You don't need anything fancy to make these Eastern European dumplings, just a little bit of time and a love of all things delicious.
The ingredients for these dumplings are incredibly cheap and you probably have everything in your kitchen already (save the sauerkraut perhaps!).
The dough takes a little bit of patience to bring together but if you keep on kneading it then it will come together beautifully. Cunningly this also gives you an excuse to skip the gym; always a bonus in my books.
You can fill these dumplings with almost anything, sweet potato or perhaps even something sweet like nutella and bananas. I wanted to recreate some of the simple dinners we had in Poland so included the sauerkraut in the Pierogi as well as an accompaniment.
One of the difficulties of cooking in a student kitchen if that you don't always have the equipment you're used to, like a rolling pin, so I had to look for something that I knew I'd have handy!
RECIPE:
Makes around 16 pierogies
Ingredients:
For the dough:
335g plain flour
1 egg
125ml warm water
For the filling:
1 large baking potato
125g cream cheese
1/2 a bag of wilted spinach, around 75g when fresh
50g sauerkraut (optional)
Method:
Begin by peeling the potato, dicing it, and putting it in a pot of salted water until the potato can be easily cut with a butter knife. Once it's soft enough drain the water away.
Meanwhile it's time for the dough. In a bowl combine the flour, water and egg and mix until it comes together as a ball.
Turn out onto a floured work top and prepare to get your hands dirty. You want this dough to be quite elastic - it took me around 15 minutes of fairly aggressive kneading - and will be done when the dough springs back from a gentle prod.
Once the potato is done combine it with the cream cheese and spinach. Just to warn you this filling is delicious so try not to eat all of it!
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| Once you've filled all the Pierogies I recommend spreading it on a cracker as a pre-dinner snack |
To make the pierogies roll the dough out until very thin, ideally around 1mm if you can. This is not an easy task as the dough it reluctant to be rolled but the thinner the better!
Once rolled out use a biscuit cutter/pint glass (student life) to create circles of dough that are around 9cm in diameter.
Fill each pierogi with a teaspoon of the potato mixture and a pinch of sauerkraut, and then dab some water around the edge of the pierogi and pinch the edges together tightly, ensuring that the mixture is completely sealed in. Continue this process until you've run out of dough.
Once you've completed this the pierogies can be put in the fridge for around 2 days, so if you want to make these for family or friends they can be made well in advance.
To cook the pierogies grab two large saucepans, I found wok's the best, and fill one with boiling water and the other with a generous glug of oil oil.
In batches of around 5 pierogies at a time, drop the dumplings into the boiling water and, once they've risen to the surface of the water, cook for around 6 minutes. This cooking time will depend upon the thickness of the dough, if you struggled to get them thin enough allow closer to 10 minutes.
Once this time us up transfer them into the hot oiled wok and fry for around 5 minutes again, until the pierogies are crispy and delicious.
Keep the fried pierogies in a large bowl in a warm oven until all are cooked. The cooking time will take around 25 minutes for all of them.
Bring these to the table for a culinary mic drop.
I find these are best enjoyed with a stein of beer or a swig of vodka for the full Polish effect.
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