Monday, November 10, 2008

Pierogi





Ahhh pierogi. What can I say? These little dumplings of happiness might possibly be my favorite food ever...thus my blog's name (and I'm just about 100% Polish and what's more polish than pierogi?). I should have made this my first post but didn't get around to making my little pierogi until this past weekend. I play around with recipes/ingrediants quite a bit in an effort to find "The best pierogi recipe ever" and I may have found it with this one. The dough was fabulous...and the potato "stuffing" was great. This one is definately for the archives. My husband devoured these little pierogi! Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from http://www.allrecipes.com/
(Comments in italics are my notes!)

INGREDIENTS
Sauerkraut Filling (I didn't make the sauerkraut filling this time around...My husband and I perfer potato!)
2 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 cups sauerkraut, drained and minced
salt and pepper to taste

Potato Filling:
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cups cold mashed potatoes
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon white pepper
I also added quite a bit of chopped sharp cheddar. Adds a nice bite!

Dough:
3 egg
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder

DIRECTIONS
To prepare the sauerkraut filling, melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the onion, and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the drained sauerkraut and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then remove to a plate to cool.

For the mashed potato filling, melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the onion, and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir into the mashed potatoes, and season with salt and white pepper.


To make the dough, beat together the eggs and sour cream until smooth. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder; stir into the sour cream mixture until dough comes together. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until firm and smooth. Divide the dough in half, then roll out one half to 1/8 inch thickness.




Cut into 3 inch rounds using a biscuit cutter... I find that the large end of a drinking glass works just as well, if not better!
Place a small spoonful of the mashed potato filling into the center of each round. Moisten the edges with water, fold over, and press together with a fork to seal. Repeat procedure with the remaining dough and the sauerkraut filling.


You can now freeze your Pierogi. I put them on wax paper on a baking sheet and freeze for about 20 minutes or so. Then I put them in a larger air-tight container and layer them between wax paper. They freeze very well.



To cook pierogi (frozen or not) Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add perogies and cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until pierogi float to the top. Remove with a slotted spoon. In a seperate pan, melt about 1/2 stick of butter. Add about 1/2-1 cup of chopped onions and cook until traslucent. Add boiled pierogi to pan and fry until golden brown on each side. Serve with sour cream or just eat them plain! Enjoy!

Pierogi Education

You might be wondering why I'm refering to Pierogi in what appears to be the singular when it really should be plural. Well I was brought up in a Polish household always referring to pierogi as pierogi..never "Pierogies". While my parents aren't from Poland, their parents are. My parents both speak Polish but never taught it to my brother and I....so i'm not Polish-speaking wiz. I just know a few basics. But to help me explain the plural vs. singular for Pierogi, I went to Wikipedia which explains it as follows:

"Pierogi are usually small enough to be served several or many at a time, so the singular form is rather rare; people usually talk about several of them. This has affected forms of the word in different languages. In Polish, pierogi is plural, pieróg being singular. Other Slavic languages follow the same scheme, with Russian vareniki the plural of varenik and Ukrainian varenyky the plural of varenyk (both derived from the root varit', "to boil"). --Wikepedia under "Pierogi".

So, this being said, the title of my Blog doesn't make much sense...Le Petit being Singular and Pierogi being plural. However...I didn't think it made sense to have an American blog entitled "Le Petit pieróg" when most (if not all) Americans call a pierogi a pierogi. In addition, "Les Petits Pierogi" sounds odd to an American reader, in my opinion. Plus I'm combing French and Polish which makes absolutely no sense at all....so my blog title is a little quirky and gramatically incorrect, but hey, it's my blog and I can do what I want!

Hopefully this is all you ever wanted to know about pierogi!

6 comments:

  1. I was so excited to see this posted on the nest. I just had to tell you. My family is slovak and polish so we're very much fans of pierogi. We haven't had homemade in so long and my husband never has so I'm going to use your recipe and surprise my family! :)
    Heather (haburak)

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  2. I think I love you. Seriously.

    Last year was my Pierogi experimental phase. I tried all kinds of recipes & the one for your filling is pretty close to bang on. Just because I'm not a cheddar fan, I used real grated Parmesean & will never go back. I couldn't keep them in stock! I made about 600 Pierogi in Dec. and they were gone by Valentine's Day. If you're doing a giant batch, use a potato ricer - easier than mashing bags of potatoes.

    I also tried various ways to freeze, and by far the easiest was to get a bunch of those tin foil containers & fill them up with freshly made Pierogi. Then I covered them in melted butter, onions and fresh dill & they hit the freezer. The containers make it super easy to stack in the freezer. Then I would take out 1 or 2 containers depending on who was coming over & pop in the oven along with whatever I was cooking. Say an hour at 350 degrees or so. Comes out beautifully. My husband likes them just like that, but I do prefer to fry 'em brown before hitting the table.

    I can't wait to read more from your site!!!

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  3. Funny story. I've been meaning to try this pierogi recipe I found awhile ago and haven't gotten around to it yet. I'm for sure going to make 'em on Wednesday. Then I found your recipe, and instead of mine, I'm going to make yours to try! And the whole cutting with the large opening of a drinking glass --- sheer genius! I was lazy about going out to buy a biscuit cutter, and now I don't have to! My boyfriend has never had homemade pierogi; I grew up on them when I lived in Canada. This is awesome!

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  4. I was thought how to make pierogi 7 years ago in Germany and I forgot. I like your recipe and hope to make it soon!

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  5. Your pierogi recipe is similar to my mother's and grandmother's. However, they didn't add sour cream to the dough. I might have to try it. In addition to the sauerkraut and potatoes, we made cheese periogi's which were my favorite. Yes, they do freeze great. Mom and I used to make 12 doz and freeze the ones she didn't give away to the rest of the family. If there was leftover dough, mom would make noodles.

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  6. WE love Pierogi too!! Our potato filling is close to yours but we add dry curd cottage cheese or farmer cheese and quite a bit of it. I cannot remember if you do this or not but we use some chopped and caramelized in butter onions for the filling as well. try it sometime! Zosia.

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