cooking with armand and becca...

armband and i have been playing phone/email tag for about a month now. we had a lunch date scheduled, and i proceeded to work through it at the library and somehow not notice until waaaay after lunch. so basically, i've been a rotten friend. but he isn't exactly easy to get a hold of either! becca and i run into eachother occasionally, and always mention how nice it would be to sit down and be lazy & cook, but again... never happens. so last friday, we finally made good on our phone/tag/laziness/cooking imaginations! both of them came over to spring street and we all cooked dinner together! sadly, taylor (another good friend) couldn't stay for long, as he was on the verge of keeling over from sleepiness. next time. :-)

the weather on friday was sort of braveheart-esque... very rainy, cold, glum. i had the imagination to make leek-potato (or potato-leek, if you're armand) soup, because honestly, who doesn't like soup on soup-ish days? we also made paprikas krumpli, or potato with paprika. waaay hungarian, hehe. whenever i cook with armband, i feel obligated to make something hungarian, since it's in his blood. though he often likes to deny it, he is distantly magyar, since szatmar decidedly counts. every time i make paprikas anything, i think of two people: my nagymama and my mum. nagymama's paprika is the brightest red, most fragrant, tasty paprika i've ever had. i guess i'm slightly biased, since she's my grandmother, and any paprika she grows undoubtedly must be the best, but it is seriously tasty. i think of my mum because whenever she cooks paprikas anything (i keep saying that because you really CAN make paprikas anything... csirke (chicken), krumpli (potato), goulash (essentially paprikas cow and potato), etc. etc.) she always says in her sweet little hungarian accent, "don't forget... loooots of good onion!" haha that was a tangent. anyway. our dinner turned out pretty happily - despite the fact that i started cooking late, so we ate rather late. gyuri brought tasty red wine that fit with all the paprika perfectly. :-)

in terms of dinner discussion, the wine made armand and i rather talkative hehe. armand derives great enjoyment from rehashing old arguments (and by old i mean old... like sophomore year of hs old!) it was lots of fun though, because becca was introduced to how petty armand and i can be... making fun of argyle socks, jumping on my toes to see if i really HAD lost my voice, t-shirt fashions, and chemistry presentations. haha i think becca got more than she bargained for! from becca and arbmand, i learned about summer physics presentations, and the glory (not) of teaching middle school physics. hopefully cooking with mokus and gyuri will be a more consistent event in the future!

leek-potato soup: 2 leeks, all chopped up (not the green part, just the white) - 3 peeled & diced potatoes - 5 cups water - salt - pepper - olive oil. you saute the leeks until they are steamy and translucent (in the olive oil, right) add the potato, saute some more... then add the water and boil the holera yasna out of it. put it all in a blender till its smooth... add salt and pepper. soo easy, and sooo tasty!!!

paprikas krumpli: 3 (or so) diced potatoes - loots of chopped onion - garlic - chopped portobello mushroom - chopped bell pepper - a tablespoon or so of red paprika - olive oil - tomato in various forms - salt - pepper - pasta. saute onion and garlic in olive oil, after a while, add the paprika, making sure that you stir quickly and don't let the paprika burn! stir in the mushroom & bell pepper and saute, then the potato and various tomtato products (like chopped fresh or canned tomato) pour enough water over to cover this all and cook until the potatoes are done. then keep cooking :-) i like paprikas best when the potato starch starts making the liquid-y part thick, and the potatoes start falling apart. add salt and pepper. oh, and i put a chile pepper in too. but that's only if you like hot things. cook the pasta (sort of wide-ish egg noodles?) and ladle the paprikas over the pasta!

both of these things are especially easy to cook if you don't have armand maliciously tickling you. right. he is good at chopping onions, though. :-)