Well, after I officially married into the family in 2000, being the food nut that I am, I asked for a pierogi making lesson. We picked a day and my wife and I went over to make that year's holiday pierogi. Well, it turns out that I'm pretty good at rolling them out and my wife is pretty good at filling them. The four us (Uncle Lou was there too) started at about 8 in the morning and were done before noon. Aunt Carol was stunned. Normally this was just the two of them cooking which means Aunt Carol doing just about everything and then Uncle Lou boils the pierogi. They used to start at like 7 in the morning and finish around dinner time, sore and cranky with their basement kitchen trashed, and barely on speaking terms.
So from there, we started coming over to make the annual Christmas pierogi. And then my brother in law and sister in law moved back home from North Carolina and the party grew. And then the kids started coming and the event grew even bigger. Aunt Carol has written records for the most pierogi out of one batch of dough and she keeps track of how many we make each year. The number fluctuates with how stuffed they get but also, the blocks of farmer's cheese used to come in all sizes, it's just a straight 3 pound block now. Many hands makes it go quick. They get stuffed almost as fast as the circles get cut, the next batch of dough is usually ready to go before it is needed, and two pots of water are boiling them as they get made. We usually start a little after 10 and are done making pierogi about 2 hours later.
Two years ago, my nephew took an interest in rolling out the dough and cutting the circles. Last year, for the first time in a long time, there was no pierogi making party. Carol and Lou made a batch and delivered them on Christmas eve to all the families that would have normally been at their house. This year, I brought a bench scraper and my nephew was even more into it. I think my job as official Dough Roller may be in jeopardy. Official Dough Roller Supervisor is probably a pretty good gig.
What do you go with? Cheese and potato, or something more exotic? My grandmother used to make those as well as kapusta and prune (not mixed obviously). The only other place I've seen prune pierogis is in Poland itself (where they'll shove nearly anything into them).
ReplyDeleteThe filling has Farmer's cheese thinned out with cottage cheese and egg. Then it is seasoned and some cut up scallions are added.
DeleteI've had some good fruit pierogies at a polish festival. The dough for these has some seasoning too, so it lends itself to more savory than dessert.
Farmer's Cheese, as in the brick of Friendship Farmer's Cheese? I grew up with that, in the local stores, you can only buy it in 6oz packages, but I heard you can get a 2 or 3lb brick at Restaurant Depot. We used to be able to get baked farmer's cheese that had fruit in it....memories....
ReplyDeleteThat's the stuff. Back when my pierogi career began, Price Chopper had pieces of it in almost random seeming weights between 1 and 2 pounds. After a year or two with the smaller weights (it was a hassle to open that many packages), I found the 3 pound packages in Restaurant Depot. Significantly cheaper in Restaurant Depot too. This year's 3 pound package was just over $11.
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