Pierogi

In addition to the ponczkis, we also made pierogies and golumpki. My mom called it the Polish Palooza dinner. Of course, you can find pierogies almost anywhere these days, but not much comes close to the home-made variety.

I have had these at almost every major life celebration—my wedding, my baby shower, etc. We grew up on them and it is so wonderful to pass this tradition on to my son. This recipe comes from my Aunt Janice (my mom’s sister), and is my family’s go-to recipe.

INGREDIENTS – DOUGH

2 eggs, well-beaten

4 cups of flour

1 cup of milk

¼ teaspoon of salt

DIRECTIONS

1.       Mix ingredients (add one cup of flour at a time) and knead into a soft, pliable dough. Roll up (jelly roll style), wrap in saran wrap and cool in the refrigerator about one hour. 

2.       When cold, remove from fridge and cut into ¼ inch slides.

3.       Roll flat, fill and pinch ends together.

4.       Fry in butter until lightly browned. 

INGREDIENTS – FILLINGS

There are a variety of fillings for pierogies. For this batch, we used instant mashed potatoes to shorten our prep time; we added shredded cheese and garlic salt to the potato mixture. They tasted delicious.

 A few other options include:

1.       Plain mashed potatoes

2.       Cottage cheese

3.       Saurkraut (one of my favorites)

Ready to go into the frying pan.

The original recipe

The golumpki (made with turkey instead of beef)