eG Foodblog: Pierogi (2011) - Rollin' the bon temps on the Left Co

[Pierogi]

Outstanding work with the bread. As a home cook nothing is more satisfing to me than when I can make a good loaf. It is not always easy not always a success but you got that one. And the short ribs look great too.

Keep on going. Love your home cooking blog.

I've gotten to the point where I can consistently turn out a decent loaf with some regularity. *Touch wood* I haven't had a real failure in a while. I even took the plunge and made a sourdough starter a few months back, and have managed to keep it going. That was sort of the scary final frontier for me and bread. Well that and the high hydration doughs, but I know that will come as I gain experience. It's still a great feeling even when the result is stellar, but when the stars align it's out of this world.

So glad you're enjoying the postings. All ya'll's feedback is making it very worthwhile.

[Pierogi]

It's only 9:30 am where I live and already I feel a certain exhaustion simply from reading about all the great dishes you made yesterday. Surely you don't work at that pace all the time??? Or maybe you are a Kerry Beal clone. That woman is indefatigable. And you are too it seems. I think I'll go and have a little lie down...

No, I usually do NOT do that many big projects right in a row, you got that right. One of the consequences of my RA is that I fatigue very easily. So I normally will do a big blowout project only once or twice a week. But I've been wanting to do a King Cake for a long time, and since Mardi Gras is tomorrow, I thought the blog would be a perfect excuse. And the bread just seemed to be a perfect partner for the ribs. Usually I'd have split those apart and not done them back to back.

I agree, Kerry Beal is amazing. I want to be her (or Andiesenji) when I grow up !

[Pierogi]

I realize that California folks look down on us as "that other citrus producing state" , but here in South Florida we actually get packages of meat marked "Great for the Grill" even in January! Those short ribs sure look good! Thanks for the blog and I appreciate the vicarious visit to SoCal .

Florida.....? What is this "Florida" of which you speak ?

Yeah, that's probably a common occurrence in your neck of the woods too.

Glad you're enjoying the look at the other side of the country.

[Pierogi]

So, you remember this from the teasers, right?

And these from Saturday....

And this from yesterday....

Well, today, they got joined by these:

Which yielded this:

The group shot:

And along came some dough:

So let's see what happens next.....

[Pierogi]

Now, I knew full well, that, given my screen name, there was no way on Earth that I could get away with writing an eG foodblog without making...yep...pierogies !

Normally this is a once a year project for me. I make them for Christmas Eve. But, as I said, I knew I'd never get away with blowing them off this week, so here we go.

I make three different fillings. One is chopped onions, mushrooms and sauerkraut, sauteed in butter. This gets bound together by a bit of sour cream.

One is mashed potatoes, chopped onions sauteed in bacon grease (add in the grease too, baby !), crispy bacon pieces and cream cheese:

Normally I'd make the third one out of ground beef, chopped onions and mushrooms that are sauteed in butter, and also bound with some sour cream. But this time, I went back to my childhood, and made a sweet filling of ricotta, egg, raisins and cinnamon.

That gets a little melted butter thrown into the mix as well, 'cause you know there's simply not enough cholesterol in just the ricotta and egg. Nor in the butter, bacon, cream cheese and sour cream in the other two...

Although you certain can make the dough by hand, as the old Polish grannies used to (and which I did as well, when I was young & foolish), I figured even the old Polish grannies would take advantage of modern conveniences ifn's they had them. So, into the bowl of the sexy KitchenAid went a couple of lovely CSA-fresh eggs, a couple of cups of flour, some salt and 1/2 a cup of water:

I started out with the paddle and switched after a couple of minutes to the dough hook:

The dough worked with the dough hook for about 5 minutes. Then I did some hand kneading for another five or so. For whatever reason, I can't get the dough to the right consistency when I don't hand knead it at all. I think there's not enough mass in the KA bowl to work it properly, but the kick-start of machine mixing and kneading cuts at least a half an hour off the dough process. Which works for me.

You want the dough to be nice and firm. It's going to stay relatively sticky (that's a good thing), but it shouldn't be a mess to work with. After the kneading, the dough gets to rest.

Why does my *food* keep getting a rest, and I don't !

Seriously, as a side note, I think that the biggest lesson I've learned in the whole dough handling/making/shaping process (including bread doughs) is how important it is to let the gluten relax before you try to do anything with the dough. Once I got that firmly into my thick head, I started having success with baking and thought "huh, maybe I CAN bake after all".

