What are Pierogi?
Pierogi are Eastern European stuffed dumplings that are usually
boiled. As with many traditional foods, there are regional varieties
with fillings ranging from sweet to savoury, meat to meatless.
This potato and cheese-filled Pierogi recipe I'm sharing today is a
meatless kind popular in Poland. The filling? Cheese! Potato!
Butter! Even if you've never had one before, these three words
already mean you know you're going to love it!
What they taste like: Pierogi are heartier and heftier than Asian
dumplings like gyoza and Chinese potstickers. The dumpling wrapper
is thicker and the filling is often rich. The dumpling itself is
also bigger and heavier, and often topped with a sauce of melted
butter. Tt may not be the lightest of meals but it will be one of
the best things you eat this month!!
The filling
- 500g peeled Potatoes
- 1tbsp Salt
- 30g Butter
- 1cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1/4tsp Salt
- 1/2tsp Black Pepper
The Dough
- 2cups Flour
- 1tsp Salt
- 50g Butter
- 1/2cup Water
- 1 large egg
Start with the filling!
- Boil potatoes - Put potato and 1 tbsp salt in a large saucepan. Add cold tap water so it's 3cm above potatoes. Bring to a boil on high heat then reduce heat to medium high and simmer for 15 minutes or until potatoes are soft.
- Mash - Drain, then pass the potatoes through a potato ricer into a bowl (or use potato masher)
- Add Cheese - Immediately add butter, cheese, salt and pepper. Mix with a wooden spoon until fully combined.
- Cool it off! - Spread out ~1cm thick on a tray. Cover with cling wrap, pressing so it is fully in contact. Cool on the counter (~30 min) then refrigerate until cold (1 hour+)
Now the dough!
- Melt butter - Heat up the water and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat just until butter is melted, do not boil water. (Or do this in the microwave). Turn off heat.
- Mix dough - Whisk the flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and then add the butter water plus egg. Mix to combine into a shaggy dough.
- Knead - Scrape out onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead for 5 minutes until the dough becomes smooth (Note 3). You could also use your stand mixer.
- Rest - Wrap with cling wrap and leave on the counter for 30 minutes.
Wrapping Pierogi
- Roll & cut - On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 3mm / 1/8" thickness. Cut out rounds using a 7.5 cm / 3" cutter. Do as many as you can, then gather surplus dough into a ball, wrap with cling wrap and set aside for later.
- Fill & wrap - Place 1 tablespoon of cheesy potato filling in the middle of a round. Dip finger with water and run along edge of half the circle. Fold dough over to enclose the filling and press to seal, making slight indents (no pleats).
- Wrap remaining - Place them on a lightly floured tray and continue to wrap remaining Pierogi (including rolling out the remaining dough). You should get ~30 pierogi.
Cooking and Serving of Pierogi!
- Batch cooking - Directions below are for cooking and serving 10. Boil pierogi in batches of 10 to 12 max, they need space to bounce around in the water.
- Boiling - Bring ~3liters of water to the boil with 1tbsp salt. Lower 10 pierogi into the water. Cook for 5 minutes - they should be floating on the surface. Then fish them out!
- Let them cool off! After fishing them out, pierogi need time to cool of, place them on a clean cloth and let them rest for 2 min. After that flip them and let the other side rest for another 2 min again.
- Serve them up - Now that they cooled off a little bit, plate them up, add a dollop of sour cream, eat and be happy!