Friday, December 7, 2012

Making Pierogi

 This week I made pierogi, a dish that I hadn't made for quite some time (in fact none of my family remembered it). It really tasted good to me so I thought I would share the recipe with you too.

I just checked and Pierogi is a polish dish. I think I found the recipe in some old magazine years ago. I of course always tweak recipes a bit to either make them healthier, cheaper, easier or to use what I have on hand. :-)

Making pierogi wasn't to labor intensive for me because I already had some leftover mashed potatoes and some leftover browned hamburger AND I found a little lumberjack to help me.
First step is making the dough. Here is the recipe:

3 cups of flour (I used 2 cups whole wheat and 1 cup of white flour)
1/2 teaspoon of salt.
1 egg (slightly beaten)
3/4 cup water (more or less)

Mix ingredients together to make a stiff dough, using only as much water as needed. Roll out to 1/8 -1/16 inch thick. Cut into 3 inch squares or circles (approximately).


Next you need to make the filling. There are different options available for that.

I used:
Mashed potatoes, cheese, onion, salt, pepper and hamburger (the hamburger is not traditional but my husband loves his meat.)

Another option:
Cottage cheese, egg and salt and pepper.

Third option:
Sauer Kraut, onion, mushrooms, sour cream, salt and pepper.

We put a spoonful of filling on each square of dough and then folded the square in half and sealed the edges.


 Next step is to put a few at a time in a pot of boiling water. When they come up and float really well then they are done and you remove them with a slotted spoon. (At this point they can be frozen if you like.)

Next step is to saute them in a pan with butter.
And then you get to eat them! Serve with sour cream or yogurt.

 We all ate them up pretty well at supper but I think I liked them best - the others didn't fight me for them when we had leftovers.

Have you ever made or eaten Pierogi? (or any other pasta?) I would love to hear about your experiences!

5 comments:

Rachel E. said...

Oh, Man! You have me missing Poland about right now. We lived there for two years and moved here in May. Poland will always have a special place in my stomach. :)

I love the cabbage pierogi as well as the potato. My hubby and most of my kids prefer the meat. They like sour cream on theirs, but we also like to use universal seasoning we used to find there. You can actually buy it here in the local stores. I was thrilled when I saw it. Poles don't eat it on their pierogi though, I got a curious glance when I used it in front of an American woman who married a Pole.

You make me want to make pierogi, my family would love me forever.

HappyMommy said...

Yum! I have boughten frozen pierogi before and liked them but am going to make your recipe asap! Thanks for sharing :)

Abbi said...

I hope this recipe works well for you too and that you enjoy them!

Stephanie said...

This looks yummy and interesting! I'm going to try it tomorrow. (Lord willing)

Stephanie said...

I made them! They were good, too!

Unfortunately, I cut the pieces too small, and they were harder to work with than what I think they would have been if I had remembered that you said 3 inch squares, haha. (I had to do it from memory, as I didn't have access to my computer when I was making them.) Also I folded them differently (again, no computer access), which left them flat one one side (easy to fry) and pointy like a tent on the other (not easy to fry). Also could have definitely used some cheese, but we were out. :(

I did do one thing I really liked with this initial experiment. I used less salt in the dough and then sprinkled them lightly with salt right after pulling them off the frying pan. Gave a nice flavor!

I have lots of filling left, so I think I'll make more tomorrow or Monday. (After I go buy some cheese.)

I made the ground beef/mashed potato ones. We fried some onions, garlic, diced tomatoes, and bell peppers and threw those in there, too.

How do you pronounce these things?

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