[heidih]

Your pretty bowl over the resting dough reminds me of my great grandmother who was in charge of making the weekly batch of soup noodles. She made a flour mound with a well for the eggs and kneaded by hand. Then she turned a bowl over the dough - as a 5 year old I did not understand why the fun process needed to wait. Resting the dough makes such the difference. If I am having problem with a dough my first instinct is always to just give it a few private moments.

Looking forward to the assembly process and how you enjoy them.

That bread yesterday was really lovely.

I pass by that Farmers Market on the 3rd Sunday of the month going to Veteran's stadium for the swap meet. Good to know it is a legit FM- I saw the pony rides and food booths and was thinking "hype".

[Pierogi]

After the dough had relaxed and found it's happy place, it's time roll, stuff, seal and boil. But first *I* needed to relax and find *MY* happy place. This helped:

Divide the dough into 3 pieces:

And keep the ones you're not working with under a damp tea towel. If the dough dries out, you'll have problems sealing the 'lil' dumplings later on.

Take a rolling pin and start to roll the dough out. You'll need a good amount of flour on the board because of the stickiness of the dough. I started out using the humongo pin in the background, and switched to the French pin I'm using in the shot. For whatever reason (karma, planet alignment, phases of the moon, who knows...?), I was over working the center of the dough while the edges were staying quite thin when I was using Big Bertha back there. But whatever works will do quite fine.

I think, for me at least, and it was confirmed by by able-bodied assistant who was taking the pictures for me today (love you guys, but I really didn't want to goop up my camera with floury, sticky hands...) that the major difference between homemade pierogies and commercial ones is the thiness of my dough when I'm done. You want to get it as thin as possible, but with enough heft to hold up to those fillings (which are pretty dense) as well as the boiling water.

But thin it needs to be:

Once you've got it thin enough, take a biscuit or cookie cutter (this one is about 3&3/4") and cut out circles. You can, to an extent, do "abstract" circles to maximize dough use as well. When we seal them, it will almost self-correct:

Save your scraps, you can re-roll them for the next round.

With a pastry brush (and for this application, one of the silicon-bristle brushes don't work so good....) very, VERY lightly brush the circles with water:

Use a light hand with the water, otherwise you'll literally glue the dough to the board ! Don't ask me how I know....

Put a rounded tablespoon or so of filling in the middle of each circle:

Fold one side of the circle over the filling, and you'll need to stretch the dough a bit, and also simultaneously push the filling in, and then press around the edge with your fingers, sealing the dough edges well. Try to also press out any air trapped in the center, which causes the dreaded Pierogi Blow-Out in the boiling water.

Don't ask me how I know about Pierogi Blow-Outs, either.

Once all the dumplin's are preliminarily sealed, take your official pierogi pinching fork, and press around the edges to give them a final seal. Be careful not to puncture the middle with the tines of the fork (see dreaded Pierogi Blow-Out, above):

Next: We boil !

[heidih]

Lookin good! So is your whole counter top a wooden surface that you can work on or is there a designated section? I looked at the kitchen shots but was unclear.

[Pierogi]

In order to boil the beggers, ya gots to have a big ol' hangin' pot of boiling water (no.....really???). Like pasta, pierogies like a lot of room to swim around. They like salt water, too.

In they go, but don't crowd them. The don't mingle well...they need their space, man:

Give 'em a stir so they don't stick to the bottom, or to each other:

Since we rolled them so thin, they'll float almost immediately. Let 'em bob around a bit, when the dough looks done, then use your Official Chinese Pierogi Drainer to scoop 'em out of the water:

And drop 'em onto a cooling rack set over a sheet pan (or, if you like a slimey wet mess on your stove, you can skip the sheet pan... )

When they've cooled off enough to handle, put them on a plate. Don't stack them on top of each other, they will stick, even after being cooked.

You can use wax paper between the layers, though, so you don't have to dirty every plate in the house to store them !

Keep on rolling, stuffing, sealing and boiling until you reach the last pierogi:

And your insider trick 'o' the day: How do you tell which stuffing is in your identical looking pierogies?

Easy Grasshopper:

For one type of filling you leave the pierogies in a full half-moon shape (doesn't that sound like an oxymoron...a full half-moon...). For the second variety, take your trusty kitchen shears, and clip off one of the corners. For the third type, clip off both corners. Best done after boiling, they tend to lose the definition when cooked.

