Making Pierogies

Well, I actually did it. For the first time in my life, I made noodles from scratch and then filled them to make pierogies. I have to say it was way easier than I imagined! I used my hands to blend the dough together and it was really easy to knead (way easier than bread dough). The most time-consuming part was filling and boiling all those little dumplings (about 50 total!) But the best part is that now I have lots of frozen pierogies that all we have to do to eat is defrost and fry. The picture to the left shows the pierogies after they've been boiled for about 8 minutes.

And here they are after they've been fried in coconut oil:I got the recipe from this About.com web site; none of the cookbooks I have at home had really adequate recipes for the noodle dough. I knew that just flour and water wasn't going to cut it (as one of my cookbooks advised). So I went for this one, which uses a high fat content with butter and sour cream. And indeedy they were delicious! I also managed to use up 3 heads of cabbage that I had grown in my garden for the filling. For the filling I used a recipe from Please to the Table, a wonderful cookbook with Russian and Eastern European recipes. It called for cabbage, chopped egg, dill, and salt and pepper. The dill I had growing in my garden, so that was easy. I also added some fried onion.

There is something wonderful about really making food from scratch like this. I thought it would take up lots of time; but instead, it expanded out my time and involved all my senses. And I involved my husband in the filling/boiling part, so it was even bonding time. Ultimately it saved me time because I didn't have to go to the grocery store or out to get food, and instead I made several meals' worth of food in one evening.