Warm Fruitwood-Smoked Salmon with Potato Gnocchi and Balsamic Glaze - Part I

This recipe has a lot of steps so I decided to do it in two parts. Today, I made the potato gnocchi and started the chive oil.

I'd like to start out by saying that I am by no means a gnocchi expert. In fact, the last time I made them was at least 10 years ago, and it was with my Mom, who has much more experience. That being said, I think I did a pretty good job!! Sure, more than half of them came out looking slightly deformed, but for a first try, that ain't bad.

To make the gnocchi, i first baked three russet potatoes in the oven until they were cooked through. They came out of the oven and I cut them in half:

While they were still hot, I scooped the flesh out of the potatoes and put it through a ricer onto my countertop. I made a well in the middle into which I put the egg yolks, flour and salt:

Then, using my dough scraper, I quickly chopped the ingredients into a single cohesive ball:

From there, I broke off pieces of dough and rolled them into a long 'snake':

Using my dough scraper, I cut the 'snake' into pillow-shaped pieces:

Then, I rolled the pillows into balls:

And finally(!!) rolled them gently over the back of a fork to get the gnocchi shape:

From there it was into the boiling water until they floated to the top and then a dip in an ice bath to quickly stop the cooking. In the end, they looked like this:

What do you think?! Not bad for my first (solo) try!

So now that I spent 4 hours making almost 200 gnocchi, it was time to make the chive oil.

I took one cup of chopped chives and put them into a blender, covered them with canola oil, and then blended it for 5 minutes until smooth. Into a Tupperware to deepen the color overnight:

See ya'll tomorrow for Part II!

Food Sources:

Specialty Cookware - A Cook's Companion, Brooklyn, NY

Grocery Items - MET, Brooklyn, NY