Marta Pachnik, PACIM member joined us this morning with her delicious pierogie recipe.

The Polish American Cultural Institute of Minnesota (PACIM)is located at 2514 Central Avenue Northeast, Minneapolis. For more information, call 612-378-9291 or visit www.pacim.org.

Pierogi Dough

Sift about 2 ½ cups flour onto breadboard. Sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt. Make a volcano-like crater in the flour mound and deposit 1 egg into it. Work ingredients into a dough, gradually adding about ½ cup cold water in a thin stream. Knead dough on floured board until firm and smooth, roll it into a ball, and let it rest beneath the bowl for 15 minutes and then roll out thin. With glass or biscuit-cutter cut dough into circles. Please a spoonful of filling on each circle slightly off center, fold in half, and press edges together with fingers, crimping to ensure a tight seal. Drop small batches of pierogi into a fairly large pot of boiling, salted water, making sure not to crowd them. When boiling resumes, reduce heat to a slow boil and cook about 10 minutes. Test one to see how well dough is cooked. Remove to colander with slotted spoon and rinse lightly with cold water. Serve hot with topping choices or let them cool and then fry them in butter to a nice golden brown. Makes 25-30 pierogi or roughly 4 servings.

Some Pierogi Toppings
Pour over any savory or sweet pierogi
1. Melted Butter: Melt 2-5 tablespoons of unsalted butter in saucepan but do not brown.
2. Browned Butter Bread Crumbs: To 3-5 tablespoons melted butter in a skillet add 2-3 tablespoons bread crumbs and simmer, stirring constantly, until lightly browned.
3. Sour Cream: Fork-blend 1 cup sour cream with a little cream or milk to make a pourable topping.

Pour over savory pierogi
1. Salt Pork or Bacon Nuggets: Fry up about a ¼ of a pound of diced salt pork or bacon until crisp and pour cracklings and as much of the drippings as you wish over pierogi
2. Cracklings and Onions: Same as above but add 1 small finely chopped onion

Pour over sweet pierogi
1. Heavy Cream sweetened with powdered sugar
2. Powdered or granulated sugar
3. Fruit Syrups, either homemade or commercial

Pierogi Stuffing

Pierogi may be stuffed with potato-cheese, potato-onion, sauerkraut and meat, cabbage, mushroom, ham, fish, buckwheat-groat, blueberry, cherry, plum, prune, apple-raisin, date, or poppyseed.