Perogatory

I. Made. Perogies.

Yep, made my own perogies. Actually, Bear helped too. We made perogies.

We were home from our Labour-Day long weekend camping trip, soggy from the weekend of rain, when I realized I really wanted some perogies. Sadly, we were out of perogies in the freezer. What is a girl to do?! I thought to myself, it can't be all that hard. Just some p'taters and a pastry. I even have all the ingredients! ... I think.

I begun my search for a recipe at Allrecipes.ca and I found this recipe to be suitable: "Grandma's Polish Perogies". Only one glitch: I did not have baking potatoes, just red ones, and I did not have sour cream. But, I did have a container of Greek yogurt. mmmm. I figured a p'tater is a p'tater and Greek yogurt is the same consistency as sour cream. What can go wrong? Not a lot, actually. The title to this blog is rather misleading.

I whipped up the dough, as the recipe suggested, and prepared my p'taters. Since the original recipe called for 8 baking p'taters I figured 10-12 smaller red ones would be fine proven more than fine. All was going quite well. Bear came in from working on the shed we're building a shed! and confessed his hunger. Well, we best test some of these out! Since the perogies were not frozen, which makes them easier to boil, I opted for pan-frying the suckers. Boy did the smell good. Even a little sweet, while frying in that good ol' canola oil. MMMmmm. When it came time to eat, we had also prepared Ukrainian sausage and carrots to enjoy with our creation. First bite... hmmm... what is that taste... I look to Bear. He hasn't tasted it yet. I then recall the container of yogurt. VANILLA Greek yogurt. POOOP! I laugh and tell Bear my mistake. He's skeptical. He takes his first bite. I did not see the emotion of enjoyment on his face. Oh dear. He hates them. They're ruined. I'm going to have 60 terrible perogies waiting for a dinner when Bear isn't home so I can eat them in my loneliness! Bear then added some mustard to his plate and took another bite: 'they're not so bad with the right amount of mustard', he said. Phew, good enough for me!

They are an acquired taste. Since we did not finish the rest of the perogies, I decided I should roll the dough thiner to try to reduce the vanilla flavour theory yet to be proven. Another glitch with the production was the amount of p'tater filling I had. I had a LOT of filling. A LOT. We ended up saving the rest for breakfast p'tater cakes-- those are quite delicious!

I am enjoying learning how to make new things in this here homestead. I think I'll try making them again, especially now that I know Bear is an EXCELLENT dough roller. He helped me out with the second half of the batch. He's not so hot at pinching the perogies closed which I perfected masterfully, but I'm not so hot at rolling dough. He's the yin to my yang!

Below I will post pictures to our perogi adventure, along with the amended recipe. Follow at your own risk! I suggest using the recipe I liked above, unless you want a LOT of extra p'tater filling. Or just make twice as much dough... or something like that... whichever you prefer!

Cheddar, Chive, Gronion (Green Onion) Greek Yogurt Perogies:

Pastry:

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 cups PLAIN Greek Yogurt
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

P'tater Fillin':
10 red potatoes potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons processed cheese sauce
2/3 cup green onion, shallots included
2 tbsp fresh chives
salt and pepper to taste

Directions: as per the source

To prep the pastry: in a large bowl, stir together the flour and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter, sour cream, eggs, egg yolk and oil. Stir the wet ingredients into the flour until well blended. Cover the bowl with a towel, and let stand for 15 to 20 minutes.

Place potatoes into a pot, and fill with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain, and mash with shredded cheese and cheese sauce, green onions and chives while still hot. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside to cool.

Boiling the p'taters. I find putting a wooden utencil over
the pot stops it from boiling over. It may just be luck.

Fresh Gronion

All mashed up and ready to go!

Separate the perogie dough into two balls. Roll out one piece at a time on a lightly floured surface until it is thin enough to work with, but not too thin so that it tears. Cut into circles using a cookie cutter, perogie cutter, or a glass. Brush a little water around the edges of the circles, and spoon some filling into the center. Fold the circles over into half-circles, and press to seal the edges. Place perogies on a cookie sheet, and freeze. Once frozen, transfer to freezer storage bags or containers.