Homemade Pierogi Part 2: Assembling, cooking...and EATING!

When we last met our intrepid heroes... er... cooks...

Last night, we left you hanging.  We had packed up our ingredients and put them in the fridge overnight.  It was late on a Sunday and I had to be up early on Monday.

So then on Monday evening, we worked together (hubby helped!) to assemble and cook them all!

Date night in our kitchen

1. Form the pierogi.
• This took some patience.  Like... a LOT of patience.  Hubby was better at this than I was.
• Let the dough warm up before starting.  We were anxious to start and tried to play with cold dough.  It was not happy.
• We used my new pasta rolling attachment for my stand mixer.  Lots of places will tell you that the dough is too tender for this, but we were careful to not overwork it.  It came out beautifully.
• Roll the dough until it is about 1/8" thick.  Try to keep the flour on only one side of the dough.  Trust me.  It's important.
  
• Cut into circles.  We have a little gadget to do this, so we tried it.  It was almost more frustrating than helpful.  Cut circles: use a glass, or a biscuit cutter, or a cookie cutter.  Anything round.
  
• Scoop a SMALL amount of potato and cheese mixture into the middle of the circle.  Trust me - go smaller than you think you need.  I had a tendency to overfill them and had a very hard time getting them closed.
  
• Top with some bacon bits.
  
• Fold over and seal tightly.  This is tricky.  You really need them sealed completely or the filling will come out when you boil them.  I recommend wetting your finger and running it around the inside edge before folding them closed.  This will help form the seal.

  

  This is what happens when you do not use flour on the outside of the dough.  OOOPS!

• Pinch the edges closed with your fingers or a fork.
  
2. Boil.
• Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a rolling boil.
• Lower a few pierogi in the pot at a time.  Do not crowd the pot.  Better to do this in batches.
• When they float, they're done.  This seriously only takes a couple of minutes - tops.  Fresh pasta cooks very quickly.
• Put the boiled pierogies on a wire cooling rack to drip dry and cool.  Do not do what I did and think that wax paper would help.  We lost 3 beautiful pillows of fluffy yumminess to the evil Wax Paper monster.
  
3. (Optional) Store for refrigerator or freezer.
• If you are planning to store them, you can absolutely bag them up.
• Allow them to cool completely.
• I wrapped them in wax paper (now that they're cool) to keep them from sticking to each other.
• Put in a ziptop bag and put in the refrigerator for up to a week (HAH!  As if!!)
• If freezing, I've read that it's better to freeze them on a sheet tray all laid out flat.  Once frozen, you can transfer them to a ziptop bag.  This is all to avoid them sticking together.
  
4. Sauté.
• Melt butter in a sauté pan.
• Add a few pierogi, taking care not to crowd the pan.  Crowded pans = steaming, not sautéing. They won't get all crispy brown and yummy.
• After a couple of minutes, gently turn over to the other side to brown.
5. Serve.
• There are plenty of ways to serve pierogi:
• Browned butter
• Caramelized Onions
• Applesauce
• Sour Cream
• Hot sauce (if you're my husband)

They were wonderful.  The dough is very tender and light. The filling was subtle with blue cheese (hubby and I agreed that we both wanted more blue flavor next time).  It was perfect with a bit of browned butter and a small dollop of sour cream.

I hope you enjoyed this longer adventure in my kitchen!

Let me know what you liked and what you might like to see next!