So what do pierogi have to do with a ghost story? One of the themes of my novel is culture, & how it evolves through immigration, often with pieces being lost. When we lose the stories & memories of our families, it's a kind of little death. Tiny traces get left behind, disconnected--a grungy heirloom here, a recipe there--and they can linger like family ghosts.
Of course, my novel also includes REAL ghosts...more on that in future posts. But for now: Polish comfort food!
I have no Polish ancestry of which I am aware* but as far as I'm concerned, dumplings belong to everyone. I don't care if it's gyoza or piroshki, samosa or pasties, give me a savory filling wrapped in some kind of dough & I am a fan. So I was happy to try making pierogi for the first time!
 |
| Emphasis on the "try." Although they look pretty good, eh? |
They turned out Ok, but I have a feeling I have a long way to go. The dough was the toughest I've ever worked with, so it came out thick & a little dense--although thankfully not as tough as I feared. I filled them with a mixture of caramelized onion, braised cabbage, & potato, which turned out tasty. But next time I will definitely add bacon (the only reason I didn't this time was because we served them alongside homemade corned beef). I had just enough filling for all my dough & they boiled up without leaking. The brown butter fry at the end was delicious. I have about a dozen left in my freezer & I am looking forward to eat them later!
Here's the recipe I used:
Pierogi
Ingredients:
1 large egg
5 oz whole milk
3 Tablespoons sour cream (full fat)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
...oh my gods, I just figured out how I messed up the dough. *face palm* Ok, actually I was halving a larger recipe, which called for 4 cups of flour. I should have only put in 2. I think I put in 3.5 cups of ap flour total.
 |
| Hey, you don't know what you don't know! I didn't know that when I thought to myself: "Wow, this looks really try & floury" I was totally, 100% right! |
In the meantime, I also made my first batch of cookies in search of the perfect cookie for my novel, I went with Salty Buckwheat Chocolate Chunk Cookies from Bon Appetit. These were darn good cookies, I am happily eating my way through them (I also halved this recipe & they turned out fine). But they aren't everything I need for the cookies in my story, so oh darn! I have to keep experimenting with cookies!
In the meantime: Conchas for Easter!
*No, I'm not interested in having my DNA tested.