I'm looking for an old fashion recipe for homemade perogies. My grandmother use to make the best. My favorite were the ones with sawerkraut and goats cheese mixed in. The others were the usual potatoe and cheese. My grandmother ever wrote the recipe down so needless to say I don't have it. Any help would be appreciated. Especially the ones with the kraut and goat cheese.
Hi Karen, and welcome to TalkFood!Originally Posted by Karen Lillq
Hope this is similar to the recipe you're looking for - let us know! A traditional addition is Farmer's Cheese (a dry cottage cheese), which is probably what you recall. If you want to add it to this recipe, use about 1 cup.
Pierogi with Sauerkraut
Filling:
2 lb sauerkraut
3 1/2 tbsp. fat (butter, etc)
1 small onion
salt and pepper
bread crumbs
Dough:
4 1/2 cups flour
1 egg
3/4 cup water
salt
3 tbsp. pork fat back
Drain sauerkraut and squeeze dry. Cook uncovered in a small amount of water over high heat.
Chop onion, brown lightly in butter or fat. Squeeze out water from sauerkraut in a clean cotton towel. Put through a food chopper (use the coarse blade of a meat grinder or fill a blender with cold water and pulse cabbage to coarsely chop, then drain well and squeeze dry.
Combine saeurkraut with onion mixture, heat, add salt and pepper to taste. Boil salted water in a large pot for cooking the pierogi.
To make the dough, sift flour, knead with egg and water to make a somewhat less heavy dough than for noodles; divide into portions.
Roll out to 1/8-inch thickness, cut out into medium sized rounds. Place filling on each round and fold in half to cover the mixture and make a half circle. Pinch edges shut to seal well.
Drop in batches into boiling salted water, cook for a minute or two after they float and remove using a slotted spoon into a colander. Pour over with hot water, drain, place on a heated serving dish, toss with melted butter and onion mixture. The pierogi may be plumped by steaming over boiling water. They can also be sauteed in butter with minced onion or leeks.
--CM
When I can't get farmers cottage cheese I will buy the regular and drain the whey off and use it for the liquid in the pierogi. Add a bit of salt. Mix with mashed potatoes in the ratio you like. Keep it on the firm side.
We actually have 2 kinds of Farmer's Cheese available locally. One is in a soft plastic package with a texture somewhat like cream cheese (wrapped in paper) and the other is more like a hard cheese that needs to be sliced with a much sharper flavor. I prefer the softer cream-cheese like version of Farmer's Cheese. I always use it for pierogi and blintzes because that's what my mom always used, but sometimes it is difficult to find, and they usually don't have too many in stock. It also reminds me of the ricotta basket cheese you can sometimes find around Easter that I use when making Pizzagiana, but it tastes a bit more like cream cheese (only sharper).
When I've made cheese using cottage cheese and a cheese press, the first few days of pressing yields something quite similar to the soft Farmer's Cheese.
--CM
A variation of dough we use in Bialystok doesn't use water. You may also want to try them.
4 1/2 c flour
2 cups sour cream
2 ts salt
2 TBSP butter
2 eggs and 1 yolk
2 TBSP oil
In one bowl mix the flour and salt. In another whisk together the butter, sour cream, eggs, yolk and oil. Blend together and work for a few minutes. Don't overwork the dough. Let stand covered with a towel for around 15 minutes.
I find it easier to seperate the dough in 2 or three piles before rolling it out.
Sounds like it would be a very tender and rich dough. Will have to try those - thanks for sharing, Sutra!
--CM
Here's yet another version of Pierogi with a cabbage filling.
Pierogi with Cabbage
Filling:
1 1/2 lbs cabbage, boiled
1/2 lb dry cottage cheese or Farmer's cheese
1 onion, chopped
1 1/2 tbsp. butter
salt and pepper
Dough:
1 egg
3 1/4 cups flour
salt
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 tbsp melted butter
1 1/2 tbsp bread crumbs
Boil cabbage and drain well. Grind or chop cabbage and cheese. Saute onions in butter and add along with the butter, salt and pepper.
To make the dough, combine the egg with flour, add a pinch of salt and as much was as is required to make a loose dough that can be kneaded (very slightly sticky). You can oil your hands to keep the dough from sticking so you won't have to add too much flour. Roll the dough out as thinly as you can. Cut 2 1/2 to 3 inch squares; put a small amount of filling in the center of each square and fold the dough over to form a triangle. Crimp/pinch the edges together well.
Have a large pot of salted boiling water ready to drop in the pierogi and cook on high heat for 5 minutes. As they float to the surface (plus another 30 seconds or so), remove the pierogi to a warm dish. Saute bread crumbs in melted butter and toss together, then pour over the pierogi to serve.
Here's a few more variations of pierogi to try.
--CM
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