Have I told you lately how incredible my 14-yr-old daughter is? She went grocery shopping after school so that she could cook a meal for some friends of ours. They’ve dealt with a few tragedies over the past couple of weeks, and she wanted to show them some love. (Our love and prayers are with you, Kenny family).
Sure I thought of bringing them a meal too, but the truth is that I was tired from a busy day. Grocery shopping and extra cooking wasn’t all that appealing to me. I suggested that it might be a better idea to wait for another day, but Madison was insistent on taking care of it all, and doing it today. Some days I wish I was more like her.
Here’s the thing… she could have chosen to make a simple dessert or casserole, but instead she chose one of the most time consuming recipes I know of–homemade perogies.
Perogies are a very popular dish for Canadians, and from what I understand many of my American readers have never heard of them yet. Out here, they are about as popular as Pizza.
Because they take a while to make from scratch most people just pick up a bag of frozen perogis at the supermarket. That’s easy and affordable, but anyone who likes perogis knows that nothing beats homemade.
Want to try making them yourself? I thought some of you might, so I’m posting the recipe along with an easy tutorial for you.
It’s a great dish for moms and daughters to make together. Yeah, Madison wanted to do it herself, but I pitched in and helped where I could. We had a great time working together and I’ll venture to guess you will too!
Ingredients
Dough:
2 cups of flour
1/2 t. salt
3/4 cups cold water
2 tsp. vinegar
1/2 egg beaten
2 tsp oil
Filling:
2 Potatoes
1/2 medium onion coarsely chopped
1/2 medium onion finely chopped
3 strips of bacon (optional)
1/2 cup of grated cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste
Suggested Toppings:
Sour cream
Onions fried in butter
Directions for filling:
Bring two cups of water to boil in a medium-sized pot. While you are waiting for the water, peel and quarter potatoes. Rinse. Finely chop the first half of the onion.
Add the potatoes and the finely chopped onion to the boiling water. Note: This is only the first 1/2 of the onion. Cover, reduce heat to medium, and continue to boil gently until the potatoes are tender (check with a fork).
Drain the potatoes and onion and mash them while they are still hot.
Chop the bacon into small pieces, and coarsely chop the remaining half onion. Fry the bacon, then add the onion adding a little oil to the pan if necessary or if you are omitting the bacon. Continue frying until the onions are caramelized. Add this mixture to the mashed potatoes. Also add grated cheese, salt and pepper. Mash well.
Directions for Dough:
Put the flour in a large mixing bowl. Add water, vinegar, oil and egg. Mix well. You can add a little extra water if necessary, but if so be careful not to add much. Very little is best.
Knead the dough mixture on a floured counter top until the texture is smooth, not sticky.
Finally, put a large pot of water on the stove and bring it to a boil. Add the perogies to the boiling water and cook them until they float to the top.
Drain, garnish with fried onions, and serve with sour cream.
You are loved by an almighty God,
Darlene
If you’d like to leave a comment, join in the conversation on facebook: Click here
Author of The Good Wife’s Guide, now available in paperback.
Thanks for the homemade recipe they look yummy. When I buy frozen ones I boil them then throw them in a pan with bacon butter and onions and brown the outside a bit. serve with sour cream. Mine don’t have the bacon and onion inside. they are super yummy this way.
Pierogi is the plural.
Pierog is one.
Ex. I have 12 pierogi
Really?
Who cares…this is cooking not a grammar class!!!
Question, what part of Europe is this recipe from? My husband is Croatian/Slovak and unfortunately I wasn’t able to get any recipes from his grandmother before her passing. I’m trying to find a recipe from his part of the world. Thanks!
They are really popular in Canada, but I understand that the recipe is Ukranian. My mom worked for Ukranian caterers for a few years and gleaned some great recipes from them!
Pierogi are from Czechoslovakia but also popular in most Eastern European countries.
I grew up in a slavic evangelical church in the Los Angeles area. Tried for the first time to make varenikyes, perogis they came out great. Thank you for your reciepe. Vinager? Who knew? God bless!
I LOVE verenikyes too!! Yum!!
Hi I’m from Australia an my dad used to make them for our family. He was Ukrainian.my most favourite meal ever an happy memories of my father at the kitchen table humming happily while making seventy to one hundred of them in one go.he would make them the size of pasties to fill our tummy’s an we would gorge ourselves by eating seven each.
I make them sometimes but Dad’s were by far much tastier!! Those were special times.?
Do they freeze well?
Hi, im from Poland and pierogi is one of our traditional dish…
We have few types of filling..the one you are talking about, they call “russian pierogi” with cheese and potatos, than we have pierogi with mushrooms and pickled cabbage, we eat them on christmas eve, and than pierogi whit minced meet, also veeery good… yummy..i think i wil have them for dinner today 🙂
Oh, thanks for the information on that. My mom’s family originates from Russia which is probably why they make the Russian ones. 😀
My mom was Russian and I grew up eating pierogies that she would make she would stuff some of them with mashed potatoes, some with prunes that she would Mash Up after boiling them for a while and then some with cottage. The cottage cheese ones were everyone’s favorite and the mashed potato ones were the least favorite lol I would really like to try to make some of the cottage cheese ones but I can’t remember whether or not to put a raw egg into the cottage cheese by chance does anybody out there reading this know? Thank you for any help you might be able to give me on this.
I’m so late answering this question. Sorry. Yes, my mom added the eggs to the cottage cheese. I see some recipes online. Another great recipe we made is called Veranika, which is lazy man’s cottage cheese perogis. It’s our favorite. You roll out this dough recipe and cut into squares and boil. You serve a gravy over top which is super simple. You bring half and half cream to boil with a tablespoon of butter and salt and pepper. Once it boils, remove it immediately from the heat. Add dry cottage cheese, and you’re done. I usually use about equal parts of cream and cottage cheese. You’d probably love this if you love the cottage cheese perogis.
Hi Darlene, thanks for posting the recipe. My mom was born and raised in Poland and these were a traditional polish dish. Besides the aforementioned stuffing for them my mom used prunes too and they were delish. They are also tasty stuffed with sauercraut and mushrooms and onions. Just thought I would add my two cents. Have a great day. God bless.
Sounds awesome. Yum!
I have made that recipe a few times already and I love it. I always make sure that I make more and freeze them for a quick lunch.
Thank you
Do you freeze them before or after boiling them?
If we don’t eat them too fast. My mom used to freeze them all the time. We eat ours up. 😉
I’m curious where the vinegar came from, is it a hand me down recipe? I’m Polish and have not seen a pierogi recipe with vinegar in it. Sour cream yes.
Can I make the dough ahead of time and put it in the refrigerator?