this point. Once you're able to touch it without it sticking to your hands too much (add flour to your hands periodically to help with this), transfer the dough ball to a cutting board. Hopefully you'll be outside, so keep adding flour until it feels like bread dough.

Chop the dough ball into three equal parts. Roll each section into a 1/2 in. thick rope. `Cut each rope into pieces about 1/2 in. long.

Boil a large pot of water. Roll dough pieces into balls and drop them into the boiling water in batches small enough so that they don't pile on top of each other. Wait for the gnocchi to rise to the top, then let them cook about a minute longer. Remove with a slotted spoon.
Meanwhile, cook the garlic, dice the macadamias, and mix with the rest of the Zang! ingredients. When the gnocchi are done, toss in a bowl with the sauce and serve. Yum!