Daring Cooks: Pierogi (August 2010)
Another Daring Cooks post, hurrah. Which I appear to be doing once every two months now, instead of monthly. Ah well. *headdesk*
Anyway! This month's was pierogi. I'd never heard of pierogi before prior to this challenge, and was as such rather eager to try my hand at it.
Pierogi
The challenge was essentially to make the dough and filling from scratch. We were encouraged to go wild with the filling - sweet, savoury, something that reflects your local cuisine... I confess that I'd started off with many Grand Plans. Different fillings! Different doughs! Different ways of serving! Then their labour-intensive nature caught up with me, and I ended up only doing one type. *wilts* Ah well!
Right! Best I could figure out, the pierogi is something like a western version of the Chinese jiao zi, only with a slightly different dough, with a rather different filling, and a considerably different way of sealing and thus shape.
We were provided recipes for two kinds of dough.
Dough #1
½ cup (125 ml) milk (can be whole milk, 2% or skim milk)
½ cup (125 ml) whipping cream
3 large egg whites
1 tsp (5 ml) salt
3 cups (450 gm) all-purpose flour
Dough#2
2 to 2 1/2 cups (300 to 375 g) all-purpose (plain) flour
1 large egg
1 teaspoon (5 ml) salt
About 1 cup (250 ml) lukewarm water
I went with the latter, which reminded me vaguely of how I'd make pasta dough, only with twice as much flour in proportion and no olive oil. I'd like to try the first one some day - the potential richness of the milk and cream had put me off, but the more I think about it, the more I feel that it'd probably make a lovely skin for a sweet dessert dumpling.
Fun fact: While making the dough, I ran out of flour (the dough at that point in time was, quite literally, pasta dough sans oil, down to the colour of it), and had to run out to buy a new bag. Thank goodness for living an approximately 7min walk away from a supermarket. *headdesk*
So!
Some days before I made the pierogi, I asked my f-list about their pierogi-eating experiences, the better to figure out what an 'authentic pierogi filling' was, to find out how pierogi were normally served, and to hopefully be inspired.
In the end, I went with a filling of mashed potatoes mixed with onions, mushrooms and ham that'd been been browned and softened/crisped (depending on their nature *g*) in a pan. To this I also added shredded red cheddar and mozerella. [top picture]
I cut the circles with a cup, as I was given to understand is the 'traditional' way of making pierogi. *g* The edges are a little funny, because I stretched them a little before piling on the filling, so that there'd be thinner edges when they were sealed.
After sealing them, I decorated the edges with a fork, in a bid to mimic how it might have turned out if I had used a handy pierogi mould (mold?). [bottom picture]
I served them two ways. The first was by boiling, which was really nice.
They were dished with broccoli, cheesy German bratwurst, and sour cream.
Another fun fact: I may have broken a knife whilst cutting a sausage, taking out an electric fan in the process by dint of Flying Metal Blade.
The second was by pan-frying after boiling. This became my preferred means of serving them. They were glorious, the skin crip (or tasting like roti prata, as my sister commented) and the filling hot, a perfect contrast to the cool creaminess of the sour cream. I ate it with chilli sauce too (this fabulous one they serve at this stall on Syed Alwi Road in Singapore with Hakka beefball beehoon, a dish which is itself very lovely), the spiciness cutting through any grease and adding a whole new dimension to the already-wonderful ball of flavours and textures. *happy sigh*
And here's a shoddy attempt at a cross-section:
Fun fact the third: Holding something up in chopsticks with your right hand while trying to take pictures with your camera balanced in your left hand without shaking when you're right-handed is really, really, really bloody hard.
I'd definitely like to make these dumplings again, with different fillings (and different skin(s)) even. Defintely once with dried or drained cottage cheese, which I've been given to understand is the traditional cheese for pierogi. They were a delicious and fun mix between jiao zi and stuffed pasta, two things I already adore very much. They're most certainly worth the effort, though with the time involved and the mess which will result regardless of how hard I tried to keep things neat (I'm not a very neat cook, I must admit, especially when flour and doughs are involved!), I suspect this will probably be more of a 'special occasions' kind of thing.
