Perogies project beat Me down!

Okay, I love a good project and I adore and I do mean adore food. I have a love affair with food. I have an affinity towards food however, I am sure tired after My Perogie project.

What are Perogies? The name alone is spelled three different ways but no matter how you spell it they are time consuming and yet oh so delicious! From what I understand they are Polish in origin and are basically a homemade pasta filled with the filling of your choice from savory to sweet all though the traditional Perogies are often filled with a potato cheese and onion mixture and served with caramelized onions and a dollop of sour cream on the side.

The dough itself can be made in several different ways. You can make the dough out of a cream cheese, flour and egg mixture, or a potato, flour, egg mixture or even with a sour cream flour and egg mixture.

What ever you chose to do, the sky is the limit but be prepared to spend a great deal of time in the kitchen.

I made two traditional Polish fillings one which consisted of Potato, Caramelized Onion and sharp Cheddar cheese (I also added fresh cut chives, sour cream, and salt and pepper into the mix).

The other was a ground beef, cream cheese and caramelized onion mixture with salt and pepper. For those who have an aversion to onions, I made the first mixture sans onions.

The dough I made with sour cream, butter, cream cheese, flour, egg, a bit of milk, and salt. I wrapped said dough in plastic wrap and chilled it for around an hour or more before taking bits of it at a time and rolling it out with a large heavy silicone and stainless steel rolling pin. The heavier the rolling pin the better.

I had some round plastic pasta folders which I have had for what seems to be an eternity without ever using for pasta and used the large one for folding and crimping. For those Perogies that gave Me a hard time? I used the tines of a fork. I was sure to seal the edges of the Perogies with a bit of warm water before crimping.

They came out beautiful. Simply gorgeous, but as you can see it is after 2 AM in the morning so I was up quite a bit and only did the potato filling as I ran out of dough and need to make more in the morning/afternoon.

I made 33 Perogies in totality and put them in the freezer. I will boil them tomorrow and then fry them in butter until golden, light and crispy. I will serve with caramelized onion on the side and sour cream with a few sprinklings of fresh chive. YUM!

I cannot wait to eat them. Now for the labor intensive part....I get to make more dough, roll it out and fill each pasta and crimp and freeze it (or boil it immediately before frying in butter for eating). It is going to be a long day.

The rolls are flying out the door. The hubby is in sheer bliss as I have caught him several times with a roll in his hands and a smile on his face. I will make more.

I was thinking that I can use the dough I make for the 'thrown rolls' recipe for Kalaches. (I am certain that I spelled that incorrectly) but basically what they are is rolls filled with savory or sweet fillings. I enjoy hot sausage filling and broccoli and cheese and rice filling. Whole sausages are divine wrapped in the flavorful yeast dough (hot spicy Jalapeno sausage being one of My favorites).

I won't have that much time to eat much of anything tomorrow so I suppose I will savor one of My salsas and eat that with tortilla scooping chips along with some fresh avocado (I need to use some of those up and mix them with lime juice).

Sounds good.

Another day in the kitchen and I am so very grateful for every moment I have left to spend there and with family and friends and making them happy with the food that I prepare. Smiles are My specialty and I enjoy them a great deal.

Until then dear readers/reader or Dad? Take care and keep cooking, keep living, laughing and loving!

As always,
The Gothic Gourmet.