My Nanny has been making pierogi for a LONG time. Ever since I can remember, pierogi has been part of our family. We wouldn’t have it every weekend at Nanny’s, but certainly often enough for it to be a favourite. And I’ve only ever assisted Nanny with making it.
Until a couple of weekends ago.
A few girls at college, including Aleks from Poland, were keen for a pierogi party and they made it happen! I was SO excited, but very nervous. What if it was a disaster? What if I couldn’t cook pierogi? The pressure was intense!
We got together on the Saturday morning and with some tunes in the background, we got straight to work. We first mixed up the pasta dough and did a bit of kneading. Because we are non-discriminatory pierogi-makers, and there was a vegan amongst us, we made a few different types; the traditional pork, traditional spinach and feta, spinach and feta with rye dough, and spinach with rye dough (vegan).
Wifey making the dough
Getting ready for kneading (with the tongue poked out in concentration)
And then there’s the rolling!
The rye dough was coming along very nicely as well! It was much more difficult to roll but Aleks did a super job!
Then cutting out the circles:
And the fun part! Filling the little friggers! I made up a traditional pork filling, but in hindsight I should have used more flavouring (salt, pepper, garlic, onion). I’ll do that next time.
This part is actually quite tricky. You want to put in enough meat to not have an “empty pierogi” once it’s cooked, but not so much that you can’t seal it, and susequently have the filling fall out during cooking. Easy does it…
Success! They look like Nanny’s!
(Okay, so this wasn’t my first attempt – I think it was about number 6, but that’s not too bad!!)
We had quite a production line happening!
And the rye pierogi were looking fantastic also!
Next up, you boil them for about 10 minutes to cook the meat and pasta.
In the mean time, we were heating the butter in the pan ready for the final stage – frying! (Obviously we didn’t use butter for the vegan variety – oil worked well too).
This is my “oh-my-goodness-they-look-like-Nanny’s-pierogi” look!
It seemed to be a success! And now for the taste test!
Winners all round! They were SO GOOD. As I mentioned, the pork filling needed a bit more flavour, but the spinach and feta ones were just delish!
This was such a great day for me. I felt so good afterwards, knowing that this is something I can continue with my own family. It might take another 40 years, but maybe one day my pierogi will be as good as Nanny’s. Thanks Aleks, Alyssa and Chelsea (who didn’t make it into the photos cos she was too busy taking them!) for organising this. It really meant a lot to me and I had a GREAT time.
Mmmmmmm…… pierogi……
Kelly – I didn’t even know you could buy frozen pierogi until a few years ago. We’ve only ever had Nanny’s home-made. You should give it a go!
Durdlin – We used rye flour and it worked great. I’m sure it would work with GF flour – it’s just like making pasta with GF flour. Let me know if you try it.
Do you reckon it’d work with GF flour?
What a fun idea! I’ve never made perogi from scratch. I’ve only ever had the frozen kind and I really like those, so I bet homemade are out of this world. Yours look fantastic.