Homemade Pierogies

My snowbird mother-in-law tells me she can't buy a decent potato in Phoenix.

Bummer. But me thinks being able to go outside and pick enough lemons off the tree to make a pitcher of fresh lemonade should give her a tiny bit of consolation.

It's an embarrassment of riches in North Dakota when it comes to white foods: flour, pasta, bread, potatoes, barley, corn, we've got all that and a bag of flax.  But now, thanks to a growing number of farmers markets, community plots, CSAs, and the ever-present backyard gardens, we're getting more access to local veggies, filling in our dietary color spectrum and creating a more nourishing local palate.

But sometimes, every now and then, my plate is a traditional Midwestern white-out.  Exhibit A: homemade pierogies, served with sauteed onions and sauerkraut, along with Kent's homemade venison bratwurst...you know, for some color.

In my mind, pierogies (and basically any kind of filled dumpling) hark back to a long ago time when women were at home tending to the home and family 24/7, with time to do such things as hang out in the kitchen making homemade dough and a separate pot of potato-and-cheese filling, rolling out the dough, cutting the dough into little circles while rolling the potato filling into little balls, wrapping dough circles around the potato balls, sealing each one, boiling them, sometimes frying them in butter too, and serving it up to the family as just another typical Tuesday night dinner.

Whew.

Nowadays, this is a Sunday project for this lady.  A meditation.  Wax on, wax off.  Create dough, cut dough. Wrap dough, seal dough.  Create, consume.  Be the pierogi.

A word of warning: I'm not Polish and do not have a Polish grandmother to vouch for any pierogi authenticity.  But I found these to be pretty darn tasty, in a comforting, carbs-and-fat kind of way.  I'll admit, though, that the next day I found myself eating a pile of raw carrots at lunch.  It's all about balance.  Be the carrot.

Homemade Pierogies
Makes 48 pierogies. Note you can freeze the formed-but-not-yet-cooked pierogies in a Ziploc for up to a month. This recipe is right out of the lovely leaf green Gourmet Today cookbook.  Thank you, Ruth Reichl.  Thank you. 


For dough

• 3 cups all-purpose flour plus additional for kneading
• 1 cup water
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon salt

For potato filling

• 1 1/2 pound russet (baking) potatoes
• 6 ounces shredded Cheddar (2 1/4 cups)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

For onion topping

• 1 medium onion, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter

• Special equipment: a 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter
• Accompaniment: sour cream

Make dough:
Put flour in a large shallow bowl and make a well in center. Add water, egg, oil, and salt to well and carefully beat together with a fork without incorporating flour. Continue stirring with a wooden spoon, gradually incorporating flour, until a soft dough forms. Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and knead, dusting with flour as needed to keep dough from sticking, until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes (dough will be very soft). Invert a bowl over dough and let stand at room temperature 1 hour.

Make filling while dough stands:
Peel potatoes and cut into 1-inch pieces. Cook potatoes in a large saucepan of boiling salted water until tender, about 8 minutes. Drain potatoes, then transfer to a bowl along with cheese, salt, pepper, and nutmeg and mash with a potato masher or a handheld electric mixer at low speed until smooth.

When mashed potatoes are cool enough to handle, spoon out a rounded teaspoon and lightly roll into a ball between palms of your hands. Transfer ball to a plate and keep covered with plastic wrap while making 47 more balls in same manner (there will be a little filling left over).

Make onion topping:
Cook onion in butter in a 4- to 5-quart heavy saucepan over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally (stir more frequently toward end of cooking), until golden brown, about 30 minutes. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper.

Form and cook pierogies:
Halve dough and roll out 1 half (keep remaining half under inverted bowl) on lightly floured surface (do not overflour surface or dough will slide instead of stretching) with a lightly floured rolling pin into a 15-inch round (1/8 inch thick), then cut out 24 rounds with lightly floured cutter. Holding 1 round in palm of your hand, put 1 potato ball in center of round and close your hand to fold round in half, enclosing filling. Pinch edges together to seal completely. (If edges don't adhere, brush them lightly with water, then seal; do not leave any gaps or pierogi may open during cooking.) Transfer pierogi to a lightly floured kitchen towel (not terry cloth) and cover with another towel. Form more pierogies in same manner.

Bring a 6- to 8-quart pot of salted water to a boil. Add half of pierogies, stirring once or twice to keep them from sticking together, and cook 5 minutes from time pierogies float to surface. Transfer as cooked with a slotted spoon to onion topping and toss gently to coat. Cook remaining pierogies in same manner, transferring to onions. Reheat pierogies in onion topping over low heat, gently tossing to coat.