Eating Your Pierogies

Now that you have a freezer full of home-made pierogies, I’ll tell you about eating them.

Bring a pot of water, about 6 cups, to a rolling boil.  Slice half of a yellow or red onion and fry in a skillet.  Drop in four to six frozen pierogies at a time into the boiling water.  Once the pierogies float to the surface of the water they are cooked.  Remove with a slotted spoon and fry a little on both sides with the onion, add a smidge of butter and salt to the pan.

Serve with a side of sour cream or ranch dressing.  Bacon pieces are optional but highly recommended.  These are also a great companion to ham or sauerkraut.

The last batch I made about a year ago was shared with a friend, being Texan they ate the pierogies with salsa.  Huh?  Salsa?!?  I’m not going to do such a sacrilegious thing, but they raved about it afterwards and wanted more.  I never made more for them.  Not out of spite for them ruining perfectly good perogies with salsa, no that’s not it.  Pierogies are seasonal to me.  They are heavy and warm, like someone’s arm wrapped around you when they fall asleep, they’re hard to get off.  Only the pierogies stick to your ribs and thighs instead of your shoulders.

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Potato Cakes

These are not latkes as you might expect from the title.  These potato cakes are made from leftover mashed potatoes.  I added egg, flour, salt and pepper to the leftover mash, just eyeball until it will hold together.  Fry ’em up in some canola oil and you have yourself a brunch side dish.

Oh.  Never mind that little yellow feller.  He’s a gift from the Grandparents when they visited China.  His feet are hollow to hold chopsticks.  You know, like training wheels!  Big Brother still has troubles with chopsticks, Little Sister just holds one and stabs her food on to the stick.  Forks are always provided but they like to try different things too.  I’ll bet their little prima can use chopsticks blindfolded.  She was born there, in China, and had Chinese nannies for the first year of her life.

Must be cool to have kids abroad.  Oh, wait.  My kids are born abroad!  Nice.

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Leek and Potato Soup

Apart from the bacon garnish, this soup was prepared 100% vegan.  I’m not a vegan but sometimes have dairy issues, this is a warm comforting dish made without dairy, meat or MSG.

Start by making a vegetable stock with any leftover bits of veggies you have hanging around, if you have been paying attention you will have a small store of frozen end-of-veg ready for this occasion.  Add a garlic clove and pinch of salt, then barely cover the vegetables with water in a pot.  Bring to a boil and simmer for at least 30 minutes.

Cut the dark green tops off 2 – 3 leeks (use the greens in the stock).  Clean and finely slice the white ends of the leeks.  Slice a spring onion.  Crush and mince a garlic clove.  Dice 2 – 3 yellow potatoes.

Strain the veggies from the stock.

In a second pot, melt a spoonful of coconut oil.  Begin with the leek and onion, stirring to coat each slice.  When they are translucent add the garlic.  Cook until everything gets a hint of brown but be careful not to burn them.  Add the potatoes and stock.  Add a pinch of salt and 1/4 tsp white pepper.  Bring the liquid to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are soft.

Blend the soup to a smooth texture.  If you prefer some chunks of potato in the soup then blend half to 2/3rds of the soup.  Return the soup to the pot and keep warm until ready to eat.  Garnish with chives and bacon (isn’t there vegan bacon?)

Makes 4 servings.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

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Feeling French Today

Bonjour!

Without realizing it, or even planning it, today ended up being on the Frenchy side.  For breakfast, I made crepes filled with fresh blueberries and whip cream.  Lunch was a vichyssoise made with out cream and served warm with home made rolls.  The carnivorous Hubby was slightly miffed there was a severe lack of meat thus far.  Tough bananas baby!

Blueberry Crepes

Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens

• 1 large egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tbsp melted butter
• sprinkle salt

Whisk.  Pour into a pan with melted butter, swirl.  Brown on one side.  Flip.  Cook until done but not browned.  Fill with whipped cream and fresh blueberries.

