Sunday, April 18, 2010

Pierogi

Hi folks,
I made pierogis today and I was cooking from 1pm to 6pm, so...I won't be making these again--too labor intensive--but in any case, here's what I did:
(this is a Martha Stewart recipe from her April 2010 issue--her mother's recipe)
Whisk together 1 egg and 2 tbs sour cream until smooth.
Whisk in 1 c water and 1 c whole milk.
Stir in 5 c flour, one cup at a time
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for 10 minutes, until the dough comes together. The dough will be quite sticky...try not to over-flour, though..
Let dough rest underneath an overturned bowl for 1 hour while you make your fillings:

Potato
Peel and quarter 2.5 lbs yukon gold potatoes and put into a pot of cold water, season with salt and bring to a boil and boil for 10 minutes until fork tender. Pass the potatoes through a ricer (or do what I did and mash with a fork) and add 4oz cream cheese and 2tbs butter, salt & pepper to taste.

Cabbage
Core and quarter a 3lb head of green cabbage and steam in an inch or so of water until very tender, 30-40 minutes. Let cool and pass through a meat grinder. If you don't have a meat grinder like most people, do what I did and just chop finely with a knife. Add 4oz cream cheese and 2tbs butter and salt & pepper to taste.

Roll out your dough to 1/8inch thick and cut out with a 3-inch biscuit cutter or cup. Fill with about 1tbs of filling and pinch to seal. It often looks like you have too much filling to put in such a small amount of dough, but it stretches and holes can be easily patched up with scraps. Put your finished pierogis on a rimmed baking sheet lined with a kitchen towel dusted with corn meal and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Be sure to cover your unrolled dough with plastic wrap too so it doesn't dry out.

Martha says that her mother never reused scraps, but I can't stand throwing away food, so if you haven't used up all your filling and have "run out" of unrolled dough, by all means just re-use.

I like the potato most and now I have a week's worth of lunch and dinner pierogi.. Serve with sour cream. Martha says to serve the cabbage pierogi with brown butter, but I was too exhausted and had enough dishes to clean for the night (including the table I rolled on), so I used sour cream and as far as I'm concerned, sour cream goes with anything.

In conclusion, the pierogi were delicious, but too time consuming for a student like me to make.. especially since finals are just around the corner. Also, I'm not too sure I'm a huge fan of pierogi..I like the things they're filled with, but the dough is always just too stodgy for my taste. This could be attributed to the fact that I grew up on the thin dough of Chinese dumplings and won tons..Maybe they'd taste better wrapped up in pre-made dumpling wrappers (and less time consuming too)...not sure, but I think I'm set with pierogi for the next few months..

much love,
Patty

P.S. David is in Deutschland, and appears to be MIA from the blogosphere. Here's to hoping he gets internet soon.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

L'chiem Day 2

Matzo ball soup, day two:
-Skimmed off all the fat on the chicken soup--it's disgustingly easy how it peels off when chilled..
-And I ground a generous (for me, at least) amount of tolicherry pepper (merci, David :> It is indeed very fragrant and wayyyy better than the crap I usually use--I actually like pepper now!) over the top.
>>Tastes much better and cuts the richness and eggyness of the soup indeed.

-Patsy

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Mazel!

Just made some matzo ball soup. It didn't turn out as well as I thought it would...kind of bland. The raw matzo ball dough smelled better than it tasted, however, it was a nice foray into the world of Jewish cooking. Here's what I did:

Chicken Soup:
Put two chicken thighs in a large pot, cover with water and 1 tbs salt and bring to a boil. Skim the foam and put in 5 peeled, sliced carrots, and 3 crushed garlic cloves. Boil for 70 minutes, skim the fat and remove the meat off the bones. Return the meat to the pot.

Matzos:
Mix two eggs, 1tbs chicken fat, 1tsp salt, 1tsp ice water, and 1/2 c matzo meal. Chill 15 minutes. Bring a saucepan of water to a boil, drop in 1 inch balls and boil for 35 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and balls may be kept in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Things I should have done:
-Bought celery for the chicken soup
-Not put the carrots in for the whole time--I was supposed to put it in after 30minutes of cooking
-Put in a chopped onion in the chicken soup--the onions I had at home were molded, which I found out after I had already started the soup; I cut one open and it smelled like POO. BEWARE OF ROTTEN ONIONS!!
-Used plain matzos--I used egg matzos, which taste better for eating as a snack than the plain, but I think they made the matzo balls overly egg-y.
-Added some pepper to my bowl of soup, I think I needed something fresh/zesty tasting to cut the fatty-ness/chickeny-ness of the soup

All in all, this has been a nice lesson in the world of chicken soup. Now I am going to try and make my soup work, as I have a couple days worth of leftovers..

-Patricia