Plenty of Pierogies

Pierogies. Small, noodle dumplings filled with a mixture of potatoes and cheese. Originating from Eastern Europe, they are common in places like Pittsburg and other areas where people from Europe immigrated. They are very simple to make, and the hardest parts is rolling the dough over and over. Oh yeah, don’t think that just because you want your pierogies now doesn’t mean you get them now. It took me about three hours start to finish, with two of those hours vigorously rolling and filling 50 plus little dumplings. It would probably go faster if I had someone helping me, but that didn’t happen. With help, you could probably be done in about 2 hours. Though, seeing that I didn’t have school today because of the large snowstorms that came through the area, I probably wouldn’t have been doing anything better with my time anyway. Serve the pierogies(I just love typing that word, don’t you just love reading it?)in a broth or with gravy, as the main portion of the meal or as a side. You can freeze any leftovers cooked, or uncooked.  The recipe that I used is from momfukufor2. Remember, if you wish to make pierogies, enlist help and start early.

~thechildcooks

Pierogies from Momofuku from epicurious

Makes approximately 50

Dough

3 cups all-purpose flour plus additional for kneading

1 cup water

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon salt

Filling:

1 1/2 pound russet (baking) potatoes

6 ounces coarsely Cheddar(for plain pierogies, I left this out)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Other optional spices include garlic powder, onion powder or whatever you think would taste good

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.

Peel potatoes and cut into 1-inch pieces. Cook potatoes in a large saucepan of boiling until tender, about 8 minutes. Drain potatoes, then transfer to a bowl along with cheese, salt and pepper 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 (or so)more balls in same manner.

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.

Bring a 6- to 8-quart pot of 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.If desired, fry in butter or oil until brown.

San Fransisco and Norway, All in One Day

How did I do that? Well, the great thing about cooking and baking is that you can travel all over the earth without ever leaving you kitchen.  To go to good old California, I made some sourdough bread using my 2011 starter; I made half of it into the recommended loaf and the other half became rolls. I modified my basic recipe slightly by adding more whole wheat flour to the mix, but I won’t bother putting a new recipe up because, surprise, I don’t actually know how much more I added. After hitting the beaches in Cali(I wish), I traveled on to Norway with Norwegian Potato Lefse. Last night, we had baked potatoes and happened to have some left over. I grated them,with skins on, I decided that lefse was the answer. I have made it once before for Christmas(when they are traditionally eaten) and really liked them then, so decided to go for it. They taste really good, sort of like a tortilla, but can be slightly hard to roll out and cook. With practice, though, it is not that hard to eat your potatoes in a new way:you can fill them with a meat,jam or other filling of your choice, roll and enjoy! I really hope to be going Asin with some foods soon and will let you know how that turns out.  

~thechildcooks

Norwegian Potato Lefse

Beatrice Ojakangas’ Great Holiday Baking Book

2 pound russet potatoes, peeled and diced

1 tsp salt

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 1/2-2 cups all-purpose flour

Cook potatoes until tender(either boil them in water, or baked them with skins on). Press through a ricer or grate, you should end up with about 3 1/3 cups. Stir potatoes, salt and butter together. Cool to room temperature. Stir in 1 1/2 cups of the flour and stir throughly until a stiff dough is formed. Add the rest of the flour if needed. Divide into four parts, then four parts again(16 total pieces) and roll into balls. Refrigerate until ready to cook. When ready to cook, preheat a large skillet or electric griddle to 400F. On lightly floured surface, roll one ball at a time into a thin, 10-inch circle. Bake 1-2 minutes per side or until brown spots appear. Leftovers can be frozen.