Baringer family news
Cheryl gave me this really cool gadget for making pierogi. I already had a pasta machine so I had everything I needed to give it a try. You can make these by hand but the kitchen gadgets make it pretty easy. Pierogi are the Polish version of stuffed dumplings. Almost every culture has a variation of this food. The most well known are probably ravioli in Italian cuisine, dim sum from Chinese cooking or Russiaâs staple pelmeni. Pierogi are traditionally stuffed with ground meat, potatoes and cabbage or mushrooms. I chose to combine ground lean pork, mushrooms and potato for these.
Stuffing ½ onion, diced small 12 button mushrooms, diced small (wild mushrooms would be nice too) 1 medium sized russet potato 1 lb. ground meat (if you use chicken or turkey, you will need to use olive or canola oil to brown the meat) Peel and cube the potato. Cook in enough salted water to cover in a small saucepan. Soften the onion in a small sauté pan. Add the mushrooms to the onion and cook until the mushrooms have given up most of their water. In a separate larger sauté pan, brown the meat. When the meat and onion/mushroom mixture are done, set them aside to cool. When the potato is soft, mash it with a small amount of butter in a large mixing bowl until smooth. Combine with the cooled meat and vegetables and mix well. Dough 3 cups all purpose flour 4 eggs 1 Tablespoon of vegetable oil (I used canola oil because it has a neutral taste but any good quality oil is fine) Mix ingredients in a bowl until the dough comes together. If it is dry, add a few drops of water a little at a time until the dough forms a ball. Knead the dough on a floured surface until it has a consistent color and texture. Wrap in cling film and put it in the fridge to rest for about 30 minutes. After the dough has rested, roll it into sheets about 4â wide and 12â long about as thick as the back edge of a knife. A pasta machine is a big help for this step. Assembly If you have a pierogi gadget, place a sheet over the mold and make the pockets. Fill each pocket with about a tablespoon of the cooled stuffing mixture. Using a brush, moisten the spaces between the pierogi with water. Lay a second sheet of dough over the mold and roll the sheets together to cut the edges. Gently push the pierogi out of the mold onto a plate. Cover with cling film until youâre ready to cook or freeze your pierogi. If you donât have a gadget, use a cookie cutter to make rounds from your dough sheets. Place your stuffing on half of the round. Moisten the edge of the round with water, fold over the edge to make a half moon shape and seal the edge with a fork. Cooking Cook the pierogi in a large pot of vigorously boiling salted water for 2-3 minutes. Fresh pasta cooks much more quickly than dried, so donât overcook them. Serve with a sauce of your choice, usually a tomato sauce or reduction with cream. We just drizzled a little olive oil on them and they were great! This recipe made about 50 pierogi with enough dough left over to make about 6 oz. of capellini pasta.
