Or, more precisely, pirogies/perogies/pierogies. What do you do when your uncooked, filled dough sticks together? Inseparable without ripping the skin?
Here’s how to salvage mushed perogies that stick together, and transform them into gyoza-inspired, bite-sized, crispy and hot potato-cheese bombs.
Last week, I made perogiesat school. I actually skipped my lecture since they were at the exact same time. It’s alright. My professor just reads everything off the slide, I convinced myself.
My friend (who is in the same lecture) and I skipped to the cooking event in our school’s kitchen, in the darkof what we’d be making. It was a great and pleasant surprise that we’d be making pirogies; I’d always wanted to learn how after seeing Tamara make them on Massterchef Canada (from season 1. Please comment if you watch Masterchef too! We can TV marathon together 🙂 ). They’re also vegetarian with potato and cheese as the filling, which is perfect sincemy friend can eat it!
The sizzling and crackling was like music to my ears, as we continued kneading more dough for the pirogiesand picking herbs for the potato filling. When the first batch came out, we gobbled them down in less than three minutes.
We messed up the recipe (quite) a bit, and really just winged it. But it still turned out fine – the recipe is very forgiving!
Unfortunately, when I brought some uncooked perogieshome, they got mushed in my backpack into a sad, deformed trapezoid. I tried pulling them apart, but it was so squished together that I mostly couldn’t tell where the seams were, and when I tried pulling on the seams that Icouldsee, the skin ripped.
With this kitchen fix, you can have freshly cooked perogies for your next meal. I tried boiling them too, but the potato part just fallsout of the sliced dough, so they really are the best pan fried.
Kitchen Fix:
1. Shape the squashedperogie dough into a log. It can be whatever length or width, just try to make it into a rectangle. At this point, you can wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate (up to 24 hours with meat filling, 3 days for vegetarian perogies). When you want to cook the perogies, you don’t have totake it out of the fridge early to bringto room temperature.
2. Slice the perogies into 2-3 cm (around 3/4′ inch) thick rectangles.
3. Place enough oil to coat your pan, and heat on medium heat. I use a mini non-stick pan, and only needed 1/2 teaspoon.
4. Fry the perogies in the pan for around 5 minutes, or until sizzling and browned at the edges (you should be able to tell). Flip, and fry for another 1-2 minutes. Turn off the heat and serve.
Recipe for Perogies (I didn’t bring my camera, but DON’T WORRY! It’s incredibly easy!)
Source: Sustainability Club provided a recipe that I cannot find! Please let me know if you know the source for this recipe.
INGREDIENTS
Filling
- 3 large potatoes, peeled and cubed into 2-3 cm pieces (1 inch)
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
- Salt and pepper to taste
- green onion
- herbs: fresh rosemary (dried rosemary, thyme and parsley also work well)
Dough:
- 3 cups of wheat flour (all-purpose) (extra 1 cup for rolling dough)
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 3/4 cup of boiling water
- 1/2 cup of cold water
- 1/2 teaspoon of oil
RECIPE
Filling
- Peel and cube potatoes.
- Bringa large pot of water to boil on high heat, and place potatoes into the water. Cook until tender, around 10-15 minutes.
- Drain and mash with shredded cheese while still hot. Season with salt, pepper, onions and herbs. Mix to combine.
- Cover and refrigerate until cool (15-20 min). Meanwhile, we can make the dough.
Dough:
- Whisktogether flour and salt in a large bowl.
- Pour boiling water into the bowl, while vigorously stirring the mixture with a fork or wooden spoon. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and set aside for about 5 minutes.
- After 5 minutes, add cold water and stir. Cover the dough with a kitchen towel again. Set aside for 15 minutes.
- After 15 minutes, add vegetable oil. Knead the pierogi dough until it becomes a smooth and uniform mass.It shouldn’t take long (around 5-10 minutes) and should be very easy to knead and combine.
Kneading and Assembly
- Flour your work surface and rolling pin.
- Separate the perogi dough into two balls. Roll out each piece until it’s very thin, around 2-3 mm (<0.01”).
- Cut into circles using a cookie cutter or a glass. Spoon some filling into thecentre of a circle of dough.
- Fold over the doughin half and press together(the dough should transition like this: O –> D ). Seal the edges by pressing down with a fork.
Cooking the perogi
- Bring a large pot of water to boil. Drop in the perogies.
- Cook until perigees are floating, about 3-5 minutes and remove.
- Serve and enjoy.
Enjoy,
Moe
