Hearty Winter Dinner Plan: Tomato Basil Soup with Homemade Piergois
My Dad is very Polish. My mother is half Polish. I guess if you are only half polish you just don’t make piergois, because she has never made them for my very Polish father in their 30 years of marriage (she does make Gołąbki). Being 3/4 Polish I thought I should do service to my ancestors and figure out how to make these delectable little dumplings. Where to look? The interwebz. A fancy site? Nah. About.com did the trick. Here is the recipe: http://pittsburgh.about.com/od/recipes/r/pierogies.htm. The crazy thing is the fat in the dough is actually SOUR CREAM. This means if you have basic dough ingredients, sour cream in fridge and potatoes in your pantry you can make piergois RIGHT NOW!
Now, You are welcome to fill your ‘rogies with whatever you want. I took some leftover mashed potatoes, sauteed an onion and added some shredded cheddar cheese to the mix. They were delicious. Or ‘legit’ as I pronounced about 500 times. Other ideas for filling are cabbage and onion, sauerkraut, or sweet cheese and blueberry.
Some Tips: Take the extra time to mix by hand. I have made this recipe a couple of times with my kitchen aid mixer. Left without this kitchen tool in Massachusetts, I was forced to use some muscle and the dough improved considerably. Even if you just do the hand mix once it gives you a much better idea of what the dough should look and feel like.
How to actually cook them: I have boiled. I have sauteed. The best thus far, a quick boil (just so that they float to the top) spray off with cold water and then pat dry. THEN sauté in butter. Serve with sour cream and apple sauce. PERFECTO!
I asked my dad if he “felt transported to back to his childhood”. He didn’t really confirm or deny, but he helped himself to few more pierogis while he could get them.
I posted this soup recipe in my previous post about my New England Thanksgiving. Since it may have been a little buried within my narrative, I thought I would take a minute and re-post it all on its own and add my fantastic Piergoi recipe to make a meal.
Tomato Basil Soup:
Makes one large pot. Enough for a 10. Or two days of leftovers.
Equipment: Immersion blender, food processor, or blender
Ingredients:
2-3 (14/16oz) cans of chopped/diced tomatoes
1/2 cup olive oil (divided)
Salt and Pepper (freshly ground if possible)
2 stalks celery
3 small carrots
1 yellow onion
3 cloves garlic
2 cups chicken broth
2.5 tablespoons butter
1 cup or more of basil leaves
1 can coconut milk
Optional:
Croutons or Shredded Cheese
Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Strain canned chopped tomatoes and reserve the liquid. Spread out the tomatoes on a cookie sheet and pour over 1/4 cup olive oil and salt and pepper generously. Mix everything up with clean hands. Pop the tomatoes into preheated oven for 15-18 minutes. The tomatoes should have a ‘roasted’ look to them.
In a saucepan (I use a dutch oven and its mmmmgood) heat remaining cup of olive oil, celery, carrot, onion and garlic. Let veggies get soft for around 8-12 minutes. Take roasted tomatoes out of the oven and add to saucepan. Add reserved liquid, chicken broth, and butter. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, until vegetables are very tender. Add basil (no need to chop) and coconut milk. Puree the soup with a handheld immersion blender or with a food processor (be sure to let it cool if you decide to use a food processor).Serve with croutons or shredded cheese.
*this recipe has been upgraded by me over a couple of years , but is based on Michael Chiarello’s Homemade Tomato Soup recipe*
In my cooking frenzy I forgot to take my own images. This one is from Flickr Creative Commons.
Brain Food; Halloween treats
Here in South Texas it can be hard to get into the spirit of the fall and winter holidays the way I did back home in Massachusetts. The temperature here was in the 90s all week, which is more the type of weather that makes you want to grab a sundress and head to the beach than throw on a sweater and head to pumpkin patch. Undaunted, I have still been getting my pumpkin on despite the uncooperative weather, in the form of pumpkin latte’s and pumpkin bread. I skipped the pumpkin carving this year though- I’m terrible with reliefs- and usually carve backwards, ending up with big holes and a couple chunks of gently carved pumpkin in my hands.
So, the season of Halloween is fast approaching. Along with being terrible with pumpkin carving I am also terrible at getting my act together to assemble a costume. I have been a zombie about four years running. This year my clever friends are having Bill Murray costume party where the idea is that everyone will come as a different Bill Murray character from the massive ouerve that Murray has blessed us with. I am leaning towards Tripper from Meatballs, since I would just need to rustle up a Hawaiian shirt and a pair of running shorts.
But- If I do end up being a total lameo zombie again, at least I’ll be able to bring my own brains to the party:
I found the link to this recipe on Mixed Method where Kimberly was posting some ideas for Halloween inspiration. The full recipe and instructions are here, at Hungry Happenings. I thought that they were just the cutest brains I have ever seen. I had to give them a try.
And of course, because this is how I roll, I went to make my little brain cakes and realized I was missing ingredients. First the fresh lemon juice for the cake (should I admit I used squeezy bottle lime?) and vanilla frosting to make the cake into sugary delicious truffle heaven.So, ok, no frosting? No problem. I’ll whip some up! Huh. Ok. I’ve only got a quarter cup of powdered sugar when every single (yes. every. single.) recipe on the internet calls for at minimum a half cup of powdered sugar to make the amount needed for the recipe. Ugh. Going to the store was going to take way more time than I wanted it to- and I was not ready to be ousted from my pajamas for something as trivial as an ingredient!
Well never fear! Someone had a solution. An easy solution? Well, yes. So amazingly easy I was blown away. From Fitday,” take 1 cup of granulated sugar and 1 tsp of cornstarch for every 1 cup of powdered sugar needed, and grind them in a blender. Make sure to use a blender, because a food processor won’t work for this.” I was back on track and ready for the brain freeze.
Out of the first batch I had two brains pop out like magic and two crack and crumble into a wholly unsatisfying plop. The second and third batches only yielded one good brain each.
I was beginning to get a little disappointed, but I still had more chocolate and more cake. I decided to double down with the melted chocolate, laying it on super thick into the mold. Eight perfect brains later, I was a happy lady. Somehow I managed to fit 90% of the dishes into the dishwasher too. Double bonus.
Ranch Reflections 