From Russia with Love

Heritage Day is one of my fondest memories from 4th grade.  Each student delivered a cultural presentation about one country from their family's ancestry and brought a traditional dish to share. It's no mystery why I would love this day!  Beyond the smorgasbord of ethnic fare, I couldn't wait to dress up like a Russian dyevitchka (girl) and recite the dozen Paruski (Russian) words my mother had taught me.  As for my culinary offering?  She and I made pierogi -- the Russian equivalent of Italian ravioli, Jewish blintzes, Spanish empanadas, and Asian dumplings.  Stuffed with cheese, meat, mashed potatoes, or sauerkraut, these tasty demilunes of pasta are a delicious part of my family's past.  Recently, I asked my mother to come over and make pierogi with me...an endeavor I don't remember undertaking with her since Heritage Day.  Last night, after flour flying, water boiling, and butter sizzling, we sat down to a homemade Russian feast that was ochen horoshaw (very good)!

Pierogi (also known as Peroshki)
Makes approximately 36

The dough:
4 cups flour
2 egg yolks
1 1/3 cup warm water

The filling -- one dough recipe requires roughly 1 cup of filling(s).  It's tasty to make a number of each:

Cheese: farmer's cheese/ricotta cheese, pinch of salt, pinch of sugar, 1 egg
Potatoes: mashed potatoes, buttered & salted with minced sauteed onions
Meat: ground beef or pork (or mixture of both), browned with onion & garlic, drained -- s & p to taste
Sauerkraut

To Make the Dough:
Traditionally the dough is made on a wooden kitchen table -- no bowl necessary!

Mound the flour on the table (or in a bowl).  Create a small well and pour in the egg yolks and a splash of warm water.  Carefully, work the ingredients in by hand, adding water at regular intervals. Continue kneading and dusting with flour until it is a smooth dough.  Do not overwork.

Lightly flour the work surface again.  With a rolling pin, roll out the dough until it is very thin.  Meanwhile, fill a large pot with water and bring to a full boil.

Using a glass (approximately 3-3/4 inches in diameter), cut discs of dough.  Be sure to keep the discs as close to each other as possible to get the most out of your dough.

To Assemble:
Working with one disc at a time, scoop approximately 1/2 tsp. of filling onto the center of the disc.  Fold the disc in half.  Crimp the edge of the disc with a fork. If the dough isn't moist enough to stick together at the edges, simply dampen your finger with water and run it along the edge of the disc before crimping.  If the fork is sticking to the dough, dip the fork in flour before each use.  Note: Speed is of essence so the dough dries as little as possible.

To Boil:
Working in small batches so as not to crowd the pierogi in the pot, place 7-10 pierogi in the boiling water.  The boil shouldn't be too intense or it will "beat" the pierogi against each other.  Boil for approximately 10 minutes or until pasta is cooked through.  At first, the pierogi will sink to the bottom of the pot, eventually they will float.  When cooked, remove pierogi from the pot. (Allow the water to come back to a boil before adding each successive batch).  Keep the above process going while moving on to the sautee stage below.

If not before now, this is the point where it's handy to have more than one set of hands in the kitchen!

To Sautee:
Melt 3 Tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Place the boiled pierogi in the skillet, making sure not to crowd or overlap them.  Use a wooden spatula to keep the pierogi from sticking.  Lightly sautee both sides for a few minutes each.  Remove to a warm bowl.  Add more butter as needed while you continue to work the successive batches as they come out of the boil.

Serve with borscht (a rich, meaty beet soup that I'd made beforehand) and caraway-cumin sauteed cabbage.

There's a world of difference between my "modern" life and that of my immigrant foremothers in upstate New York.  My great-grandmother Irena emigrated as a teenager to escape the unrest of the Russian Revolution in 1917.  She married another Russian immigrant shortly thereafter.  My great-grandmother Philomena emigrated from Italy and had an arranged marriage at age 14 to an Italian stranger twice her age.  I am full of admiration for both these women -- and so many others like them!  They settled alone in a foreign land, married young, raised a number of children, and took jobs outside the home because their husbands were absentee or deceased.  In their own way, they, too, were pioneers.  In true Melting Pot fashion, Irena's Russian son married Philomena's Italian daughter.  I came of age without personally knowing either of my great-grandmothers, but my mother was keen on weaving their memories and traditions into my own childhood as she told their stories, cooked their dishes, and we celebrated Russian Easter and Italian Christmas.  And now it's my turn...a task I don't take lightly, but thoroughly enjoy.  Shtoh etoh pravda! (And that's the truth!)