Sweet Potato Gnocchi with (leftover) Braised Short Ribs

Holidays... quality time with family, delicious home-cooked meals, just being lazy on the couch while watching good movies, and hopeful planning for the coming year!

After all the good memories, I usually end up having two post-holiday issues.

One is my enlarged waist. (Hmm… it is time for exercises.)
The other is the leftover foods in my fridge. Yes! It is also time to unleash your creativity and think about what you can make with those leftover goodies.

Today, I want to share my sweet potato gnocchi recipe which can be mixed with any leftover meats or vegetables. For today’s recipe I will mix gnocchi with leftover soy sauce braised short rib from my lunar New Year’s Day feast. (For the braised short rib recipe with soy sauce, click here.)

When you carve out braised meats from the bones, you might have some bits of braised meat fall apart. Please save all those bits and use them later for the gnocchi. Shred or cut big chunks of leftover braised short ribs and mix them with the saved bits.


Sweet Potato Gnocchi
with (leftover) Braised Short Ribs

(Yield: 8-10 servings / Cooking time: 1.5 hour)


Ingredients:
+ 1 sweet potato (yam) --> ~385 gram
+ 2 Idaho potatoes --> ~325 gram each
+ 2 cups all-purpose flour (+ some more for dusting)
+ 10g grated parmesan cheese
+ 1/2 beaten egg
+ a pinch of ground nutmeg
+ salt and pepper

+ 1 pint leftover braised short ribs (for recipe click here), shredded or cut into small pieces
+ 1 cup of white chicken stock (for recipe click here), or water
+ 1/2 chopped shallot
+ 5-6 sliced mini Portobello mushroom
+ olive oil
+ a few scallions for garnish


Procedures:

1. Steam sweet potato and potatoes for 35-40 minutes until they are cooked through*. If a tip of paring knife can slide into the potatoes without any resistance, potatoes are cooked through.


* It is very important to cook the potatoes as dry as possible for light gnocchi. That’s why steaming is better than boiling in this case, and also is the reason for leaving the skins unpeeled. The best way to cook them dry is roasting in the oven. To roast the potatoes, cut them in half and poke several times with a fork, and bake in 425°F (218°C) preheated oven for an hour.


2. Peel both the sweet potato and Idaho potatoes and mash roughly. Then, pass them through a fine sieve to make sure there is no lump.


3. Mix the fine mashed sweet potato & Idaho potatoes, grated parmesan, 1.5 cup of flour, pinch of ground nutmeg, and a half of one beaten egg. Season the mixture with salt and pepper lightly. You might not need to add all 2 cups of flour... Use only 1.5 cup first, and then add more if needed. To have light and fluffy but not chewy gnocchi, please do not use too much flour but just enough to combine the dough together.


4. Dust countertop with enough flour and knead gently another a few minutes until the dough is smooth. Add additional flour if needed. Divide the gnocchi dough into 5-6 batches, and roll each batch into 3/4 inch (=~2cm) diameter log. Then, cut the log into 3/4 inch (=~2cm) pieces with a knife or a bench knife.



5. Place the cut gnocchi pieces in a tray dusted with enough flour.


6. While rolling gnocchi, boil a big pot of water to cook gnocchi.

7. When water boils rapidly, drop gnocchi gently into the boiling water.


8. When gnocchi are cooked, they float to top of water. Remove the floating gnocchi to ice bath with a slotted spoon to stop the cooking process.



9. When gnocchi are cooled enough, drain and place them in a sheet pan and drizzle olive oil to coat the gnocchi. The olive oil will prevent gnocchi from sticking to each other.

10. Drizzle olive oil on a pan. Sweat shallot and sauté mushroom slices over medium heat. When mushrooms are cooked, add leftover braised short ribs in a pan with 1 cup of water or chicken stock. When the liquid is reduced and thickened little bit, add cooked gnocchi to just reheat and glaze them with the reduced liquid. Sprinkle some chopped scallions for garnish.


Enjoy~