So, About Those Pierogies...

A long-ago friend on a knitting forum gave me her recipe for pierogies in 2008. I've never said I was the speediest person on Planet Earth, and well, pierogies can be labor intensive. But I found that if you already have a bunch of mashed potatoes, this recipe will do rather nicely with the excess potatoes.

I have Trader Joes frozen mashed potatoes in the freezer at all times, so they came into play, and I didn't put cheese in the filling, but instead just added about 1-2 tsp of Vadouvan seasoning mix to make the filling interesting enough for the Maharjah.

Ingredients (verbatim, as provided by my friend):

2 cups flour, plus extra for rolling and stuff
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1/2 cup sour cream (secret to better dough) need extra to eat them with..NOMNOMNOM
1/4 cup butter (soft and cubed), plus some for cooking
onions and butter for cooking them 
and i use potato and cheese for inside

My Substitutions:
1/2 Cup plain yogurt (as it was what I had on hand)
1/4 Cup Margarine and olive oil

My Addition:
1-2 tsp Vadouvan Seasoning

Method: (verbatim, as provided by my friend):
I mix the dry stuff first, then beat the egg separate. then add the egg to the dry. add the sour cream and butter. and you can use a mixer with a dough hook. mix it all up until it starts to loose it’s stickiness. but don’t over do it. then let it sit in the fridge for 20-30 minutes at least. It will last up to 2-3 days if you want to make it ahead of time.
then you gotta roll it out thin--maybe an 1/8 of an inch, or else it’ll be too much dough to your pierogi. use a glass or cookie cutter to cut a bunch of circles. just put a little of the filling in there, and make a half circle…use a fork to pinch the edges.
boil them for a couple minutes. then sautee those pictures in butter with onions that you already carmelized. :-)
oh right the insides. cook taters like you’re gonna make mashed potatoes. i liked to use the red ones..and leave the skins. i like to use about half an onion to about 4 or 5 big potatoes. dice and sautee the onion. then mash it all up together…potatoes, onion, cheddar cheese (sometimes i use manchego) , add some salt and pepper to taste, and sometimes some garlic powder.

All in all, I think I got maybe 18 pierogies out of that batch of dough. I divided the batch in half, and placed 1/2 the batch on a semolina lined plate and popped it in the freezer, and once they were frozen, I put them in a zip lock bag for later. 

However, what is pictured above is what was boiled and then pan fried the same day. Fresh or frozen they were wonderful. And speaking of frozen, when I took the frozen pierogies out a few weeks later, I popped them in my electric pressure cooker with about 2 quarts of salted water, and cooked them for two minutes on low pressure, then drained them and pan fried them. They were JUST as wonderful as they were when I ate them fresh!

The dough was not tough, and I received the greatest compliment from my husband on  this, insisting the next time we have a dinner party that I make these, as they are so different, and the couple we are planning on having over to share dinner with are Indian, and these are not something I'd typically make for them. He's even insisting I do up my pork chops too.  Such high praise!  Thank you very much, LindsayDuck! :)

Now for my next batch, I'm seriously giving thought to substituting 1/2 cup sourdough starter for the sour cream. It has the tang, and probably the same properties that make the dough great, and would have the added nutritional benefits of sourdough. Something for me to think about for next time, and there will be a next time! Perhaps I'll invest in a dumpling/pot sticker press, to speed along the sealing part of the dumpling making process.