And that's how you make pierogies. By Pierogi

[eldereno]

Your blog has been great so far!!!! Just sat down to read the whole thing this evening. Was out of internet access for the last 10 days. Looking forward to the rest of the week!!!

[Shelby]

OMG now I have a real step-by-step tutorial!! I'm so excited. Thank you!!!

All I've been thinking about is making those...and then I get lazy...or something

I'm going to sacrifice myself and offer to eat all of those since I wouldn't want you to have to do it yourself.

I LOVE the tip about cutting the corners so that you know what flavor it is.

[LindaK]

Thanks so much for making your namesake dish, I'd hoped you would! They look delicious. I haven't made them in a very long time--since my college roommate and I would prepare an annual Polish dinner for a motley group of friends with (real/imagined) Polish heritage--kielbasa (from a good butcher in town), stuffed cabbage, and of course pierogies. I think we made them with potato and sauteed cabbage (not sauerkraut). Maybe it was just the frozen vodka, but I remember them as excellent meals. Thanks for the memories!

[christine007]

Thanks so much Roberta, every single thing you have cooked so far has been something I'd love to eat! the Beef looked amazing.

You didn't mention if the stuff you have by your sink is bothersome, but I was thinking if it was, you could always go to your local doityourself store and get those baskets that hang from hooks in your ceiling? Just throwing that out there. they are really nice and handy. I love seeing your kitchen, as after years of living in a single family home, I'm getting ready to move into an apartment,which will no doubt have a kitchen styled like yours.

[nickrey]

Hi Roberta, those Pierogi look exceptional. Looking at the work involved in rolling the dough, I was just wondering if you've tried putting it through a pasta machine? Janni Kyritsis said in his book that he makes handmade filo using one and the pierogi dough looks suitable.

[Pierogi]

Your blog has been great so far!!!! Just sat down to read the whole thing this evening. Was out of internet access for the last 10 days. Looking forward to the rest of the week!!!

Donna,

No interwebs for 10 days !!! Poor you !

[Pierogi]

I'm going to sacrifice myself and offer to eat all of those since I wouldn't want you to have to do it yourself.

Geee, thanks Shelby, you're a real pal ! My able-bodied assistant photog today got some as a reward for the help. She, too, volunteered to take *ALL* the potato ones. She was gently dissuaded as well...

I LOVE the tip about cutting the corners so that you know what flavor it is.

Have to give props for that to a close friend of mine who was over one day watching me make them for Wiglia dinner (Wiglia is Polish for Christmas Eve, it translates the "vigil" you keep for the birth of the Christ child.

Although I'm not a practicing Catholic, out of respect for the culture, when I do a full blown Wiglia, I keep to all the traditions. Christmas Eve is traditionally a fast day for Polish Catholics. No food at all before sundown, and then no meat. So even though I make the potato/bacon and hamburger ones, I don't eat them until after Wiglia. She was coming for dinner that night, and as I was stacking them on the plate, I was tellling her, "ok, remember the top layer is hamburger, and the middle layer is veggie and bottom is potato". At that point, she suggested making the cuts ! I thought (and think) it was brilliant.

[Pierogi]

Lookin good! So is your whole counter top a wooden surface that you can work on or is there a designated section? I looked at the kitchen shots but was unclear.

Pretty much the whole section, about 3 feet worth, between the stove and the sink is an oak butcher block. You can sort of see the joint between it and the counter top around the sink in the shot where I'm brushing the circles with water. The rest of the counter top, and the low part of the back splash is oak-colored and "grained" Formica. It's actually a pretty decent look and functioning counter set up. I also have a small marble slab that lives on top of the microwave for use when I'm making really rich doughs like brioche or butter cookies.

This is the house I grew up in. I was an only child, and when my parents passed, I got the house. Since it was such a great neighborhood (still is), and since LB is so central to most of SoCal, I stayed. I was noticing the other day that there's a slight dip in the center of the butcher block from all the years of the Pierogi women chopping on it. I try to remember to use a cutting board now, both to keep the depression from getting worse, and it also raises the surface a bit, which is crucial to me.

[Pierogi]

Thanks so much for making your namesake dish, I'd hoped you would! They look delicious. I haven't made them in a very long time--since my college roommate and I would prepare an annual Polish dinner for a motley group of friends with (real/imagined) Polish heritage--kielbasa (from a good butcher in town), stuffed cabbage, and of course pierogies. I think we made them with potato and sauteed cabbage (not sauerkraut). Maybe it was just the frozen vodka, but I remember them as excellent meals. Thanks for the memories!

