Pierogies!

While I wait for my sauerkraut to ferment (moved it to the garage where there's no A/C - that will speed it up), I made some pierogies!  I got the real deal - Polish Cookery - which was actually written in Polish initially and then translated to English.

Making pierogies was actually a New Years Resolution of mine to try to stay in-tune with my Polish heritage.

Whenever anyone in my family makes pierogies, the other family members beg her to make extra and send the pierogies home with them!  They also freeze very well.

Not much required for the dough.  Flour, egg, and a little
bit of water.  I had to kind of play with the egg/water ratio
to ensure an elasticy, play-dough-like consistency.

Step 1 - convince your significant other to make delicious
mashed potatoes

Saute onion in butter til lightly golden brown

Roll out your dough.  This is half of the dough.  This would
be considered a single batch.

Find a cup/container that will make circles the size you want.
You can reuse/reroll the dough to make more pierogies after.

After mixing potatoes with the sauteed/minced onion/butter
mixture, spoon a little into the center of each circle.

Add cheese!  I used sharp cheddar.

Press ends together.  I used a fork to make it cute.  This
reminded me of when I was a little kid making these out
of blue play-dough.  Every time I had play-dough I would
make pretend pierogies.

Demo of the fork method

Every pollock will tell you that you gotta make a double batch,
which is what I did.

Although it's not pictured, first you BOIL in salted water
until they float.  Most people would stop there.  However,
I like to saute in butter.  Gives it just the slightest crisp -
about a minute or two each side.  I also think it helps to bring
out the flavor of the filling.

 

They get just a tad golden brown.

And here is the finished product - complete with another
batch of sauteed onions (sauteed in butter, of course)!   If
you are going for authentic, ya gotta do it right!

This took about 2 hours and my feet and back were killing me by the time it was all done!  I ended up with approx. 34 pierogies.  I froze some, we ate some, and there are some leftovers in the fridge!  Yum yum!