Monday, November 30, 2009

Pierogi making...

Few weeks ago my friend Debbie & I embarked on pierogi making...For those of you who do not know what Pierogi (plural) are, they are a dish consisting of boiled or baked dumplings of unleavened dough stuffed with varying ingredients. They are usually moon shaped. Pierogi are served in a variety of forms and tastes (ranging from sweet to salty to spicy) in Polish cuisine. Polish pierogi are often filled with fresh white cheese (farmers cheese), potatoes, and fried onions; in this form, they are called pierogi ruskie (russian) don't ask me why...Pierogi are usually served with melted butter or bacon bits. Traditionally serve two types of pierogi for Christmas Eve supper. One kind is filled with sauerkraut and dried mushrooms, another – small uszka (ears-very small pierogi) filled only with dried wild mushrooms – are served in clear borscht (beet soup)

I love pierogi but they are time consuming to make. If you attempt these, make sure that you have a buddy. Debbie and I had a great time making these, and even better time eating it.

Pierogi Dough
makes 24 pierogi



* 2 cups flour
* 1 egg
* 1/2 cup warm water
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2 tablespoons oil

Mix all ingredients together lightly in bowl. Knead until smooth. Let rest, covered, 30 minutes. Using half of the dough at a time, roll out to 1/8 inch thickness.Cut circles with biscuit cutter or floured glass.

SaurKraut & Mushroom Filling:



* 1 lb sauerkraut, finely chopped
* 150 g butter, divided
* 1 onion, chopped
* 1/4 lb fresh mushrooms, diced
* pepper
* salt

Saute the sauerkraut in 1/3 of the butter. Fry the onion in 1/6 of the butter; fry the mushrooms in the remaining butter. Combine these ingredients, season with salt & pepper, and refrigerate until ready to assemble pierogi.


Potato & cheese filling:




* 2 large potatoes, cooked & mashed (1/2 cup instant or leftover mashed potatoes is fine too)
* 8 oz of cream cheese
* 1 onion, minced & sauteed in butter
* 1 tablespoon butter, melted
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* pepper, to taste

I use Vegeta seasoning in place of salt. You can find it in a supermarket in Ethnic section.



Combine all of the ingredients listed under filling and refrigerate until ready to assemble pierogi.

Enoy!!!

9 comments:

  1. These were so good! I just cooked the rest of my stash in a little melted butter last night and then started jonesing for more! I think we may have to do this again in January or February!!

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  2. I often make cheese and potato pierogi, but can't wait to try the sauerkraut ones! Looks and sounds delish!

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  3. I have never had a pierogi but I just know I would love them. Yours look so good that I am starving for a plate of them!

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  4. I love pierogi so much!! Your homemade pierogi look terrific. Great job :D

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  5. I used to live in an area with a large polish community. Every lent there was a church that did perogies and other polish foods. I have been meaning to try making them myself since I moved but haven't yet. I'm saving your recipe so hopefully I will do it one day.

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  6. The Pierogi look great! I loved eating the frozen version of those things back in college, and I bet homemade is 100 times better!

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  7. I am sure I would love pierogi because it reminds of of Chinese dumplings. I have tried Russian Pelmeni and they taste very similar to Chinese dumplings (in my opinion).

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  8. They look great; can't wait to try making the kraut and mushroom filling.

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