Virtual Cookbook: Potato and cheese pierogies

Potato and cheese pierogies from www.SoupBelly.com.

Pierogies aren’t something I ever thought I’d make.

But trolling through FoodGawker.com’s images the other day I saw some, before lunch, and wanted them immediately. FoodGawker.com is a site that aggregates images from food blogs, and it’s dangerous business to look at it before lunch. Or anytime, for that matter.

The first recipe I saw didn’t strike my fancy, so I searched through the site’s photo archives and found this recipe from Candy Hom at Soupbelly.com. It sounded wonderful.

As with many more labor-intensive dishes, they aren’t a good choice for a dinner party the first time, but they weren’t hard. First you mix the dough, stick it in the freezer for a bit, and then mix the filling. The filling was delicious — like thick, cheesy mashed potatoes.

You divide the dough into 24 pieces, flatten them into circles, fill them with and pinch them shut. I used my hands, not a rolling pin, and made sure to use plenty of flour on my dough mat.

Next, you boil the pierogies. I made the mistake of leaving one of my batches in the water too long and a couple of them burst, but 22 out of 24 on my first try isn’t bad.

For the final step, I sautéed my pierogies and onions in olive oil instead of butter, since that’s what I use most often for cooking. It was tasty, but I’m sure butter would be, too. My pierogies weren’t all perfectly shaped like store-bought frozen ones, but they tasted so much better! Next time I might make a double batch and freeze some.

Potato and cheese pierogies

Dough ingredients

2¼ cups flour

½ teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1/3 cup water

Filling ingredients

1 pound russet potatoes

3 ounces grated cheddar cheese

Salt/pepper

1 tablespoon dried chives

Topping ingredients

Butter for sautéing

1 onion, sliced thinly

Sour cream

Preparation

■ To make the dough: Combine flour and salt. Add beaten eggs and water. Mix the dough until it becomes elastic and can be molded into a ball. Add more flour if it is too sticky. Wrap ball of dough in plastic and set in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

■ To make the filling: Cut potatoes into cubes. Boil until soft. Mash with grated cheese, chives. Salt and pepper to taste. Let cool to room temperature.

■ To fill pierogies: Generously flour a cutting board and form the dough into a long roll. Add flour to the board and your hands as needed. Form 24 balls of dough from roll. Flatten a dough ball with your hand and make it large enough to place a heaping teaspoon (or more) or potato filling in center. Fold dumpling in half, and seal edges by crimping the sides together with a fork. Set on a floured surface and repeat until finished.

■ Melt one tablespoon of butter on a large skillet. Sauté onions until browned, set aside.

■ To cook pierogies: Boil a large pot of salted water. On another burner, add

1 teaspoon of butter on a skillet and heat on medium high heat. Add pierogies to the boiled water, four to five at a time but don’t overcrowd the pot. Boil for a few minutes until they float up, use a slotted spoon to lift them out onto a plate.

■ Place drained pierogies onto the skillet and cook both sides until golden. Set on a plate and repeat process until finished. Top pierogies with sautéed onions and serve with sour cream.

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