My thanks to this month's hosts, LizG of Bits n’ Bites and Anula of Anula’s Kitchen, for giving us such a fun challenge!
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.
Anyway! This month's was pierogi. I'd never heard of pierogi before prior to this challenge, and was as such rather eager to try my hand at it.
Pierogi
The challenge was essentially to make the dough and filling from scratch. We were encouraged to go wild with the filling - sweet, savoury, something that reflects your local cuisine... I confess that I'd started off with many Grand Plans. Different fillings! Different doughs! Different ways of serving! Then their labour-intensive nature caught up with me, and I ended up only doing one type. *wilts* Ah well!
Right! Best I could figure out, the pierogi is something like a western version of the Chinese jiao zi, only with a slightly different dough, with a rather different filling, and a considerably different way of sealing and thus shape.
We were provided recipes for two kinds of dough.
Dough #1
½ cup (125 ml) milk (can be whole milk, 2% or skim milk)
½ cup (125 ml) whipping cream
3 large egg whites
1 tsp (5 ml) salt
3 cups (450 gm) all-purpose flour
Dough#2
2 to 2 1/2 cups (300 to 375 g) all-purpose (plain) flour
1 large egg
1 teaspoon (5 ml) salt
About 1 cup (250 ml) lukewarm water
I went with the latter, which reminded me vaguely of how I'd make pasta dough, only with twice as much flour in proportion and no olive oil. I'd like to try the first one some day - the potential richness of the milk and cream had put me off, but the more I think about it, the more I feel that it'd probably make a lovely skin for a sweet dessert dumpling.
Fun fact: While making the dough, I ran out of flour (the dough at that point in time was, quite literally, pasta dough sans oil, down to the colour of it), and had to run out to buy a new bag. Thank goodness for living an approximately 7min walk away from a supermarket. *headdesk*
So!
Some days before I made the pierogi, I asked my f-list about their pierogi-eating experiences, the better to figure out what an 'authentic pierogi filling' was, to find out how pierogi were normally served, and to hopefully be inspired.
In the end, I went with a filling of mashed potatoes mixed with onions, mushrooms and ham that'd been been browned and softened/crisped (depending on their nature *g*) in a pan. To this I also added shredded red cheddar and mozerella. [top picture]
I cut the circles with a cup, as I was given to understand is the 'traditional' way of making pierogi. *g* The edges are a little funny, because I stretched them a little before piling on the filling, so that there'd be thinner edges when they were sealed.
After sealing them, I decorated the edges with a fork, in a bid to mimic how it might have turned out if I had used a handy pierogi mould (mold?). [bottom picture]
I served them two ways. The first was by boiling, which was really nice.
They were dished with broccoli, cheesy German bratwurst, and sour cream.
Another fun fact: I may have broken a knife whilst cutting a sausage, taking out an electric fan in the process by dint of Flying Metal Blade.
The second was by pan-frying after boiling. This became my preferred means of serving them. They were glorious, the skin crip (or tasting like roti prata, as my sister commented) and the filling hot, a perfect contrast to the cool creaminess of the sour cream. I ate it with chilli sauce too (this fabulous one they serve at this stall on Syed Alwi Road in Singapore with Hakka beefball beehoon, a dish which is itself very lovely), the spiciness cutting through any grease and adding a whole new dimension to the already-wonderful ball of flavours and textures. *happy sigh*
And here's a shoddy attempt at a cross-section:
Fun fact the third: Holding something up in chopsticks with your right hand while trying to take pictures with your camera balanced in your left hand without shaking when you're right-handed is really, really, really bloody hard.
I'd definitely like to make these dumplings again, with different fillings (and different skin(s)) even. Defintely once with dried or drained cottage cheese, which I've been given to understand is the traditional cheese for pierogi. They were a delicious and fun mix between jiao zi and stuffed pasta, two things I already adore very much. They're most certainly worth the effort, though with the time involved and the mess which will result regardless of how hard I tried to keep things neat (I'm not a very neat cook, I must admit, especially when flour and doughs are involved!), I suspect this will probably be more of a 'special occasions' kind of thing.
My thanks to this month's hosts, LizG of Bits n’ Bites and Anula of Anula’s Kitchen, for giving us such a fun challenge!
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.