Gnocchi Parisienne

So, I tried out a new recipe, all by myself, tonight.  It was from Food & Wine and Jacques Pepín.  I knew it was ambitious to try out a new recipe and a new technique while simultaneously supervising Lulu alone, but I did it!  While putting this together, I was able to also feed dinner to Lulu, wash dishes, do an art project with Lulu, and run Lulu's bath.

I'd like to see Jacque Pepín do that!

So, Gnocchi Parisienne are basically a French variation on gnocchi without the potatoes, using a pate a choux recipe instead.  I've never made pate a choux before, so I was a bit nervous about that part, but it went together swimmingly.

I boiled water, salt, and butter together and then added the flour into it before transferring it to a mixing bowl and adding the eggs and parmesan cheese.

cooked dough having eggs and cheese beaten into it

Then, I had to transfer the dough into a zip-loc bag and squeeze it into boiling water while cutting off pieces with a sharp knife.  Um, yeah.

the ersatz pastry bag

But, I managed to do that without cutting myself and the gnocchi turned out pretty well!  They look just a bit like pretzels...

half-way finished product, post boiling pre-baking

And once they were boiled and submerged in an ice water bath, then I transferred them into a 9x13 baking pan to cook for 25 minutes in the oven to puff up.  Afterwards, they had to be put about 6" under the broiler until they were browned.

the finished product!

Once Gropius came home from teaching his night class, we enjoyed them with a nice 2009 Alsatian gewurztraminer along with sautéed chicken paillards and haricots vert.  Once Lulu went to bed, of course.