Pierogis for the Pittsburgh pounding

Since I was in a hurry to get the Pittsburgh primer up before the game started Sunday, here is a brief history of how Pittsburgh's cultural history affects this week's food.

Pittsburgh first started acting like a "blue collar" city during the War of 1812, when the British blockade forced America to produce its own iron, brass, and tin, goods that were previously imported from overseas. Located in the heart of one of the largest coalfields in the country, Pittsburgh was a logical choice to spearhead the increase in production of the manufactured goods previously bought from Britain. First it was iron, but by the early-mid 19th century, Pittsburgh began producing the export that would eventually give the city its nickname: steel. Manufacturing steel required a large, cheap labor force, making it an ideal job for the large number of European immigrants trying to establish any foothold in America that they could. This brought waves of German, Polish, and Scotish immigrants, and their food and cultures, to the area. 

One of the unique food items brought from Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe, was the pierogi. The best way to describe a pierogi, I think, is like a Polish dumpling. They are made with a sour cream and flour based dough and have a filling that is usually potato or ground meat based, but can really include anything. I will be making 3 types:

• Potato and cheese
• Potato, cheese, and jalapeno
• Potato, cheese, jalapeno, and sausage

Alright. Back to the regularly scheduled programming, i.e. recapping another delicious cooking experiment.

I learned a valuable, two sided lesson this week. First, pierogis are quite tasty (ok I already knew that) and second, the process of making them is quite involved. No one ingredient was really complicated to make, but putting them all together was a bit of a hassle. Let's start with the dough. 

Dough ingredients

Once all of the ingredients were in the bowl, I mixed them with my hands to try and get the dough to clump to itself. At first, as it started to transition from ingredients to dough, the dough formed in small pieces. As I kept folding these back into the rest of the mixture, eventually they formed a nice ball/patty of pierogi dough.

I wish I could come up with a witty caption, but really it's just dough....

I got a little overzealous and made two batches of dough, but once they were both done, I wrapped them in plastic and put them in the refrigerator overnight. Now it was time to focus on the filling. The first thing I needed to do was whip up some mashed potatoes. I went with red potatoes and left a little bit of the skin on. These were just my preferences, but you could make your own choices and would get a similar result. I "skinned" them, cut them into smallish pieces, covered them in water and got them boiling. Once the water boiled, I cooked them on medium heat for about 20 minutes.

"Skinned" red potatoes

After about 20 minutes, once they could be easily broken apart with a fork, the potatoes were ready. I drained the water, added a little salt, pepper, butter and milk, and used a hand mixer to mash the potatoes.

Want some potatoes with that cheese?

I then added some cheese and onions (and later jalapenos) and the potatoes were done. While the potatoes were cooking, I cooked up some jalapeno sausages that would later be cut up for the last pierogis.

No prep time. Just cooking some delicious sausages

Then came the fun part. With all of the ingredients prepared, it was time to actually make the pierogis. I took the dough out of the fridge and rolled it out until it was about 1/8" thick. (NOTE: The dough will not cooperate if you do not have a rolling pin. Trust me. Also, plastic wrap makes for a pretty crappy rolling board. So does aluminum foil. Let my experiences push you to using either a board or wax paper. You'll thank me later).

DO NOT try and obtain a dough shape this good without a rolling pin

Next, I cut out a circle of dough using a cup (I didn't have a circular cookie cutter so I had to use a cup). I dipped my fingers in water and then pressed the round a little flatter. The water makes the dough a little sticky, which is supposed to help the pierogi stay closed when it's cooking. Then I put about a spoonful of potato filling in the center of the round, folded it in half, and use the tines of a fork to press it closed and make the little lines you see on the edge. Typically, pierogis are boiled; however, of the six I cooked by boiling, only one made it out of the pot intact, with its potato contents still inside. Rather than continue to lose potato filling, I decided to bake the remaining pierogis in the oven. I cooked them at 350 degrees, for about 10-12 minutes per side. 

Look how the fork seals, yet simultaneously decorates the edge of the pierogi. What a masterful work of fine craftsmanship that screams elegance as loud as it screams functionality

A picture of pierogis that Peyton Manning couldn't look at without turning his computer

Taste wise, the piergois were very good; they tasted exactly like the ones I remember having when I was younger, although those were store bought. I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't get the more accurate, boiling process to work, but they still tasted great. Cooking them in the oven seemed to give them a more pastry like taste, as opposed to the traditional dumpling taste that boiling them provided. These require a lot of work to prepare, so I'm not sure if they're something I'd make all the time. However, if made for a special occasion, these could make for a nice appetizer, or if filled with fruit, a nice dessert. That being said, I did enjoy these and have to give the experiment a 3/3.

-MB