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Donna Hay's Standby Brownies make the perfect afternoon treat,
I am an enormous believer in instinct: whenever I allow myself to be deflected from what I think is right, I regret it; whether in the kitchen, or out of it. But here, in the kitchen, it went like this: I had, in the small hours, one of my bathetic revelations that if I fried some gnocchi, they might turn out like my Express sautéed potatoes. I mentioned the idea around and was met with, at best polite, grimaces. I insisted, tried it out, and luxuriated in how right I was.
These are crisp on the outside, fluffy inside and totally scrumptious. And, in fact, rather than being like sautéed potatoes they are really more like miniature roasties, hence the title.
If you want, you actually can roast them, and they’ll need 10 minutes a side in an oven preheated to 200°C. I find more than 250g is difficult to fry, so the oven’s a good option (if a little slower) when you want to feed lots of people. I’ve allowed 250g, that’s half a packet (the other half will keep, sealed, in the fridge for up to 3 days
and in the deep-freeze for up to 1 month) of gnocchi for 2 people, but I have a sliding scale: 100g per head for children, 125g for normal people and 150g per head for men and teenage boys.
And I have to tell you how good they are as a quick kitchen canapé, when they’re piping hot, gorgeously golden and sprinkled with sea salt flakes along with a cold,cold beer.
Recipe from Nigella Kitchen by Nigella Lawson, published by Chatto & Windus, part of the Random House Group Ltd.
www.nigella.com
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