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.