Poached Egg with Fried Gnocchi; He’s a good boy! (apparently)

Poached Egg with Fried Gnocchi

Remember last week when I was (in someone's opinion, obviously) a good girl?

This week, mon mari was (in someone's opinion, obviously) a good boy.

One more shameless plea for votes:  Have you voted yet?  For me?  in the Food Blog Awards?  Please?

This morning, whilst I stayed home to do laundry (remember:  the washing machine cycle is 2 hours long… Laundry is serious business at Vlad's house.  It takes 2 loads to do the bedding and I can't run the washer and dryer at the same time without blowing a fuse.  You figure it out.)

Back to mon mari…

He was over at our house by himself, no me to translate, no girl dogs to bark, and 2 young men pulled up in a big, beat-up van.

He explained that he didn't speak French.

They ignored him.

Apparently they had spotted the huge, metal radiator that we had hauled out of the kitchen… With great effort I might add.

In my mind I'm picturing all of the gesticulating going on….

They wanted the metal.

They wanted all of the metal mon mari   could give them.

He spent a very happy morning watching these two, very brawny, young lads, hauling all the metal crap out of every nook and cranny in our house, barn and basement.

For those who have never bought an old French farmhouse, let me explain that they are not left, um, clean.  We borrowed a huge farm trailer to clear out the house in the Vendee…  We've already hauled many trailer loads of lighter stuff from here.  They wanted the big, heavy metal stuff.

To give you an idea: they took an old water tank, an old water heater, a dozen or so barrel hoops, a load of old rusty pipe, a load of copper pipe, rabbit hutches, and more out of the basement;  radiators and broken farm implements out of the barn; huge metal troughs out of the garden…. 

Mon mari figures that he would have had to cut both the water tank and water heater into pieces in order to get them out.

Mon mari figures they saved him 2 or 3 days of heavy labor.

He keeps saying:  Those guys were really strong!

I couldn't help but point out that they were collecting metal… Not plastic….

Mon mari is a very happy guy today.

So I'll make him something nice for dinner.

The starter is always his favorite part of the meal – and this is one of his starters:

Poached Eggs with Fried Gnocchi

24 fresh gnocchi about 1/3 of a package of fresh gnocchi
2 slices Prosciutto, 1.5oz (50gr) or other dry-cured ham
2 eggs
1 tbs butter
1/2 tbs olive oil
1 tbs wine vinegar, any flavor

Gnocchi: Heat water in a medium pot for gnocchi. When boiling, add the gnocchi and cook just until they all float, 1 – 2 minutes. Drain and rinse lightly with cool water. Heat butter and oil in a medium nonstick skillet. Add gnocchi and sauté until light brown, stirring and turning occasionally. Roughly chop Prosciutto and add to skillet when gnocchi is first starting to brown. `
Eggs: Fill a medium skillet with water. The water should be at least 1 1/2 inches deep, 2 inches (5 cm) would be better. Heat water over medium-high heat. Add vinegar. When water is softly boiling, reduce heat and poach eggs: one at a time break egg into a small saucer. Swirl a spoon in the water where you will put the egg – off to the side. When water is swirling drop egg into center of swirl. With slotted spoon try to keep the white together. Do next egg. With regular spoon scoop some hot water over tops of eggs. Poach for 3 minutes or until white is set but yolk is still very soft. Remove eggs with a slotted spoon.
To finish: Arrange gnocchi and Prosciutto on small plates. Top with a poached egg, salt and pepper, if desired. Serve.

In addition to the above, for the week of January 23 we have Salmon en Croute with Tarragon Sauce, Veal Marsala, Pasta Amatriciana, no-crust Cheesy Beef and Potato Pie, Stir-Fried Chicken with Peanuts….

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