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This week for My Kitchen My World, Shelby chose Ecuador as our country to taste. I knew nothing about cuisine from Ecuador, and honestly had a tough time finding recipes. I googled away, and finally found some recipes from Ecuador on recipehound.com They had a few interesting sounding dishes, but I went with something pretty simple, Locro, a potato soup. Apparently Locro in different South American countries refers to different soup/stew style dishes, but in Ecuador it's just potato.
After doing lots of online research, reading though lots of recipes, I noticed that many called for potatoes and munster cheese. I'm not sure why munster is the cheese of choice, or if it is just a close copy of the cheeses you would find in Ecuador, but more readily available so used in recipes? I love munster cheese so this was a great excuse to buy some :)
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Locro -- Potato Soup of Ecuador
2 pounds potatoes, cubed, I used Klondike Rose potatoes, not from Ecuador, but one of my favorite all purpose varities
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
2 1/2 cups water
2 cups whole milk, warmed4 ounces shredded munster cheese & additional cheese to sprinkle on top
Place cubed potatoes in a large, heavy saucepan, add the water. Stir in the salt, onion powder and paprika. Bring to a boil, and simmer over medium heat, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 10-15 minutes until the potatoes are almost done, add the milk and cheese, continue to cook a few more minutes. Mash up the potatoes, I used an immersion blended and left some chunky tatoes. Season to taste with salt, and serve immediately. Avocado slices are sometimes served with the Locro.
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This soup was really easy and had a smooth mellow flavor, it reminded me of a potato chowder. There was another dish from Ecuador that really caught my eye, Llapingachos, which are little fried potato cakes, made with mashed potatoes and a munster cheese filling. I will try these in the future because they sound so yummy, and have the same flavors of the Locro, which was really nice.
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