Daring Cooks' Challenge - August 2010 - Pierogi

Blog-checking lines: The August 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by LizG of Bits n’ Bites and Anula of Anula’s Kitchen. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make pierogi from scratch and an optional challenge to provide one filling that best represents their locale.

Mandatory: we had to make the dough from scratch (no ready made won ton wrapper etc. allowed!) and we also had to make filling from scratch.

Variations allowed: we could choose our filling: sweet or savoury.

Two different recipes were provided. I chose this one, with some variations:

Cottage Cheese Wareneki (pierogi)

Dough

½ cup (125 ml) milk  - I would add some cinnamon or cloves or ginger for sweet version or some herb for savory ones

½ cup (125 ml) whipping cream

3 large egg whites

1 tsp (5 ml) salt

3 cups (450 g) all-purpose flour

Mix flour and salt, add other ingredients, and knead dough until you have a smooth dough.
On a floured surface roll out fairly thin (1/8” or about 3 millimeters), cut into 2” (5 cm) squares, and fill with 1 tsp (5ml) cottage cheese filling.

Filling - Traditional

1 lb (455 g) dry cottage cheese
3 large egg yolks

Salt to taste

Mix well all the ingredients for the filling. Put 1 rounded teaspoon (5 ml) of the filling in each square, fold corners to form a triangle, seal edges well using your fingers or a fork. Cook in salted, boiling water for 5 minutes.

I made some variations to the whole process: I chose the sweet version of the pierogi and made a riccota cheese, dried apricot and chopped walnuts filling. I also added cinnamon sticks, cloves and orange zests to the boiling water in which I'd cooked the pierogis.

If you can’t find dry cottage cheese, simply drain normal cottage cheese by nesting the cottage in a few layers of cheese cloth or a fine sieve over a bowl.

Boiled pierogi can also be fried after boiling for a nice crunchy dumpling and so I did. I got 41 pierogis and fried half of them.

I served the boiled pierogis with a balsamic and wild berries caramel ( no, I didn't make it. Just bought a bottle at the supermarcket.) The fried ones were served with an apricot sauce = apricot jam, water and white wine vinegar, mixed and heated.

I must confess the first time I read the recipe I didn't believe this pierogi thing could be tasty. It remindes me of gnocchi without the sauce. Well I can't say it's the best thing I've ever tasted but it is not the worst either.

I'd like to thank Liz and Anna for this challenge. I had the amazing chance to learn something new to me. And it is always nice.

A little visual help:

Video: How to make varenyky / pierogi (Youtube)
Video: How to make pierogi (About.com)

Também em www.labgastro.blogspot.com