Pumpkin and Potato Gnocchi

Gnocchi are tasty and surprisingly easy to make. Usually anything you have lying around the house will suffice. I've made plain potato gnocchi before, but this time around decided to make it a little more different and combine with pumpkin.
Prepare:
-Peel and chop potato and pumpkin
-Put on a tray and into a pre-heated oven (around 350F) for 20 minutes or until firm and tender (you can stick a fork and it goes all the way in, but comes out easily)-Set aside to cool for a bit (you will be handling them with your hands so cool enough that they don't hurt you)
-In a large bowl, beat 1 egg, and mix in 1 crushed clove of garlic (optional) as well as some salt
-Mash the potato and pumpkin with the egg until it's pretty liquidy-At this time, heat up a pot full of lightly salted water
-Pour in flour, about 1/4 cup at a time, constantly mixing, until it reaches a consistency that it's not so sticky on your hands, but still sticks together and can be rolled
-Roll into several "snake" shapes on a dusted surface
-Cut into bite size piecesCook:
-When the water is at a rolling boil, put the gnocchi in one by one. Don't dump them all in at the same time or the water will stop boiling too suddenly

-Once they start floating to the top (3-4 minutes), take them out-I ate them with homemade pesto, fresh basil, Parmesan, crushed red pepper, and garlic salt

Tips:

-Any normal pasta sauce will do: tomato, creamy cheese, etc. They would even work with just olive oil or butter or sour cream with some dry condiments
-I did equal parts pumpkin and potato, and it gave it a more neutral taste with neither dominating. If you wanted a more sweet flavor, I would do only pumpkin or substitute sweet potato for the potato
-Mashing in a fresh garlic clove was tasty, but a bit strong. Next time I will roast the garlic with the veggies to give a more subtle taste

Groomed Hamburger

I like my hamburgers to be a little interesting. A plain beef patty just doesn't do it for me. I had a bit of beef left over from my stir fry, so I decided to mess around with a seasoned hamburger.
Prepare:
-1/4-1/2 lb of beef, defrosted
-finely chop anything that piques your interest. I did a small chili pepper, a small clove of garlic, a bit of onion, and some fresh cilantro-mix herbs into patty, and add a splash of Worcestershire sauce (I added a bit of soy sauce and some garlic salt), and mix well. Mold into a ball
Cook:
-Preheat your grill and throw the patty on (I don't have a grill and in Australia they have this weird mini-oven as part of the oven that functions as a grill)-Cook for about 5 minutes on each side, or until the inside is the color that you like
Tips:
-Really, the hamburger can extend as far as your mind/kitchen allows. Mixing in basil, chives, oregano, parsley, etc would all work well. As would perhaps tomato or pepper, or a nice hard cheese
-I'm not sure about the egg-issue. I think the burger may benefit from an egg in the mix, but I didn't find mine lacking.
I enjoyed mine with some cheddar, tomato, cilantro, and a spicy cilantro/chili pepper sauce, with roasted pumpkin and sweet potato on the side.
Update:
-I just made an amazing batch: finely diced green onion leaves and chili pepper, hot pepper powder, garlic salt, 1 egg, and some diced fresh mozzarella. They were great.

Rice Pudding (Kheer)

I bought goat's milk yesterday and discovered that I don't really like it. Therefore, I've been looking for ways to use it. Last night I made chowder and tonight I decided to try for a dessert.
The Indian restaurant near my home in Minneapolis always had a great Sunday-afternoon buffet. The final touch of an unbelievably-filling meal was always managing to squeeze in one tiny bowl of kheer - the Indian/Pakistani sweet and rich rice pudding. This makes ~3 servings.
Prepare:
-Soak 1/4 cup of rice in cold water for an hour
- 3 cups of milk
-1/2 cup of sugar (next time, I'll use a little less- it came out pretty sweet)
-4 cardamom pods, crushed a bit
-some almonds (I didn't have that, so I used almond meal that I pinched from my house-mate. I don't think this is necessary)
-1 tsp vanilla (optional)
Cook:
-On low, cook milk and rice for 50 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so
-Turn up to low-medium, add the sugar, cardamom, almond, vanilla and cook for 20 minutes, stirring every couple minutes
-Once it reaches a nice consistency (should be a bit runny but a bit thick too) and a nice taste, serve
Tips:
-I think traditionally this is served cold, but I was excited to try it so I ate it warm and it was fine.
-It turned out surprisingly good with goat's milk, considering I don't really like it. I think it would be great with soy.
-It was a tad too sweet at the end, so I added some plain milk and mixed it in and it turned out well.
-Since I love chocolate, I figured it could have a part to play with this dessert. I mixed some chocolate chips in a small bowl of the pudding, where they quickly melted in. It tasted fine, but not that great, to be honest, and it detracted from the pudding-ness.
-This goes great with fruit. I'd say something like banana, mango, or something along those lines (not sour, not watery).