Vichyssoise Lite

Adapted from Cooking with Herbs & Spices by Craig Claiborne

• 1 bunch leeks
• 1/2 yellow onion
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 3 russet potatoes
• 2 cups chicken stock (or vegetable stock)
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• salt and pepper to taste
• chives (garnish)

Special equipment: blender, immersion blender, or food mill.

Trim the green part of the leeks off, save for making stock.  Thoroughly rinse the whites, cut in half lengthwise to release the layers and the sand between them.

Jullienne the leek and onion.  In a large soup pot, add the oil and butter over medium heat, add the leek and onion and cook until it begins to brown.  Add chicken stock and potatoes.  Bring to a boil then simmer for 20 minutes.  Blend the soup and return to the pot.  Add the milk, adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

Serve garnished with chives.

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Meatball Soup

• Italian sausage
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, sliced
• 2 red potatoes, quartered
• 1 sweet potato, cubed
• 5 carrots, diced
• 2 cups homemade chicken stock
• 2 cups water
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tsp oregano
• sea salt and pepper to taste

This is a new way to cook sausage for me and I owe it to cookinginvictoria on Food52 for the inspiration of this soup.  Cookinginvictoria made sausage for a pasta sauce, homemade and from scratch of course, you don’t expect anything less from the Food52 cats.

Prepare the sausage by removing it from the casing and dividing each link into equal pieces, mine were divided in fourths.  Form balls and place them on a rack on a cookie sheet covered in foil.  This allows the air to circulate all around the sausage, cooking and browning it on all sides.  No turning needed!  Use a fairly hot oven (400ºF) and cook for about 12 minutes, as I said they should be golden all over.

Bring the remaining ingredients together in a pot and add the sausage hot out of the oven to finish cooking in the soup.

 

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A Canadian Staple: Poutine!

It was one of those nights where the kids were eating everything in sight and I couldn’t make heads or tails out of what to make for dinner. Even though the kids were probably going to be full by the time this was accomplished.

Left overs are often inspiration to my dinners. Tonight was no exception. Gravy was lingering in the fridge from a Sunday chicken. Use it or toss it? Being the frugal pack-rat I am, I opted to use the gravy to make myself a plate of poutine. This was also an opportunity to use my mandolin 🙂 I believe poutine originated in eastern Canada, in the French dominant province of Quebec, hence the French term for it. If you visit Montreal, you need to find authentic poutine. It looks like a heart attack on a plate: fries, gravy (the brown kind), and cheese curds. I’ve seen variations that include bacon and well, nearly a whole meal piled up on the heap of freshly fried potatoes. If you are a poutine virgin, I suggest to start out easy!

Poutine traces back to my high school days. We had a cafeteria which was run by the home economics department, which was the teacher and only cook at the school. Everyday students would help in the kitchen to serve their comrades a ration of food for those with allowances or summer jobs around the farms of the community. I saved every penny earned to treat myself to a hot gooey cheesy plate of poutine. Often this teenage delicacy was shared with a close friend. Those were the days before I ever cared about calories, you spent most of any excess by shivering in the cold waiting for a bus to take you from the outskirts of town to school and back. (It wasn’t cool to wear appropriate winter gear in -25C)

I loved poutine so much that I nearly had a heart attack when I found out Texas had no idea what this sinful dish was. None. Whatsoever. Until, I found a pack of my own kind in amongst the urban Texas landscape. The C.I.A. or Canadians in Austin. I’m saved! I towed hubby along to a C.I.A. celebration where they promised Beer and Poutine. It was either Canada Day or Grey Cup, can’t quite recall (probably due to the copious amount of poutine consumed – fat overload). But boy was it GOOD!

Now I sit alone in a corner of my house with a Pepsi and my poutine. While it lacks the authentic cheese curds, it’s still a welcome treat.

