Roasted Potato Leek Soup

It baffles me that I haven't already blogged about this. Roasted Potato Leek Soup is my FAVORITE soup to make! So when John surprised me with a brand new Giada De Laurentiis food processor to replace the crappy old one I already had, I made my favorite soup by the fabulous Barefoot Contessa.

Something was majorly wrong with my old food processor. Whenever I used it, it smelled like burning metal. And then, no matter how careful I was with pouring the ingredients into the food processor bowl, it ALWAYS leaked out of the bottom! Always without fail!

Using GDL's food processor today was glorious! I didn't have to wipe down the base after I was done (because it didn't leak!), it didn't have a funny burning metal smell (no more second thoughts about whether or not I was poisoning my guests), and it was nice and quiet (professional grade is the way to go!). And although, I've made this soup more times than I can count, John said this is the best it's ever tasted, something about the texture being different from the other times.

I have to agree. LOVE this food processor! Did I mention it has suction cups on the bottom? No more worrying about your food processor bouncing off the counter!

Roasted Potato Leek Soup
From Ina Garten's recipe

2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch chunks
4 cups chopped leeks, white and light green parts, cleaned of all sand (4 leeks)
1/4 cup good olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 cups baby arugula, lightly packed
1/2 cup dry white wine, plus extra for serving
6 to 7 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
3/4 cup heavy cream
8 ounces creme fraiche
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for garnish

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Combine the potatoes and leeks on a sheet pan in a single layer. Add the olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and toss to coat the vegetables evenly. Roast for 40 to 45 minutes, turning them with a spatula a few times during cooking, until very tender. Add the arugula and toss to combine. Roast for 4 to 5 more minutes, until the arugula is wilted. Remove the pan from the oven and place over 2 burners. Stir in the wine and 1 cup of the chicken stock and cook over low heat, scraping up any crispy roasted bits sticking to the pan.

In batches, transfer the roasted vegetables to a food processor fitted with the steel blade, adding the pan liquid and about 5 cups of the chicken stock to make a puree. Pour the puree into a large pot or Dutch oven. Continue to puree the vegetables in batches until they're all done and combined in the large pot. Add enough of the remaining 1 to 2 cups of stock to make a thick soup. Add the cream, creme fraiche, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper and check the seasonings.

When ready to serve, reheat the soup gently and whisk in 2 tablespoons white wine and 1/4 cup of Parmesan. Serve hot with an extra grating of Parmesan.

My new food processor rocks!

To clean the leeks, slice off the dark, tough leaves. Then slice down the shaft of the leek and rinse under running water. (Helps to press the leeks into the bottom of the bowl to fan out the leek.

Leeks and potatoes are prepped and ready to roast!

Leeks, potatoes, and arugula cooking over low heat with the wine and chicken broth.

Everybody into my new GDL food processor!

Perfectly processed!

Buon Appetito!

Mom's Stir-fry

Before I get into the recipe, I have to take a moment to applaud my mom. In the 18 years that I lived with my parents, my mom managed to make a home cooked dinner every single weeknight AFTER working a full day. Every. Night. And we always ate relatively early. She would be home by 6 and we ate dinner together around 7. There was always a vegetable dish, some kind of protein, and of course, rice. Oh yea, she even managed to have tong more often than not. How did she do that?

I work from home 4.5 days per week, have a lovely 10 ft. commute every morning AND evening, and can barely manage to cook 3x on a good week. Many thanks to my mom for providing a balanced meal every night. You are very much appreciated.

There's a stir-fry that my mom made often that I just salivate over! It doesn't even have a name. It's just a bunch of bite-sized pieces of ingredients all quickly stir-fried together. The ingredients vary but my favorite variation includes potatoes, preserved vegetables, baked tofu and edamame. This is MY kind of comfort food!

Here's my adaptation of my Mom's Stir Fry. Enjoy!

Mom's Stir-fry
1 potato - thinly diced
1 cup of asparagus - sliced into coins
2 squares of baked tofu - sliced into bite sized pieces (you can find this in the refrigerated section at asian supermarkets. should be very firm and brown on the outside.) 
1 cup of edamame
1 cup of corn
1 package of preserved vegetables (these are tricky to find. they come in airtight pouches and are usually near the tofu in the refrigerated section of asian supermarkets.)
fish sauce, soy sauce, and fresh black pepper to taste (no salt, the preserved vegetables are salty enough)

Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add potatoes and cook until it browns a little. Once the potatoes are tender, remove from skillet and set aside.