Spicy Red Stiry Fry with Rice Cakes (고추장볶음떡)

This is a simple stir fry recipe, with a Korean slant, that I made up one night. It uses ddeok (떡) which is a Korean rice cake. The ddeok is made by smashing rice into a flour-like powder, then forming this substance that tastes like rice but with an awesome chewy consistency. I suggest picking some up at a Korean market; they're pretty cheap and great to cook with. The other necessary thing is gochujang - a spicy pepper paste that is also Korean.Prepare:
-Chop up any vegetables you like for a stir fry (this time, I used okra, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, onion, chili pepper, carrot, Buk Choy, chives)
-Crush 1-3 cloves of garlic (duh)
-Prepare the ddeok: make sure it's room temperature or a bit colder and chopped up so that length-wise it's bite-size. You don't have to break it apart width-wise as they will fall apart while cooking-Get sauces ready: definitely gochujang, some chili garlic sauce, some olive oil, stock powder, oyster sauce, sesame oil, etc.
Cook:
-Heat up your wok, medium-high
-When it's hot, dump in some olive oil and the garlic
-Chuck in the veggies and ddeok (except for greener vegetables, like leaves of Buk Choy, chives, cilantro, or green onion)
-After a couple minutes, mix in your sauces: 2 whopping tablespoons of gochujang will be good
-Cook for about 7 more minutes till stuff starts looking done: ddeok should be soft, the veggies should look good. Everything should have an awesome redness about it. Mix in greens.-Once it's done, taste it. Mine was a bit salty and so I added about 1 tbsp of sugar and 1 tsp of honey and mixed it in. That sweetness made it great, complimenting the spice perfectly.

Mexicanesque Chicken Corn Chowder

I had an ear of corn lying around and as opposed to my usual steamin', I wanted to do a chowder. Searching around allrecipes yielded the usual array of corn chowders, but this "Mexican" one piqued my curiosity. This yields around 2 servings:
Prepare:
-Cut up some chicken (roughly 1/2 breast per serving) into bite-size pieces
-1 cup of hot water with a bullion cube dissolved within (1 cup of stock would work the same)
-1 ear of corn, de-kerneled
-1/2 a tomato, 1 small onion, and 1-2 chili peppers diced-1 cup of half-and-half or cream or milk+1 tbsp of butter
-A bunch of cilantro, chopped relatively well
Cook:
-In a pot on medium heat, cook chicken, 1-2 cloves of crushed garlic, and onion until chicken isn't pink anymore-Add water/stock, 1-2tbsp of cumin, bring to a boil, turn to low and cover
-Simmer for 5 minutes-Add corn, chili, and milk; turn up to medium heat
-Cook for another couple minutes then add the tomato and about half of the cilantro you have
-Let it boil for a while, until it reaches the thickness that you like (I added a tbsp of flour to mine to help with thickness)
-Once it reaches desired thickness, pour into a bowl, garnish with the rest of the cilantro and some grated cheese (cheddar, Monterey Jack, etc.)
Tips:
-Pour some corn-chips crumbs into the bowl, it gives it a nice balance of crunchy and soft and salty and whatnot
-Some avocado in the chowder works well too
-I used goat's milk (I used it because it was on sale today and I was curious how it would taste) and it gave it an interesting richness and added a bit of sourness. I think soy would give it a heartier, fuller taste whereas plain milk would be inoffensive. I think I'll use soy next time.

Nutella Pancakes with Banana or Coconut

I love chocolate. My mind frame is thus: if I'm eating something sweet, it's pointless if it doesn't have chocolate. As I was getting to sleep last night, I was dreaming about different ways to use Nutella in cooking, to give a rich, chocolatey taste. I decided that in the morning, I would make Nutella pancakes; of course, mixing one of the fruits that was made for chocolate: banana.
Prepare:
-1 cup of flour
-1 tsp of salt
-1 cup of milk (I used soy since I like the flavor. You can also add a spritz of lemon/lime juice to give it a buttermilk-type thing)
-1 banana, sliced
-1 beaten egg
-1 heaping tbsp of Nutella
Cook:
-Sift together flour and salt
-Make a little hole and pour in the beaten egg. Mix-Slowly add the milk, beating with every pour
-Add the Nutella. Mix well, as it's clumpy in the beginning but should even out towards the end
-Cover in saran wrap and put in the fridge for 30-60min to let it thicken a bit. The consistency should be pretty runny but not full-on liquid-In a pan on medium, melt some butter (normally, I'm an olive oil guy but I figured a situation like this called for butter)
-Drop 1/4cup of batter onto the pan, put the bananas on the top-After ~1 min (you should see a bit of smoke on the edges... you can feel firmness) flip it over
Coconut:
I had leftover batter after this morning (the mix makes about 6 pancakes) and so tonight for dessert I decided to try it with coconut.
Prepare:
-Same batter as above
-2 tbsp of coconut
Cook:
-In an unoiled pan, toast the coconut for about 1 minute or 2 until it starts getting brown
-Mix it with the batter and then cook the same as mentioned above

Tips:
-The pancakes weren't that sweet. You could add 1/2cup of sugar to the mix to sweeten it up. Also, chocolate chips would work quite well.
-I am not a syrup fan, so I ate 2 of the banana pancakes with honey and 1 with kiwi on top. Both were delicious
-Make the batter, make a couple pancakes, and then save the batter for later.