Polish Pierogi Recipe.

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For this weeks recipe I was given a bit of a challenge by one of the blokes I work with to make pierogi. His name is Jacek (Polish Jack, as he's known.) and he has lived over here for a few years. His English isn't the best, as you'd expect, so I asked him if he could give me a proper Polish recipe for pierogi so that I could make them as authentic as possible. I thought he might bring in a dog eared book, handwritten by his mother in Polish and we would have to decipher the ingredients, measurements and method together before I could get started but, the day after asking me, he brought in a print out of a recipe he got off google that he had translated into broken English. He did assure me that it was a genuine Polish recipe.

Pierogi, for those that don't know, are fried stuffed dumplings, they're a little bit like Italian ravioli, but a bit more robust and fried till crispy and they are probably the most well known Polish dish. There are lots of different fillings for them but the most common is fermented cabbage ( like German sauerkraut) and mushroom, and , as this was the recipe that Jack had given me, I thought that's the one I'd make.
Now, a few years ago at the Bank Bar we did a "new European" night where we had dishes from Poland, Hungary and other new additions to the European union, and one of the starters on that menu were pierogi. I must have had a look at a few recipes back then and thought they didn't sound very good, so made my own up of ground Polish sausage, sauerkraut and onion with lots of herbs and spices in. I was quite pleased with the results as were the diners on that night but I was aware that it wasn't really the genuine article so I was more than happy to take up Jack's challenge and make them to his recipe exactly.

To be absolutely honest I wasn't that impressed with the results. The actual pierogi turned out fine, nice and crispy on the outside, still a bit chewy inside but the filling, to me, needed something else. some garlic, or some sort of ground meat and a few herbs or, to keep it veggie, a good strong cheese.

So, what I've done is give you the basic recipe , as printed off for me by Jack, below but feel free to add other ingredients to it. The method for making them is a little fiddly and takes a while so It's a shame they didn't deliver on the flavour front. Just be aware that the filling has to be of a fairly dry consistency so that the pierogi don't explode!

By the way, Jack absolutely loved them! he said he hadn't had pierogi that good since he left Poland!

Cabbage and Mushroom Pierogi Recipe. ( makes about 30 pierogi.)

Equipment:

Frying pan.

Food processor.

Large mixing bowl.

Measuring jug.

Rolling pin.

Pastry cutter or chefs ring approx 2 3/4 inch or 7cm diameter.

Large saucepan.

Slotted spoon.

Wire cake rack.

Box grater.

 

Ingredients:

Approx 400g of plain flour.

50 g of softened butter.

1 whole egg.

2 egg yolks.

175ml of lukewarm water.

25g pack of dried wild mushrooms.

450g of Polish fermented cabbage (you can find this in the Polish section of most large supermarkets.)

200g fresh mushrooms.

1 large onion.

1 large carrot.

3 bay leaves.

5 allspice (pimento) berries.

salt and pepper.

vegetable oil, for frying.

Method:

First of all, make the filling.

Finely dice the onion and allow to sweat down,with a splash of oil on a low to medium heat in the frying pan for around 20 minutes. stir occasionally to prevent the onions from browning.

While the onions are sweating put half of the jar of cabbage into the large saucepan along with the bay leaves and the allspice berries. Cover with cold water and bring steadily to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer on a very low heat for around 1 hour.







Put the dried mushrooms in a measuring jug and cover with boiling water to re-hydrate for around 30 minutes.















Once the onions have sweated down , peel the carrot and grate into the frying pan with the onions, cook for about 10 minutes.















Chop the fresh mushrooms as finely as you can, then add them to the frying pan. Turn the heat up a little and cook for about 15 minutes.

 Remove the re-hydrated wild mushrooms from the measuring jug and give them a good squeeze to get rid of any excess water. Finely chop and add these too to the frying pan.















Let the mushroom-onion-carrot mixture cook down until it is a dry consistency. Season well with salt and pepper then blitz up in the food processor to as smooth as you can. return to the frying pan and leave over a low heat whilst you drain the cabbage.

Add the cabbage to the frying pan and mix thoroughly with the mushroom mixture.

Check the seasoning and leave aside to cool.

Pierogi dough method:

 

Put the flour and a pinch of salt in the large mixing bowl and make a well in the centre.

Crack the eggs into the well and, with a fork whisk the eggs so that they gradually incorporate the flour.

Keep whisking with the fork until you have a sticky dough.

Add the softened butter and mix into the dough. Don't worry too much about the dough being a bit lumpy as you are going to knead the lumps out.












When the dough is thoroughly mixed, go in with your hands. At first the dough will stick to your hands so have some extra flour ready to add to it a little at a time until the dough starts to behave. (this should take about 10 minutes.)

Once the dough is a bit more solid, and your hands are clean, turn it out onto a well floured work surface or pastry board.

Knead the dough firmly for a good 10 minutes until it is soft and flexible. you will need to re-flour the work surface a few times to prevent it sticking.











When the dough is soft and flexible, put it back in the mixing bowl, cover with clingfilm and pop into the fridge to rest for about 30 minutes.

After resting the dough, turn back out onto your floured work surface and cut in half. Knead one half  briefly and then roll out to about 3mm thick. Cut out as many rounds as you can with the pastry cutter or chefs ring, gather up the remaining dough and add it to the other half, then repeat the process until you have used up all the dough.

Hold a round of dough in your hand and put a teaspoon full of the cooled mushroom cabbage mixture in the centre. With your finger, lightly dampen the edge of the dough with a little water and close the dough over the filling. You can do this on the work surface if you find it easier, as in the pictures. I started doing it this way then realised it was much easier to do it in my hand unfortunately, i couldn't take a photo of this as both my hands were busy doing something!

 Press the dough together to form a half moon shape, making sure none of the filling is sticking out.















Then crimp the edges together using a fork.
Put them on a floured baking sheet as you do them so they don't stick to the work surface.

Repeat this process until all of the dough rounds are used up. it's a bit fiddly at first but I soon got into it and was turning them out at a rate of about one every thirty seconds towards the end.

Now bring a large saucepan of salted water to a fast rolling boil and drop a batch of the pierogi in, about 8 at a time. As soon as they start to float, which should only be about 3 minutes, fish them out with a slotted spoon and put them on a wire cake rack to dry a little.
Once all of the pierogi have been softened in the boiling water you can finish them off in a frying pan.

Heat about half an inch of oil in the frying pan and add the pierogi carefully, about 6-8 at a time. fry on one side for about 3 minutes then turn them over and fry on the other side. They should look nice and brown and be crispy and bubbly on the outside.





























Put the pierogi on a tea towel or some kitchen roll to remove the excess oil and they're ready to go!

They are usually served with a chive sauce, which you can make using a bechemel and adding chopped chives but, as I was running out of time, I made a really simple sauce of natural yogurt, salt and pepper and chopped chives which works really well with them.

There you have it then, challenge accepted and completed!

I'd love to try these with maybe some of my mate Andy low n' slow's pulled pork. In fact I did actually braise a rabbit down with a view to making some rabbit pierogi but didn't get chance to do any. Maybe I'll try some different fillings in the future.

OK then foodie folks, another recipe done! Next weeks recipe is going to be a dessert of some kind, something I've made lots of times before, so please look out for it!

Until then,

Happy cooking!

 

Mat.