Polish Pierogi

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Bobby_M

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I'm Polish but don't like most traditional Polish food except for Kielbasa and Kraut and Pierogi. I'm lucky enough to have a family recipe that was passed down for at least 10 generations. It's really simple and cheap but labor intensive.

Fillings:

Potato and Cheese:
5lbs potatos boiled as if you were making simple mashed potatos, but add nothing but salt. Mash them and add a 1lb of your favorite shredded cheese. I like to mix yellow cheddar and munster. Mix until blended. You can also mix in some diced and sauteed onions if you like, but drain all the oil off first. Put the mixture in the fridge overnight or at least 4 hours.

Kraut:
Freeze about 4 strips of bacon and dice it as small as you can (food processor works also). Brown them in a large pan.
Add 1/2 a large onion or a whole small one, pureed or minced finely.
Add two large bags of kraut drained and rinsed into a food processor with enough water added to have it puree/mince well. Add it to the onion and bacon in the pan. Add two tablespoons of brown sugar, 1tsp salt, 1/2tspn black pepper. Simmer on low- medium heat for 30-40 minutes covered until soft. Put in a fine strainer and get all the liquid out by pushing on it with a bowl, then chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Dough:
Mix in a bowl:
4 eggs
1tsp salt
1 cup sour cream
..until blended then slow add...
4.25 cups of sifted all purpose flour
I really like the kitchenaid dough hook by the time you start adding flour.

Set each batch of dough on a flour'd countertop with a bowl over the top to keep it from drying out. You can make all your dough before filling any. You'll need about 4 batches of dough for 5lbs pototo filling and at least 3 batches for the kraut.

Roll out the dough 1/2 batch at a time to about 3/16" thick. Cut out circles with a 3 inch diameter glass. Remove the waste dough, ball it up and add it back under the bowl to keep it from drying out. Put about a tablespoon of filling in the middle of the sticky side of the circle (the part that was down on the counter/table), fold it over to make a half circle and pinch the edges between two fingers until completely sealed. Be sure not to get the filling on the sealing edges, it won't close. Set them aside on a table with a tablecloth and leave them to dry for a few hours.

Once dry, drop them in salted boiling water and boil for 3 minutes after they start floating. Dip in melted butter and either brown them in a pan for immediate eating or put them in a freezer bag.
 
:mug:

I'm polish too. Actually 100%. Cue jokes.

We make stuffed cabbage here. The wife has made pierogies, but the dough never seemed quite right. I will have to try your recipe.
 
I love Pierogi!! I wish I could say I'm Polish but Yooper has revoked my polish privileges.:( I might have to try these recipes out since Yooper has reneged on her recipes. BTW I am Polish and love going to Polish Fest here in Milwaukee.
 
My grandmother used to make dessert pierogis with blueberries and cream cheese as a filling.

I really miss having decent kielbasa, all I can find around here is that Pepperidge Farm crap. Whenever I see my grandparents, I always find some kielbasa and kishke.
 
I agree that the sour cream in the dough is key. It makes the dough more workable.
My Grandma's recipe is nearly identical to yours, except her's contains butter and water, and another 4.75 cups of flour to get you around seven dozen.;)
 
Glibbidy said:
I agree that the sour cream in the dough is key. It makes the dough more workable.
My Grandma's recipe is nearly identical to yours, except her's contains butter and water, and another 4.75 cups of flour to get you around seven dozen.;)

I never quite know the yield of a single batch of dough so I just try to stay one batch ahead while I'm stuffing and pinching. It's pretty easy with a kitchenaid, just dump it in and let it run. If you end up running out of filling and have dough left, roll it out and use a pizza cutter to make noodles. Yummy.
 
We usually end up coming short with the dough, and end up freezing the leftover balls of cheese and potatos for next time. Here are some shots from our "Holiday Run":eek:

10-dozen_399x300.jpg


ready2boil.jpg
 
njnear76 said:
:mug:

I'm polish too. Actually 100%. Cue jokes.

We make stuffed cabbage here. The wife has made pierogies, but the dough never seemed quite right. I will have to try your recipe.

