Nigella's potato Rostini is a really simple recipe, and this blog is a bit of a doddle really, as Nigella makes this dish vegan without even realising it. Thanks Nigella!!!.
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| Nigella says "No worries Megan I did it for you" |
Nigella prepares the rostini as a quick and delicious alternative to baked potatoes, which is a great idea if you want the comfort-food factor of roasties on a cold wintery night, but its mid-week, you've just rushed home from work and you don't have time to do something for dinner that takes ages to cook. She served these as a side dish, but I did mine as finger-food for my guests.
I made the decision to do these as I was under a bit of time pressure, I'd invited my guests around at short notice as they'd had some bad news during the day and needed comforting. To provide a very little bit of back-story, my very good friend and her husband went through the awful experience of having to put their beloved pet dog to rest. The poor guy had been struggling with health issues for a long time, and despite everyone's best efforts really started to lose his battle with cancer. Frankly, if I'm ever in that condition I'd like someone to put me out of my misery.
So.... cook some food to make it all better after your friend's dog had to be put to sleep. No pressure Megan just don't fuck it up.
I raced home from work on my push-bike, a journey that would usually take 55 minutes took me an hour twenty, I had the "weight penalty" AKA my work lap-top, and there was more wind than a baked beans convention out there.
I staggered off my bike, and dived into my car for a quick trip to the shops for a few nibbles and drinks and things. As I was leaving the supermarket and loading my car with goodies, I got that SMS from my friend. "We're on our way over. Can't bear to go home to a dog-less house".
I used the spare 30 seconds I had to sit in my car at the supermarket car park and cry. I knew that SMS meant that our big mate's battle had come to an end. I toughened myself up and drove home, to get organised for my guests.
Phew... okay back to cooking. The rostini are incredibly simple to make. You will need.
-1 packet of store bought gnocchi. (to make sure its vegan check the label, usually the ones that are vacuum packed on the shelf are vegan, less likely for the 'fresh' types in the fridge section) Gnocchi is traditionally made with potatoes, flour and eggs. Many factories substitute the eggs with more potato-starch to stick them together as its a lot cheaper to make that way.
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| Generic picture of a packet of gnocchi |
-vegetable oil (you are going to use quite a lot of this, so a cheaper blended vegetable oil is fine it doesn't have to be expensive extra-virgin olive oil)
-salt.
Quite simply, you will be deep-frying the gnocchi and sprinkling it with a bit of salt at the end. However, this wouldn't be my blog if I didn't pedantically outline every step you need to take from which drawer the spoons are in to what my cats are doing while I'm cooking, so let's press on.
Firstly you need a clean and dry fry-pan, deep enough to deep fry the gnocchi. If you're not sure if your pan is deep enough open the packet of gnocchi and take one gnocchi out. (funny the word gnocchi is like sheep!.... singular is the same as the plural) hold it up next to your fry-pan. If there's room for it to be completely covered in oil in there, then the pan is deep enough. If in doubt go for a deeper pan, or even a wok.
Pour a generous amount of oil into the pan. You need to heat this oil before frying. Turn the stove up to high.
Safety note: deep frying isn't an activity you can walk away from, once you start heating the oil you really need to stay in the kitchen. One of the most common house fire types are those caused by cooking oil and it doesn't take much for the stuff to ignite.
Depending on factors such as how cold your oil was to start with, how much oil you have, how wide your pan is and how hot your stove top can get your oil may take anything from a couple of minutes up to ten minutes to heat enough to fry stuff in. If you're not sure the oil is ready but want to test it you can get a small cube of stale bread and drop it in. If the bread sizzles nicely and goes golden brown within about ten seconds then the oil is ready to go. If the bread just sits there, and soaks up the oil then you need to wait for it to heat up some more.
Once the oil is heated you will need to put the gnocchi in. Do this carefully as the oil might splash and I don't want you to get injured. If you can stand at arm's length from the pot, and tip the gnocchi in from as close above the level of the oil as you can. This will help the gnocchi fall into the pot at a slower speed, creating less splash. Feel free to have some judges standing by to give them a high-score on the double-pike-splash-free-entry.
Then, let them deep fry. They'll take a while. Nigella said that hers took fifteen minutes. The oil will bubble furiously. Remain at your station, and use a spatula or wooden spoon to gently stir every now and then, this will just make sure that nothing gets stuck to the bottom or sides of the pot.
My boy cat came in to entertain me while I was making my rostini.
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| Yep... I'm a cat. |
Personally... I can't wait to make these again, let them cool down a little and toss some through a big green salad for a bit of added interest and possibly a big middle-finger in the direction of eating salads as a form of self-loathing and calorie restriction. The salad is a beautiful beautiful thing. But that's a topic of another blog (or twenty).
So in conclusion... Making this one vegan was easy-peasy. Nigella already made it vegan. No differences, no comparisons to make. Enjoyment factor? they all got consumed by my guests. They do make a bit of a conversation point... "Really, you can deep fry gnocchi?"
Have fun cooking something vegan :)
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