Increase the heat to medium-high and add the asparagus and saute for a minute. Then add the baked tofu, edamame, corn and preserved vegetables. Stir-fry until heated through. Just before turning off the heat, add the potatoes back to the skillet, heat through, and add some freshly cracked black pepper.

Serve over brown rice or mixed in with quinoa as pictured. Add a drizzle of fish sauce and soy sauce!

You can imagine how creative you can get with this dish. Add meat, carrots, celery, bell peppers, anything really! Just be sure to cut everything into bite-sized pieces so that it cooks quickly and evenly.

Indian Mee Goreng

I liked Rasa Malaysia's Roasted Crab & Garlic Noodles recipe so much that I decided to give another of her recipes a whirl. I had extra packages of the chow mein noodles left over from the Garlic Noodles recipe. I originally planned to make a simple Chow Mein, but that's boring. Who actually makes Chow Mein with Chow Mein noodles when you can make Indian Mee Goreng?

The name of the dish is misleading as it's not an Indian dish. I've only ever had Indian Mee Goreng at Malaysian restaurants, never at an Indian restaurant. Caught the footnote on the Rasa Malaysia site and ahah! "Indian Mee Goreng is Malaysian dish. Created by Mamak (Indian-Muslim in Malaysia), it cannot be found in India."

I followed the recipe for Indian Mee Goreng almost exactly, the only difference is I doubled it since I had friends over for dinner and added in shrimp. I did also find that I had way too many potatoes leftover! The recipe calls for one potato so I threw in two. I could've easily made do with just one. But this actually turned out to be a great thing! See below for what happens the next day.

Another hiccup was trying to figure out how to clean the squid. Just a warning, they look nothing like the beautiful, golden calamari rings you get at restaurants. I bought fresh squid, the kind that come in whole pieces and have eyes and guts and everything! Nasty little buggas! But nothing compares to having to kill a crab so I just rolled up my sleeves, pulled the head out of the body, squeezed the mucus looking stuff out of the body, pulled out the weird plastic looking skeleton and then skinned it so that it transformed into the beautiful white, silky calamari that I knew and loved.

All of those gory details were quickly forgotten after I tasted the Indian Mee Goreng. Not exactly how I remembered it from restaurants but still very flavorful! Something interesting happens when the noodles are mixed in with the egg and potatoes, adds a very interesting texture. And this dish has a definite kick!

The next day...
Since I had almost a whole boiled potato leftover, I decided to throw a few of the other left over ingredients together for a very scrumptious brunch! I turned the potatoes into hashbrowns, threw in some sunny side up eggs, and topped it with some garlic shrimp. Yummy!

My first curry

I had a weird assortment of produce that I needed to use: a Bell Pepper & Jalapenos.

I also had a couple of random items in the pantry that I wanted to get rid of: Coconut milk & Rice Noodles.

The only thing I've ever used the coconut milk for is a vegetable korma but I didn't have any of the other ingredients on hand. I did have a bottle of curry powder though so I did a quick search for Curry Powder, Coconut Milk & Potatoes (which I also had on hand) and voila! Easy Thai Chicken Curry recipe which I adapted for my palate. Try it out! I was quite pleased! Bon Appetit!

Thai Tofu Curry
(Adapted from this recipe on recipezaar.com)
4.5 oz Coconut Milk
10 oz Water
3 Tbsp Soy Sauce
2 Tsp Soup Base (Any kind - I used "Better than Bouillon Vegan No Chicken Base)
1.5 Tbsp Curry Powder
2 small potatoes, diced
1/2 package of Extra Firm Tofu, diced
1 Roma Tomato, diced
1 Jalapeno Pepper, sliced into long strips
1 Red Bell Pepper
3-4 Fresh Basil leaves, reserve 2 leaves for garnish
Rice Noodles, boiled & drained

Mix Coconut Milk, Water, Soup Base, Soy Sauce, Curry Powder, and Potatoes in a sauce pot and bring to a boil. Once mixture comes to a boil, reduce heat and simmer mixture for 15 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, tofu, jalapeno and simmer for another 8 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Add the bell pepper strips and basil and simmer for another minute or two. If you like the bell peppers a little softer, simmer for another 5 minutes.

Place the rice noodles in the bottom of a bowl and top with the curry and the basil garnish.