Kitchen Tip Tuesday: Pierogi Recipe and cleaning burned pans

Yesterday was an amazing day. The sun was shining, it was in the 70's and we worked outside all day (more on that later). Oh, one other thing happened! I burned some beets. We're talking char-broiled. We love beets and I always buy them, cook them up, peel and slice em', mix em with a bit of vinegar and seasonings and we eat em up, by themselves or on salad...we love beets! Well, not yesterday! I put them in a pan of water on the stove. Then hubby called me outside to help him. Guess what? I forgot about the beets!

 Pretty soon I was thinking to myself "wow, someones BBQing early", and then awhile later, hubby commented that something smelled like it was cooking. OH NO! It hit me then that I had left the beets on the stove. I went in to find them totally burned to the bottom of the pan. We took the pan and set it outside. Here's where my tip comes in. I was ready to throw them out, pan and all, but my sister said to fill the pan halfway with water and then add 1 or 2 tablespoons of salt. Let it come to a boil and the burnt on gunk will come off. It worked. I've boiled water on the stove when I've just got sticky stuff, but never seriously burnt on junk. So I managed to save my pan!! Unfortunately the beets are lost!

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Now, I also made Pierogi last night. Pierogi are the polish version of a filled dumpling and there are many "fillings" for them. We prefer potato. I've eaten them since I was little and my girls love them, but I've never made them from scratch. Yesterday I decided to give it a try. I was planning on making BBQ chicken, asparagus and mashed potatoes, but decided to try the pierogi instead.

They were wonderful and a big hit. I might do a few things different next time, and I'll share that with you now. I might 1) use one of those sandwich sealer gadgets to make them a bit quicker and "round", (one website suggested this) and 2) Roll the dough out a little thinner, though I think it was fine. Oh, and I'd probably double the recipe so I could freeze some.

Pierogi Dough

2 c. flour

1 tsp. salt

4 egg yolks

2 tbs. sour cream

1/2 c. hot water

Mound the flour on a bread board and make a well in the center. Drop the egg yolks, salt and sour cream into the well.

Working from the center to the outside of the flour mound, mix the flour into the egg and sour cream in the center with one hand, while keeping the flour mounded with your other hand until all of it is blended. Slowly add the water, a little at a time. (NOTE: This did not work out well for me...I mean it worked, but was a bit messy...I might use a bowl next time) 

Knead the dough until firm and well mixed. Cover the dough with a warm bowl, and let it rest 10 minutes. Divide dough into halves. Keep half under bowl. 

On a floured surface roll the other half of the dough until thin (not too thin, so it won't break while filling). Cut out 3" rounds with a biscuit cutter (NOTE: I stretched mine out a bit more once they were cut out)

For the filling: I used about  5 good size potatoes. Peel, cube and cook them till tender. Strain out water. Cool slightly.  Saute 1/4 of an onion that is finely chopped. Add to potatoes. I mixed this in my mixer (do not add any liquid). I then added about 1 c. of Tillamook vintage white cheese and a bit of cheddar cheese that I had leftover. I added salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

Place a small spoonful of filling to one side on the dough circle (I used my pampered chef scoop). You can moisten the edge of the dough with water, but I didn't need to. Fold the dough over the potato mixture (tucking in potato if you need to) and press edges together (I used a fork). Place on a baking sheet till you're done with all the dough. 

At this point I boiled mine in water till they floated to the top and then simply put them in a casserole pan with melted butter till it was time to eat. I love them fried in a pan with butter and onion and served with sour cream. Either way, they were amazing and everyone loved them. I had leftover potatoes so I added some milk and we had mashed potatoes as well. 

Here is the site where I got the recipe. Shirleys Favorite Pierogi recipe

There are many sites with different ways to do the dough and various fillings. We just like potato filling. So enjoy!!

With Joy UNquenchable,