Week 2: Polish - Whole Wheat Perogies and Kielbasa [Cooking]

Intro from the Cooking Challenge: Polish food is usually very homey (is that a word?) and rustic with lots of meat and potatoes. Some popular foods are barszcz (borscht), pierogi (like potato dumplings), gołąbki (cabbage rolls), and ogórkowa (sour cucumber soup). And don't forget the pączki (donuts)! For those that aren't familiar with Polish cuisine, there's some good information here. Or check out 18 Polish Dishes that will Rock your World. Still don't have any idea what you're doing this week? Here's a list of Polish dishes to get you started. And here's some interesting reading for those of you that like that type of thing.

I used to help my mom make these from scratch all the time as a kid, so I was super excited to have the chance to do it again.  As I was mixing the filling, I was having some serious flashbacks to my childhood :)

Mama Weil's Perogie Recipe

(makes approximately a million perogies)

1. Peel, wash, and quarter 6-8 white potatoes.  Boil for about 30 minutes, or until you can put a fork through them.  Drain.
2. While potatoes boil, melt a pound of butter in a frying pan on low heat.  Add one or two onions cut in large hunks and saute on low heat (we cut them in big hunks because we take them out for smoother perogies, but chop them finely if you'd like to leave them in for more flavor).
3. Add one pound of mild white cheese (Mama recommends American, I used a mild cheddar) to the drained hot potatoes.  Remove the onions from the butter and add the butter to the cheese/potato mixture.  Figure out what to do with a bunch of heavily buttered onion pieces.
4. Mash everything together until well mixed and uniform.  Add salt and pepper to taste (be sparse with the salt, as the butter and cheese already make it salty).
5. Bonus step from Mama Weil: Remove all calories (please let me know if you succeed).
6. Cover filling and refrigerate until ready to use (will keep for a few days in the fridge; I find it a lot of work to do this all in one go).
7. When ready to make the dough, combine 6 cups of flour (I used whole wheat) and 3 cups of sour cream (or as much as you need, just keep the ratio 2:1).  Add room temperature water as needed until you get a dough consistency.
8. Roll out the dough (I found it easier to do half at a time) on a floured surface and cut out rounds about the size of a glass (I used a biscuit cutter).
9. Plop a rounded teaspoon of filling into each round.  Wet the outside of the round with room temperature water and fold in half to close (it's easiest to keep a small bowl of water next to your working area for this).  Seal by pressing down with the prongs of a folk.  Repeat until you've run out of dough, filling, or patience.
10. Bring a shallow pot of water to a boil.  Bring the heat down to medium and drop a batch of perogies into the water.  When they float to the top, remove them to a plate (about 3-4 minutes).  Repeat for the rest.
11. You can eat them as is, but I like to give them a quick fry in a pan.  You can also place them in a roast pan and bake them in the oven with a little butter (I know, more butter) at 300F for about 20 minutes.