Potato and Leek Soup

There is something about cozying up on the couch with a hot bowl of delicious soup and comfy blanket and movie that you may or may not nap through. If you are looking for a vegetarian option but an absolutely harty and delicious soup, I reccomend Potato and Leek Soup. There is no cream and yet it is absolutely luxioursously creamy, there is no meet and yet it is a completely satisfying meal.



Ingredients
2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
2 large cleaned leeks
4-5 medium red potatoes
water to cover (or chicken stock if you are ok with it not being vegetarian)
salt and peper to taste



Method:

1. Clean and soak your leeks, be careful there is usually grit in the layers as they grown in sandy soil. Although, now Trader Joes is selling them already clean and cut in their frozen veg section.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large heavy bottomed pot, large enough to hold the soup.
3. Cook the leeks with salt and pepper until they turn translucent and begin to carmelize, cover with about a quart or so of water.
3. Wash and chop the potatoes. Don't bother to peel them if they are red or yukon gold.
4. Add the potatoes, partially cover and allow to simmer until the potatoes are fork tender.
5. When mushy and delicious, blitz in a blender or use a stick blender to make the soup smooth and creamy.
6. Taste to adjust seasoning, i.e. salt and pepper.
7. Enjoy in a mug, cozy and warm.

As always, much love, many blessings, and happy cooking.

One Potato, Two Potatoes... Perogies

So what does an Egyptian-Cuban Cook do with too much mashed potatoes... sounds like a bad joke I know.... Perogies! No I'm not Polish, about as close to Poland I can get is licking Kelbasa.

Nonetheless, perogies, the polish potatoe stuffed pasta is an easy, delicious, hardy meal. To be honest I was surprised how quickly everything came together. And, if I were a hard working Polish Man who worked in the cold all day, this is what I would want. Even though I am hard working technical writer who works in a cold air conditioned office all day. Still, this will make a great fall or winter meal for a crowd.

To make the Dough

2 cups of flour

1/2 cup of warm water

2 tablespoons of sour cream

1 egg

In my handy-dandy kitchenade standing mixer, I threw in all the ingredients. Let it mix. It was done in about 2 minutes. Then I put it in some plastic wrap and stuck it in the fridge. While I made the filling.

Setting up the cooking station

Get a big pot of boiling water going, and have a large pan to fry up the dumplings as they are done.

Get your Filling On

About a cup of day old mashed potatoes

A handful of shredded cheese (any kind, I used cheddar)

I mixed the ingredients in the tupperware that the mashed potatoes were resting in.

Time to make-a da pasta

1) I rolled out the dough to about 1/8 of an inch think on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin. Really everything should be floured, you, your kitchen, your apron, it should be one beautiful white cloud puff of flour.

2)Then with an old soup can i cut out the rounds. If it is still too thick, you can roll the rounds again.

3) Fill the rounds with about 1 teaspoon of the filling.

4) Wet your fingers with water and wet the edges of each dough round so it will stick together.

5) Fold the dough rounds in half and pinch together.

6) Once all of them are done, don't be shy, just pitch them all in the boiling water and stir once so they don't stick together.

7) In about three minutes they will be done, take them out with a slotted spoon and into a hot pan with a little butter to fry up just for a minute.

8) Enjoy! I served mine with sauteed onions and some crisped up kelbasa.

There you have it Perogies in 8 steps or less. I hope you try it, its really much easier than it sounds.

As always, much love, many blessings and happy baking (or pasta making)!