Since you asked :)

The Minnesota Fish and Game Comission wanted to develop a fish that
would offer more for their sportsmen so they crossed a Coho with a
Walleye and called it a Kowal. It grew to a nice size and reproduced
well but it wouldn't bite. They crossed the Kowal with a Muskie and
called it a Kowalski but they were so stupid they had to teach them
how to swim.

Care to share your stuffed cabbage recipe? I know I should have asked before the joke.

These are not bad for frozen
 
SuperiorBrew said:
Since you asked :)

The Minnesota Fish and Game Comission wanted to develop a fish that
would offer more for their sportsmen so they crossed a Coho with a
Walleye and called it a Kowal. It grew to a nice size and reproduced
well but it wouldn't bite. They crossed the Kowal with a Muskie and
called it a Kowalski but they were so stupid they had to teach them
how to swim.

Care to share your stuffed cabbage recipe? I know I should have asked before the joke.

These are not bad for frozen
Polish jokes? If you can't laugh at yourself then you have a sucky existence. :) I usually make stuffed cabbage off the top of my head. But this is more or less the recipe I use:

2 big bags of instant rice or the equivalent.
2 heads of cabbage.
8-10 cans of tomato soup
1-2 pounds of lean ground round
1-2 onions diced.
2 eggs

Cooking Meat and Onions:
Brown the meat in a little bit of oil with diced onion.
Cook it so it is no longer raw.
Allow it to cool.

Cooking Rice:
Boil up 2 big bags of white instant rice.
Allow it to cool a bit.

Cooking Cabbage:
Cut out the cabbage core. You don't want any of that hard white crap.
Throw it in a pot of water. The cabbage should be fully submerged.
Bring it to a boil.
Boil it for around 30 minutes.
The leaves of cabbage should start to come off. Once the leaves are soft, I pull them away from the core. You want to make sure that the leaves are super soft. The softer the better. Try not to rip them too much. I usually put them on a plate. By the end you will be left with a bunch of crap pieces. Don't throw them away. You can dice them up and use them either in the pan or in your mixture.

Mix it Up:
Get a big bowl and break two eggs.
Beat them up.
Throw in the rice, your meat and onions, and some diced up cabbage. You can also save the spare cabbage and put it in the pan later on.
Add some salt and pepper.
You can add a can of tomato soup to the mixture if you want.
Mix it up really good.

Stuff It:
Get a Pyrex pan.
Lightly oil it. I use a paper towel and spread the oil around. This will make your cleanup a little bit easier. Maybe. Heh.
Stuff those cabbage leaves with your filling. Don't overstuff though, otherwise the bastards will come apart.
Fold the cabbages rolls and put them in a Pyrex pan.
After your done, it's time to open up all those tomato soup cans.
Pour the soup all over the cabbage rolls. Make sure you cover everything.
I usually add a can of water too.

Bake it:
Cover the pan with foil.
Throw the pan in the oven and set it to bake at 350F.
Bake it for about 2-4 hours. The longer the better.
Check on it every half hour or so.
Add some water if it needs it.
The last half hour I take off the foil.

Side Servings
Make sure you make up some home made mashed potatoes and green beans. These compliment the dish pretty well in my humble opinion. My wife likes to add sour cream to the stuffed cabbage when she eats it. I like to put some tomato cabbage juice on top of my mashed potatoes. It's all good.

Notes:
By the way you can freeze stuffed cabbage. It should be good for about 3 months in the freezer. My wife and I do this pretty often and it works really well. You might need more pans to bake this up. More food is always good stuff.
 
Sounds great I will give it a try one of these cold days when I am bored.
My mom used to make them and I tried once but they were just ok, I think your recipe will be like here were.
 
My Mom always made the stuffed cabbage growing up. She called the Galumpies, or something like that. Pretty much same recipe as you posted
 
jacobyhale said:
My Mom always made the stuffed cabbage growing up. She called the Galumpies, or something like that. Pretty much same recipe as you posted
Yeah. It is easy to make, but it is time consuming and messy. Time-wise it compares to brewing up an extract kit.

The wife is a vegetarian so we use boca burgers. It tastes a little off with the boca, but the next day it almost indistiguishable. I wish I could use lean ground round.
 
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