Ask a Chef reveals the secrets of those superb dishes you ate in cafes and restaurants and wanted to try yourself.
Gaslight's gnocchi fungi fumee
400g potatoes, boiled then mashed
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
250g flour (they use Dover premium bakers flour)
a pinch of salt
Fungi fumee
25g finely sliced red onion
25g finely sliced leek
50g button mushrooms
25g field mushrooms
25g prosciutto, finely sliced (they use Havoc fumee)
25g jowl bacon cut into fine lardons (they use Havoc jowl bacon from the pigs' cheeks)
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp dried wild mushrooms (they use forestier) soaked and blended with water
fresh herb mix, finely chopped (they use chives, chervil and Italian flat-leafed parsley)
white truffle oil
Method
To make the gnocchi:
Boil the potatoes as if you are going to make mash, but keep them as dry as possible. Mix until they are a smooth mash. Beat in the eggs and yolks.
Add flour and combine to make a dough. You may need more flour depending on how wet the mix is. Wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Roll into sausages no thicker than your thumb. Pinch and cut the sausages into little pillow shapes.
To cook, drop into boiling water. When they float to the top they are done.
To make the sauce:
In a hot pan put a squirt of canola oil. Add the onion, leek, sliced mushrooms. Add the prosciutto and lardons and fry until golden brown.
Add the soaked wild mushrooms and your cooked gnocchi. Season to taste and finish with herbs and a drizzle of white truffle oil.
Requested by Nik Dunbar-Mann, of Dunedin.
This recipe comes from Martin Thomson, head chef at Gaslight in St Andrew St.
• If you have enjoyed a dish in an Otago cafe or restaurant and would like the recipe, write to Ask a Chef, Features, Otago Daily Times, PO Box 181, Dunedin, fax 474-7422, or email odt.features@odt.co.nz, including your name, address and a daytime telephone number, and we will request it.