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Twice Cooked Potato Hash

This is another example of left-overs making a second showing on the plate.

• two baked golden potatoes, cubed
• one roma tomato, seeded and diced
• two or three slices of bacon, cut into lardons
• two thick slices of onion, quatered
• one clove garlic, minced
• fresh rosemary
• herbes de provence
• salt and pepper

Render down the bacon over low heat.  Take out the bacon as it gets crispy, and use a paper towel to remove half of the fat from the pan.  Turn up the heat.  Add the onion first, then the garlic.  Add the herbs, then the potatoes.  Get a bit of crispy on the potatoes before you add the tomato.  Season with salt and pepper to your taste.

I made the hash as a side for burgers for dinner.  There was some left for brunch the next day, which paired equally as well with french toast.  Bon appetit!

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The Hare Never Wins

It’s 6:32pm. 

Baby is tired and crying after a bottle.  Husband is looking in the kitchen for a morsel to eat.  Boy is running around chasing the dog.  What’s for dinner?

This is a daily question.  You know it’s coming, and even about what time.  Yet I, like so many other moms I’m sure,  can’t fathom what to bring to the table as the minutes tick away on the wall clock in the kitchen.  Food is what I enjoy in life, why does it cause me such turmoil on a weekly basis? 

Pick up the baby.  Let the dog outside.  Get a glass of milk for the boy.  A moment to think, please!

It’s the end of the month so there’s not much in the fresh persuasion left in the fridge.  I look in the freezer.  Bingo! Perogies!!!  Luckily, there’s an onion and some butter in the fridge, exactly what you would use to brighten up lazy frozen perogies.  Any sausage or ham would have done wonderfully IF I HAD THEM.  I boil some water and drop in my hand-made potato-cheddar-bacon perogies (I will post the recipe later).  Meanwhile I throw butter and onion slices in a pan.  Drain those perogies and plop them on top of the onions.  I crank up the heat because everyone is waiting for dinner. 

Distraction.  Baby wants to go lay down.  Dog wants back inside.  Boy is pulling shirt and out of milk.  “What are you making dear?” 

The smell of something burning grabs my attention.  My onions!  I put down the baby and tell my boy to stand back as I race to the stove to find something rather disheartening.  This..

…had turned to this…    

Onions are scorched.  Perogies are dry.  Dinner in a hurry is a hard thing to ask for, especially during the week.  I should have kept the heat down or not turned around.  You’d think I would have learned this by now, the hare never wins the race.  I pick off the onions and add a little butter to the pan to try to salvage this disaster of an attempt to “quickly” prepare dinner.  Top them off with plain yogurt and dig in.  At least I didn’t have to start over with something else.

Next time I will be more like a tortoise.

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Baked Samosas de Aarti

Have I said I love food?  You should see what Aarti is cooking up, I’ve been trying her recipes.  For instance, Baked Samosas, which are so yummy and have inspired some ideas (stick around to find out what I’ll be remixing them into…)  Aarti (I hope you’re reading this!) has also inspired me to start this blog.  I don’t think I’ll end up on the Food Network any time soon, but I sure admire her for doing so!    

Samosas baking away and filling the house with yumminess

 

In my first attempt of Baked Samosas, I pretty much stuck to the recipe, and added some peas to the mix.  I didn’t have chipotle sauce so I used the chipolte chili powder and chipotle tobasco sauce as a substitute.  No ajwain seeds either (another reason to “have to” go to the indian market), so I used a little dried oregano in the dough.    

Baked Samosas with Peas

 

Just look at them and you’ll be hungry.  I couldn’t wait to eat some as soon as they came out of the oven. Ouch! Okay, let’s wait a little bit for them to cool off.   

    

I wish I may.    

I wish I might.     

Let me eat samosas tonite!   

    

KUDOS Miss Aarti, keep doing what you do.  I can’t wait to try more of your delicious food!  Best of luck on FN!!!

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