August Daring Cooks Challenge: The World of Pierogis

I always say it's better late than never and it couldn't be more true for the August Daring Cooks Challenge. The August Challenge was hosted by LizG of Bits n' Bites and Anula of Anula's Kitchen. We explored the wonderful world of pierogi with it's many versatile names and fillings.

Essentially every culture has some sort of dumping. Whether fried, steamed, or baked, I cannot find anything wrong with a delicious filling encased by my all time favorite food group, carbs. We all had to use the same dough recipe and choose our fillings based on our locale.

Dough Ingredients

2 to 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 large egg

1 teaspoon salt

About 1 cup of lukewarm water

The dough was pretty easy as I just put the flour on a surface, created a well, added an egg, and started mixing from the inside out.

Add salt and water slowly until the consistency is smooth and firm yet soft enough to roll out to 1/8". Once formed, put in a bowl and cover with clear wrap. Let it rest for 20 minutes. Once it is rolled out, you could buy an inexpensive form to create the shape or you could use a round cookie cutter, put filling in the middle, fold in half and pinch the edges.

I used a fork to press down on my edges and that worked quite well. As you can see I was experimenting with size a little bit and I think I went with the medium size. Once the piergois are formed, boil a pot of water seasoned with salt. Boil the piergois until they rise to the surface. Remove with a slotted spoon and taste to see if ready. It can now be eaten as is or I like to fry mine up with a little butter.

My filling wasn't necessarily inspired by my locale. I wanted to try another recipe I had seen on the Martha Stewart show. It is the very common filling of cabbage and cream cheese.

Cabbage and Cream Cheese Filling

2 3lb heads of cabbage with their outside leaves removed

8 oz Cream Cheese at room temperature

Salt and Pepper

The cabbage needs to be finely chopped and steamed until soft and with a slight crunch. The cabbage must be drained before adding the cream cheese. This was the hardest part as cabbage does tend to soak up a lot of water. Use a thin kitchen towel and squeeze as much out of it as you can. Mix the cream cheese and season with salt and pepper to taste.

I thought the piergois were actually really delicious and very easy to make. I whipped some up for dinner and they've really inspired me to make an asian version of the dumping very soon. Stay Tuned!