Potato, Cheese, and Onion Perogies (well, just the filling)

Monday, January 12, 2009


Perogies have been on my mind for a while, since they have comfort food status in my area of Canada (Edmonton through Northern Alberta), and I knew I would have to make them if I wanted to eat them. I can't remember ever making them at home - we always bought them frozen or had them homemade by an amazing neighbour. I decided to try a basic filling of potato with onion and fresh white cheese (sometimes sold as baking cheese) that is tangy and a little thicker than sour cream. Drained, thick Balkan style yogurt or lebnah would work as well.

Boil 1 kg of potatoes, peeled, until soft and mash. Dice and caramelize one large onion in a little oil. Add 3/4 cup of fresh white cheese and onions to potatoes with 1 tbs salt and 2 tsp of pepper. You will have a generous 1 kg of filling.

Near me is a dumpling and noodle shop where I can always buy fresh three inch dumpling skins, and that is what I used for the wrappers. I definitely encourage this if you have the option; if not, you can use another recipe for the wrappers or use frozen dumpling skins (though they often use an egg based dough and will end up more like ravioli then perogies). Or, dare I suggest, layer the filling in a 9X13 pan between cooked lasagna noodles, cover with more onions cooked in melted butter, and heat through covered in a 350 degree F oven.

Filling the perogies took my unpracticed hands the better part of an hour (notice my not very neat seals). It's a good job for sharing, or something for your hands to do during a movie or game. Each skin held not quite two teaspoons of filling, and I ended up with about eighty perogies, which will serve ten generously. To cook, boil in plenty of salted water until they float. Eat with sour cream and bacon bits, or chopped green onion, or more onions cooked in butter. They freeze well too - don't thaw before cooking.

5 comments:

Emmy said...

Wiping the drool from my chin - these look wonderful! When we cook pierogies, we usually cook them with sauerkraut and kosher hot dogs. The tang of the kraut and the garlicky Hebrew National dogs go so well with them! Yum!

Bobbisox said...

Wow, you are so lucky to get the dough already made and in rounds; that is the most work of the pierogies!!! I like to make mine with cheddar and potato (hey, I am an American!) and saurkraut and cream cheese; that is my favorite one. You will get better with practice; funnily enough, those dumpling sealers work pretty well, but otherwise, I just crimp them by hand, like potstickers. To me there are just heavy Polish potstickers.
OH, and I sautee onion in butter and serve that on top of them.

Donna-FFW said...

I absolutely LOVE pierogies. I usually make my own dough. I just tried a new one with only 3 ingredients.. very simple. Yummy. I should try the filling with white cheese. Thanks!

nana linda said...

I would love to know where you get your beautiful dough. I live in Edmonton. Thanks!!

Pepper said...

nana, I live in China and it's been a couple of years since I was a regular Edmonton food shopper. Would try the asian markets like TNT.