Pierogies

Tuesday's Lunch

Tuesday's lunch consists of cheese-and-onion pierogies, grape tomatoes, a caramel sea salt Kind bar, and a salad mix of kale, chard, and spinach, topped with blueberries and grapes.

For the pierogies, I used this recipe for the dough, and for the inside I made a hella batch of mashed potatoes.  I made so many mashed potatoes.  I prob used 1/4 of the batch for the actual pierogies and I made hella pierogies with that dough recipe. I made a lot because I was going to serve the extra with dinner, but it still ended up being way too much mashed potatoes.  Like, I used 6 giant russet potatoes when 2 or 3 prob would have gotten the job done. I don't suggest using the measurements I used since it ended up being so much, but I will list the ingredients and directions in case you feel comfortable eyeballing it.

Ingredients:

diced onion

butter

salt to taste

potatoes, quartered

heavy cream

butter

sour cream

shredded cheese

pierogi dough 

Melt a small amnt of butter in a small frying pan and add diced onions. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Let cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are brown and caramelized.  In a separate pot, boil water and add lots of salt. Add in potatoes and boil until potatoes are v soft and easily punctured w a fork.  Drain and remove skins from the potatoes.  Put potatoes back in pot and add in the dairy ingredients.  Mash it all up, add more heavy cream, and whip the potatoes w a hand mixer.  Make sure the potatoes are already fairly smooth and very moist or you're hand mixer will start making weird noises and stop working.  Stir in your carmelized onions.

To make the pierogies, bring another pot of salty water to a rolling boil.  Cover a cutting board with flour and have a small cup of water nearby.  Grab a small chunk of dough and roll it into a ball with your hands, then, using a rolling pin, roll it out flat on the floured surface. Roll it out to a small oval.  Put about a tablespoon amount of the mashed potato mixture into the center of your oval, wet the edges of the oval, then fold it over and pinch the edges together to form a little dumpling.  Drop it in the pot and star tthe next one.  You'll know the pierogi is cooked when it floats to the top of the water.  It doesn't take long, maybe 3 minutes. When it starts to float scoop it out with a slotted spoon and put it in a bowl.  You can serve them hot and or cold, or fry em up later in a pan with butter.

Pierogies are a bit labor intensive and take a long time, but they are a good crowd pleaser and make great snacks for later.