Pierogi Made Easy

Pierogi are made with unleavened dough for the dumplings.  They are generally semi circular and boiled or fried.  They are most commonly filled with savory foods such as cheese, ground meats and cabbage.  The Russian variety generally uses a yeast bun that is risen and filled prior to baking.  There is a Russian form of pierogi but it’s called pelmeni, or the Ukrainian variety known as varenyky.

The EASY way…I know I’m getting there 🙂 is to BUY a frozen bag of pre-made pierogi.  This may require a trip to a specialty store, but it’s worth it.

Follow the cooking instructions on the package.  This is usually just to fill a large pot with a lot of salted water, like if you were cooking pasta, and boil the peirogi until they float to the top.

In a frying pan, add some butter and garlic and heat to medium, having the pan ready to add the peirogi.

Have a pie pan or flat pan with seasoned bread crumbs ready.  The smaller the bread crumbs the better.  You can make your own or used pre-seasoned packaged bread crumbs.

Next, carefully remove the pierogi from the pot with a slotted spoon and place into the bread crumb mixture.  The water from the pot will be sufficient for the amount of bread crumbs you want on the pierogi.

Lightly cover the pierogi, they don’t need to be coated, just flip them over a few times in the bread crumbs.

Add the breaded pierogi, as many as you can fit with room to flip over, to the frying pan and fry until the bread crumb mixture is brown.  You may need to add more butter, or use whatever cooking oil you prefer.  I like the taste of butter, but cooking oil is easier for this application.

When they are brown remove with a slotted spoon onto a plate covered with a paper towel to drain excess oil.

Now they are ready to serve.  We don’t usually use a sauce, although a mushroom sauce of any kind is very good.

We usually serve these with mashed potatoes and a salad made of cabbage, beets, carrots, vinegar and sugar.  I’ll get the recipe for the salad for next week.

Enjoy!

Em