Ukraine/Poland
Not the prettiest looking Perogi, but definitely tasty!
During my date month, a really lovely gentleman I met online said he didn’t want to be just one date of 31, but would make me perogies during my international cooking month. Although we never did meet up, I believe he still reads my blog. So in honour of him, I made perogi from scratch yesterday.
Perogi are central/eastern European dumplings (similar to Italian tortellini or Chinese wontons) usually filled with potato, meat, cheese, onion and/or sauerkraut. There are also dessert versions that are filled with fruit and served with sour cream.
They were actually really simple to make, and very delicious (although my dough was a little thick – good to know for next time). You begin with 2 cups of flour, 1 egg and a pinch of salt. Combine in a bowl and keep adding water until a sticky dough is formed. Leave dough sit under a bowl for 20 minutes. Then work on the filling. For the potato and cheese version I made, boil potatoes until they are ready to be mashed. Shred strong cheddar cheese and mix with potatoes, salt and pepper. Roll the dough out thin and cut circles with a drinking glass. Put the potato cheese mixture in the centre, stretch the dough around the filling, fold in half and pinch the pocket closed. To cook put the dumplings in boiling water until they float, then transfer to a frying pan with a little oil to crisp up. You can also freeze them between wax paper. I ate my plain, but you can serve them with melted butter, sauteed onions and bacon bits.
The inspiration for my recipe was this one on allrecipes.com. Although, I did modify it according to the comments below the recipes and to decrease the size. The beauty of those kinds of websites is that people will comment below with tips to make the recipe better.
One of the images from TasteSpotting.com
While I’m writing of great online places to find recipes, my friend Meg suggested TasteSpotting.com. A community driven visual potluck, TasteSpotting displays beautiful images of food, linking to recipes on blogs around the world. I have used this site as inspiration for a lot of my month of cooking. And the photos make you want to cook every single thing on there!
Today
Home-cooked Chinese
Glad you like tastespotting.com – the pics are the best. It really does make you want to eat everything.
Perogies look great. You have inspired me to try making my own. Thanks!
Let me know how they turn out. And don’t use too thick of dough – that was my mistake.
Thanks Lindsay for the link to tastespotting.com and all of your other recipes this month. My recipes are getting so boring and predictable. Thanks for the renewed interest in cooking!
Glad I can inspire you!
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The picture of your pierogies is great! Thick dough is traditional and can remember as a kid being served thick dough perogies with lumpy potatoes, almost deep fired in the bacon fat…mmmm… Your cheese potato sounds good, have you though about adding KD style cheese powder for color and flavor?
Thanks Rod! Cheese powder would definitely add some colour to it, although I’m always afraid of what they put in cheese powder… ha ha.