Oh they are. Heavy, gotta get you through those Eastern European winters, dontchaknow, but so soulful. It's real peasant food, nothin' subtle about it, but so satisfying.

As I said, I knew I wasn't gunna be able to wiggle out of the project...

[Pierogi]

Thanks so much Roberta, every single thing you have cooked so far has been something I'd love to eat! the Beef looked amazing.

You didn't mention if the stuff you have by your sink is bothersome, but I was thinking if it was, you could always go to your local doityourself store and get those baskets that hang from hooks in your ceiling? Just throwing that out there. they are really nice and handy. I love seeing your kitchen, as after years of living in a single family home, I'm getting ready to move into an apartment,which will no doubt have a kitchen styled like yours.

Thanks Christine ! Short ribs are my absolute favorite cut of beef, followed closely by brisket. I love those long, slow braises. Unfortunately I don't get to do them but a few precious months out here. Something about 85° in April that just does't scream "hot, steamy food" !

That's actually a great suggestion, but there's a teeeeeeny, tiny little problem. Well actually, really not so little . This is a 1940's tract house, so the ceilings are low to begin with (8 feet). The kitchen's is even lower, because it's got a drop ceilling with translucent tiles to cover the 8-foot long fluorescent fixtures.

And, I'm, ummmmmm, 6-foot 3. That good Polish peasant stock, I guess . I'd love to have a pot rack, too, so I didn't have to dig in the cupboard to get to the pot/pan I need (which, of course, is *always* on the bottom), but walking smack into a Le Cruset or a meat mallet really doesn't sound like my idea of a great time . I have enough troubles remembering to avoid the windchimes on the patio roof ! I seem to hit them at least once a week.

Edited March 8, 2011 by Pierogi (log)

[Pierogi]

Hi Roberta, those Pierogi look exceptional. Looking at the work involved in rolling the dough, I was just wondering if you've tried putting it through a pasta machine? Janni Kyritsis said in his book that he makes handmade filo using one and the pierogi dough looks suitable.

Hey Nick,

They turned out really well. I absolutely think they would work in a pasta machine, the dough is really just an egg pasta dough. I don't have one though (WHAT, a toy I don't have....outrageous). I don't really have the room to store one of the manual ones, but I really want to get one of the KA attachments. Soon, soon, soon. Maybe then *good* pierogies won't be a once-a-year treat.

[Pierogi]

OK, before we get to dinner, I wanted to add a few random thoughts/comments to some of the previous topics that came into my so-called mind well after I'd hit post.

Regarding the "Cooking Up a Storm" cookbook, those of you who want food porn shots in your cookbooks, or even just photos of the recipes are going to be sorely disappointed. There are very few photos of any kind in the book, and they it has are mostly "arty", soft-focus, half-tone graphics of various sites around NOLA. Doesn't matter a whit to me, but I know some people like to have the visuals, and I didn't want you to be disappointed.

A couple of random pierogi fabrication tips:

These do not freeze well. I've tried, and I've never come up with a satisfactory method. I think, again, because the dough is so much thinner than the commercial ones. I've frozen them before boiling, and after, and both times they decompose when you go to pan-brown them. They do keep in the fridge, covered with plastic wrap, for several days though.

For the sauerkraut stuffing, taste your 'kraut to see if its too sour for your palate. If it is, you can rinse it, and it will take some of the tartness and saltiness away. But be sure, regardless of whether you rinse or not, to squeeze it really dry before you use it, much like you'd squeeze thawed, frozen spinach. You need to keep the filling as dry as possible, lest you end up with the flour glue syndrome. Also, chop up the shreds of the 'kraut before you put it in the saute pan with the 'shrooms and onions. Those should also be minced quite small.

The typical cheese filling is a dry cottage cheese or a farmer's cheese. Impossible to find in LaLaLand. So the ricotta is a good sub. Again, some ricottas are wetter than others, and you may need to let that drain as well. If you can find farmer's cheese, I'm sure they'd be even better.

Finally, rehydrate your raisins in some hot tap water to cover for about 10 minutes, and then drain and mince them up as well. Better texture, and better distribution of raisin-y goodness.

[Pierogi]

Alllllll rightie then.

Dinner.

