The first - and by far superior - pierogies I ever ate were at Pike Place Market, at a little Russian food stand that also serves a delicious borsch and many sides and salads whose names I can't remember. The ones I love there are potato and mushroom, but they can be filled with just about anything, as long as it's something you can fit into a dumpling.
The recipe I used was found at About.com, of all places. (Man, I remember watching commercials for this website on Channel One news in junior high; who knew I'd actually use it someday?)
So, first I washed and peeled the potatoes for the filling and set them aside, then put all of the dough ingredients in a bowl. (This dough has sour cream in it!)
The dough ended up to be a pretty stiff dough not unlike bread. Once mixed, it had to be set aside and put in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.
While the dough was firming up, I started the potatoes boiling (which I probably should have done at the start) and sauteed the vegetables for the filling. The recipe called for onions, but I also added mushrooms because I just love them.
I used red onions because the store was out of green onions (my favorite) and that was the next choice. Although the recipe called for a whole onion, only about a quarter of it actually ended up going into the pan, because it was a GIANT onion. (In retrospect, I probably would have used more of it.)
The potatoes took FOREVER to boil. I had never cooked them that way before, so I had no realistic idea how long it would take; I ended up scooping the potatoes out after a while, cutting them into pieces and then boiling them some more. When they were finally finished, the next step in the process basically involved making mashed potatoes with the sauteed vegetables and some cheese. (I used a LOT of cheese.)
The next step was rolling out the dough to make the dumplings. My two major problems here were 1) I had no rolling pin and had to make do with a tall glass from the cabinet, and 2) The dough was extremely elastic, to the point where it absolutely would not stay the thickness I was trying to get. I'm not sure whether this was just a characteristic of the recipe or something I did wrong; as it was, the dough was supposed to be about 1/8 inch thick, and it ended up being almost twice that thick.
I cut out the dumpling circles with the same glass that had served as my rolling pin. (No cookie cutters? No problem!) Because of the thickness of the dough, I had a lot of leeway as to how far I could stretch it around a large amount of filling, but I still ended up with a good amount of filling left over. The mushrooms may have been part of that.
After all the dough was used up, all I had to do was crimp the edges with a fork (both for practicality and attractiveness) and pop them into some boiling water.
They cooked surprisingly quickly. The recipe called for frying the pierogies after they were boiled, but I skipped this step for three reasons: 1) My favorite pierogies from the market are boiled, not fried, 2) I generally don't like fried things anyway, and it's healthier, and 3) I was getting damn hungry by this point, since the recipe was supposed to take an hour to make and it had taken me nearly three.
Luckily, they still tasted good not-fried. They probably would have been better had I been able to roll the dough thinner, but not bad at all, particularly with sour cream. I ended up having a total of seven pierogies for dinner, and there were enough left over for at least two more meals.
The potatoes took FOREVER to boil. I had never cooked them that way before, so I had no realistic idea how long it would take; I ended up scooping the potatoes out after a while, cutting them into pieces and then boiling them some more. When they were finally finished, the next step in the process basically involved making mashed potatoes with the sauteed vegetables and some cheese. (I used a LOT of cheese.)
The next step was rolling out the dough to make the dumplings. My two major problems here were 1) I had no rolling pin and had to make do with a tall glass from the cabinet, and 2) The dough was extremely elastic, to the point where it absolutely would not stay the thickness I was trying to get. I'm not sure whether this was just a characteristic of the recipe or something I did wrong; as it was, the dough was supposed to be about 1/8 inch thick, and it ended up being almost twice that thick.
I cut out the dumpling circles with the same glass that had served as my rolling pin. (No cookie cutters? No problem!) Because of the thickness of the dough, I had a lot of leeway as to how far I could stretch it around a large amount of filling, but I still ended up with a good amount of filling left over. The mushrooms may have been part of that.
After all the dough was used up, all I had to do was crimp the edges with a fork (both for practicality and attractiveness) and pop them into some boiling water.
They cooked surprisingly quickly. The recipe called for frying the pierogies after they were boiled, but I skipped this step for three reasons: 1) My favorite pierogies from the market are boiled, not fried, 2) I generally don't like fried things anyway, and it's healthier, and 3) I was getting damn hungry by this point, since the recipe was supposed to take an hour to make and it had taken me nearly three.
Luckily, they still tasted good not-fried. They probably would have been better had I been able to roll the dough thinner, but not bad at all, particularly with sour cream. I ended up having a total of seven pierogies for dinner, and there were enough left over for at least two more meals.
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