“Success is not final, failure is not fatal:
it is the courage to continue that counts.”
Winston Churchill
This morning I had to get right back on that horse and try to successfully make some cinnamon buns...and I did and they are marvelous if I do say so meself! I am also giving the not so good cinnamon buns that turned into perogies 2 thumbs up!
So just what the heck is a perogie Baino asks? Well they are a double packed high carb side dish that also become even more of a weighty dish when you also saute some onions in a whole lot of butter that you then mix with the lovelies and then slather on the sour cream and maybe even some bacon bits!
Pierogi are a dish consisting of boiled or baked dumplings of unleavened dough stuffed with varying ingredients. They are usually semicircular, but are square in some cuisines. In English, the word pierogi and its variants (perogi, perogy, pirohi, piroghi, pirogi, pirogen, pierogy, pirohy, pyrohy) are pronounced with a stress on the letter "o".Speakers of the local Canadian Ukrainian dialect call them pyrohy, which can be misheard pedaheh or pudaheh by Anglophones unaccustomed to the fast rolled-r sound, or alveolar trill. They are known as varenyky in standard Ukrainian, and pyrohy there refers to a different dish, which is often a source of confusion.
Pierogi or vareniki are half circular dumplings of unleavened dough, stuffed (singularly or in various combinations) with mashed potatoes, cheese, farmer's cheese, bryndza, cabbage, sauerkraut, meat, mushrooms, or other ingredients depending on the cook's personal preferences.[2] Dessert versions of the dumpling can be stuffed with a fresh fruit filling, such as cherry, strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, peach, or apple; stoned prunes are sometimes used.
Mashed potatoes mixed with farmer's cheese and fried onions is a popular filling in Poland and Ukraine. In Poland this variety is called Ruskie pierogi.[3] A popular filling for pierogi in Canada is mashed potatoes mixed with grated cheddar cheese.
The dough is rolled flat and then cut into circles using a cup or drinking glass.[2] The filling is placed in the middle and the dough folded over to form a half circle. The pierogi or vareniki are boiled until they float, drained, and sometimes fried or baked in butter before serving. They can be served with melted butter, sour cream, or garnished with small pieces of fried bacon, onions, and also mushrooms. [4][5] Dessert varieties may be topped with apple sauce. Some Polish families in North America serve them with maple syrup.
For dough
- 3 cups all-purpose flour plus additional for kneading
- 1 cup water
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
For potato filling
- 1 1/2 pound russet (baking) potatoes
- 6 ounces coarsely grated extra-sharp white Cheddar (2 1/4 cups)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
For onion topping
- 1 medium onion, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
- Special equipment: a 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter
- Accompaniment: sour cream
Make dough:
Put flour in a large shallow bowl and make a well in center. Add water, egg, oil, and salt to well and carefully beat together with a fork without incorporating flour. Continue stirring with a wooden spoon, gradually incorporating flour, until a soft dough forms. Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and knead, dusting with flour as needed to keep dough from sticking, until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes (dough will be very soft). Invert a bowl over dough and let stand at room temperature 1 hour.
Make filling while dough stands:
Peel potatoes and cut into 1-inch pieces. Cook potatoes in a large saucepan of boiling salted water until tender, about 8 minutes. Drain potatoes, then transfer to a bowl along with cheese, salt, pepper, and nutmeg and mash with a potato masher or a handheld electric mixer at low speed until smooth.
When mashed potatoes are cool enough to handle, spoon out a rounded teaspoon and lightly roll into a ball between palms of your hands. Transfer ball to a plate and keep covered with plastic wrap while making 47 more balls in same manner (there will be a little filling left over).
Make onion topping:
Cook onion in butter in a 4- to 5-quart heavy saucepan over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally (stir more frequently toward end of cooking), until golden brown, about 30 minutes. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper.
Form and cook pierogies:
Halve dough and roll out 1 half (keep remaining half under inverted bowl) on lightly floured surface (do not overflour surface or dough will slide instead of stretching) with a lightly floured rolling pin into a 15-inch round (1/8 inch thick), then cut out 24 rounds with lightly floured cutter. Holding 1 round in palm of your hand, put 1 potato ball in center of round and close your hand to fold round in half, enclosing filling. Pinch edges together to seal completely. (If edges don't adhere, brush them lightly with water, then seal; do not leave any gaps or pierogi may open during cooking.) Transfer pierogi to a lightly floured kitchen towel (not terry cloth) and cover with another towel. Form more pierogies in same manner.
But I do not recommend rolling out the dough and cutting with a cookie cutter. The left over dough becomes too tough and then it all goes to hell in a hand cart. After watching all my Asian guests make their dumplings I concur that their method is better. Take a little blob of dough roll into a ball then roll into a circle. Then add filling and press.
Bring a 6- to 8-quart pot of salted water to a boil. Add half of pierogies, stirring once or twice to keep them from sticking together, and cook 5 minutes from time pierogies float to surface. Transfer as cooked with a slotted spoon to onion topping and toss gently to coat. Cook remaining pierogies in same manner, transferring to onions. Reheat pierogies in onion topping over low heat, gently tossing to coat.
We're all trying to experiment to find a way to live,
to solve problems, to fend off madness and chaos.
David Cronenberg
