fryinggnocchi
This is turning out to be harder than I expected. I had gnocchi at a restaurant which had a crispy outside. I fail to consistently achieve this.
I have tried shallow frying — gnocchi just absorbs all the oil.
Pan frying — gnocchi seems to cook through before getting crispy.
Any help?
Kenji Alt has devoted one of his Food Lab columns to carnitas.
The key to his method is he cooks the pork in a manner akin to confit, under fat in the oven. This low and slow method makes it tender and flavorful.
Then, he broils it before service to crisp up.
The easiest way is just like this. What's the best approach to get runny-yolk sunny side up fried eggs? but with broken yolks and more time.
This pan would would be perfect if it had a lid that fits, but this lid will be do the trick. Your pan should be non-stick with sloping sides, 8" is perfect for 2 eggs, but larger is fine too. I set the heat to one click below medium [YMMV*], and give the burner and pan a good 2 minutes to heat up. Add the butter and let it reach the point that it stops sizzling. When the butter stops sizzling, add the eggs. To keep track for this answer, I set my timer at this point. Let them cook uncovered until the bottom is opaque, about 1 minute. Add about 1 tablespoon of water and cover.
So far everything is just like the prior answer for sunny side up eggs.
Let the eggs steam until they start to get a bit of white on top, about 1 more minute. Now poke the yolks and use a spoon to baste the top of the eggs with hot butter, replace the lid. Let them cook until they are as hard as you like them. Mine looked just about done at 3.5 minutes. Had I just let them cook one more minute, covered, they would have been fine and ready to plate.
You don't need to flip. If you do choose to flip, don't do it until they eggs are very close to being done. You can use a spatula if you like, but I much prefer the pan-flip. He demonstrates it here at 3:05. Egg Flip Just be sure that your eggs are easily sliding around before you flip. The guy in the video makes it seem harder than it is. Since your yolks are already broken, it's really super easy if you have a non-stick pan with sloping sides and plenty of butter. So I flipped at 3.5 minutes, then covered and let them go for 30 more seconds.
Pro trick: before you plate the eggs, use a paper towel to wipe any extra butter out of the pan, then just tilt the eggs out of the pan onto the plate, that makes for a tidy presentation. I never touched a spatula to these eggs.
*YMMV Your Mileage May Vary
Best Answer
If the exterior of the gnocchi you had at the restaurant was crispy in the sense that it had a crunch to it, then they probably dropped it in a deep fryer for a minute or so to crisp it up.
I usually saute mine in clarified butter to brown the exterior and form a crust but it's not necessarily "crispy".
Regardless of what you're frying and whether you're shallow or deep-frying it, the problem of absorbing oil and turning out greasy is due to not having your oil hot enough, or adding too much food at once and dropping the temperature too much.
You usually want to fry between 350 and 375 degrees. If you're using a thermostat controlled fryer or electric skillet, then I suggest setting the temperature at 365 degrees so you still have room for up to a 15 degree drop in temperature without detriment to the food.
When food is fried the oil heats up the moisture inside the food product which then turns to steam and forces its way out. As the steam pushes outward it creates the visible bubbles we see. It's the force of the steam pushing outward that keeps the oil from going in to the food. As the temperature drops and thus the pressure from the steam, or the moisture has cooked away and food isn't removed when its done, the food starts to absorb the oil and turn greasy.