A *much* lower octane affair than the last 2 days, I'd blown my allotment of mojo this morning making the pierogies.

When life does, in fact, give you pierogies (or you bust your butt making them), you must have a Polish dinner to accompany them.

So that would be this:

And this:

For extra flavor, let's chop an onion. Hey, it's actually a good one !

Chop some, and thickly slice some.

The chopped pieces went into the pot of 'kraut:

This was pretty mild 'kraut, so no rinsing needed for me. YMMV....

Take a pan and throw in some butter...what....more butter ! But of course, you saw the ingredients in the pierogies, you surely can't have thought this was going to be a healthy meal:

When the butter gets nice and melty, throw in the sliced onions:

I used a second pan, because somehow I didn't think that onion would really work with the ricotta/raisin/cinnamon/sugar ones...dunno, could be just me:

Meanwhile, cut the kielbasa into chunks, and put it on a broiler pan. Normally I'd saute this as well, but, well, tonight all available burners were in use (yes, I lust after a 6-burner range, and I usually just cook only for me !!!):

Put the pretty little pierogies (or as someone I once knew who just didn't quite get the concept of pierogies once called them, 'rogies....) into the pan with the melted butter (and optional onions):

Let the 'rogies saute nice and gently in the butter goodness. You want to get them the beloved "golden brown and delicious". When the first side is nice and yummy, flip them over gently.

Aren't those gorgeous ?

Time for dinner:

And well, just because it's not quite calorific enough, you want some condiments (says the Condiment Queen).

For the sausage (ok, not so evil):

And for the pierogies (there we go.....):

A little dollop on top makes it even mo' bettah.

You can also, instead of the browned onions, use some good, fresh, unseasoned bread crumbs. After you flip the 'rogies, sprinkle the crumbs over the top, and into the butter. Let the crumbs brown a bit too (and absorb the butter, what's wrong with that?), and then pour the butter/crumbs over the pierogies.

Factoid du jour....buttered, sauteed breadcrumbs over food is called "a la Polonaise", "Polonaise" meaning, of course, Polish.

Much more reasonable dishwasher load tonight, although it's still running a "heavy wash" cycle. Usually it's the light, single wash. And there may be been a bit of kielbasa shared with some, ummmm, friends...yeah, friends. With fur suits.

Oh, and breakfast was a slice of King Cake, lunch was the same hummus/taboule/olive spread with pretzel rods....nuthin' earth shattering.

I notice in reading back over stuff I've posted today that there are some dumb-@ss typos and grammatical I missed. Of course I found them way *after* the edit window had slammed shut. Sorry, and if I was unclear in something, let me know, and I'll try to straighten it out. I was (and am) just really stupid-tired, and the old brain wasn't firing on all neurons.

So, I'll call it a "cut/print/wrap" for the day. Tomorrow morning will probably also be fairly low key, and I'll check back in around lunch time.

Thanks for playing, all ya'll !

Edit to say - grammatical errors. That would be grammatical *errors*, not just grammatical. Clearly time for bed !

Edited March 8, 2011 by Pierogi (log)

[Pierogi]

Your pretty bowl over the resting dough reminds me of my great grandmother who was in charge of making the weekly batch of soup noodles. ...

Isn't that a cool bowl? I have a set of about 7 or 8 graduated sizes, ranging from about a cup and a half to probably a quart. They were my grandmother's. I love that chalky, cobalt blue color.

That bread yesterday was really lovely.

I pass by that Farmers Market on the 3rd Sunday of the month going to Veteran's stadium for the swap meet. Good to know it is a legit FM- I saw the pony rides and food booths and was thinking "hype".

Well, it's not huge in terms of the number of farm stalls. Nothing like that lovely market in Torrance I used to go to when I worked in that 'hood. But the prices look comparable to the other FMs I've been to in Long Beach, and I think the smaller size keeps down the crowds a bit. And there's a good variety of the farm vendors, Asian greens, chiles, citrus, and the usual. It'll be interesting to see if it grows once we get into spring and summer crops.

[Pierogi]

Laissez les bon temps rouler, chere !

Happy Mardi Gras. I feel *much* rejuvinated after a good long sleep, and no huge project this morning. I have a couple of errands to run, but here's a clue about what we'll be doing this afternoon:

And where we're going:

Back in a bit.

[lancastermike]

da pierogi's are da bomb. Like you, I make them once a year aroung the holidays. It is a lot of work for everyday consumption, but they are damn tasty looking.