Scratch Cooking Day 37

So today was a market and cooking day. I have a bumper crop of Swiss Chard and saw a recipe in Bon Appetit for Swiss Chard ricotta Gnudi with fall mushrooms that I thought would be fun to make. Gnudi is a kind of gnocchi, made with ricotta cheese and not potatoes. I picked up some chanterelle and lobster mushrooms at the farmers market to make the sauce, along with a bunch of other produce.

First, I made some ricotta cheese with milk, cream and lemon juice. Ricotta is really easy to make, you just boil a half gallon of milk, cup of cream and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Add 3-4 tablespoons of lemon juice and stir over low heat for about 2 minutes or until it curdles. Drain in a collander lined with cheese cloth, discard the liquid and refrigerate for a couple of hours. The home made stuff is so darn good and easy, there is no reason to buy that gelatinous junk that comes in the tub at the grocery store and contains all kinds of stabilizers and massive amounts of salt.

Anyway, I used the ricotta to make the gnudi dough which needs to refrigerate over night so I won't know how it turns out until tomorrow. The dough had 1 pound of Swiss chard, trimmed, steamed and squeezed dry, 1/2 cup parmesan, 1 cup ricotta, salt, 1/4 cup shallots (I used sweet onion instead) pepper, nutmeg, 1 egg and 1/2 cup flour (I used gluten free flour).

After that I got started on some truffles, a request from the hostess of a potluck we went to tonight. I decided to make rosemary truffles. 1 cup cream, 1/4 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla heated to boiling with 6 sprigs of rosemary. Let it steep for 20 minutes. Discard the rosemary and reheat the cream to a simmer. Pour over 14 oz chopped semi-sweet chocolate. Refrigerate a few hours until firm. Roll into balls and coat with melted dark chocolate. Refrigerate until hard. Everybody seemed to like them. The rosemary flavor was nice and worked well with the chocolate.

My daughter and her best friend made a raspberry tart with some raspberries I got at the farmer's market. It also got rave reviews, especially the crust, so a successful dessert making night for everyone.

At the party, there were a lot of nice people. I met a really cool 16 year old girl and her mom. The girl's name is Athena, very close to my daughter's name, and her mom is Lesley, so that was a funny coincidence! Anyway, Athena is interested in environmental issues and has plans to go live on one of those communities that gets off the grid and lives off the land. We all spent a long time talking about environment, cooking, growing food, cutting down on waste and getting back to the basics. It is inspiring to see how this new generation embraces change and understands the personal responsibility for creating it. You could tell this girl is a leader already and poised to do great things for the world. Very impressive and exciting to be around!

Speaking of which, I went to see No Impact Man last night. It's definitely inspiring and worth seeing. Yes, what they did is pretty extreme, but I think it does get you thinking about what we really need and what we can actually live without. Congratulations to Colin, Michelle and Isabella for taking it on and sharing their journey with such honesty and humor.

If anyone is in LA and wants to go see him speak, Colin will be speaking at the LA Library ALOUD series on September 23rd. It's free but you need tickets. I have at least 2, maybe 3 extra tickets, so let me know if you want to come!

Okay, off to bed. Tomorrow I am finishing the gnudi and making brioche...