29.12.10

nokey.

















I mentioned that we're making gnocchi today, I may have misspoke: I am not making gnocchi. They are making gnocchi, they being mostly Dennis and then Mara. He's been making gnocchi this way for about 20 years by his estimate, ever since he saw some cold mashed potatoes in the fridge one day and thought, "hey, I wonder if I can make gnocchi out of those."

He and his mom had been making them with warm mashed potatoes, but were having problems because you could keep adding flour and adding flour and they wouldn't firm up (because they were warm), and then all of the sudden WHAMO they were like superballs.

So now, he boils 5 pounds of potatoes, mashes them til they're completely lump-free, and refrigerates them overnight. Then, the next day you get them out and they look like this.

















You add flour.























Then you keep adding flour a couple tablespoons at a time, until you think they're "about ready", which means that the dough isn't sticky, but it's still very pliable.

















Then you cook a few to see how they are.























Based on their consistency here, you add flour until they "should be perfect". Then you taste some more. Then! You call in the troops. One person is the snake station:



One person is the flipper.














Sometimes the tasks and stations overlap.

















And one person takes the results and boils them until they float. And then they go on trays to cool and be frozen.

















Sweet potato gnocchi details up next.


















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