While watching "No Reservations", which is a lackluster remake of the more superior "Mostly Martha" ("Bella Martha" in German), I cooked up some pierogies, which I have been thinking about for the past week or so. As a child, I loved pierogies, but my exposure to them was the frozen sort. And for a while, before I learned how to make them, I would buy Mrs. T's pierogies, but they are not that great--just sort of lackluster tasting. My friend Jen gave me a recipe back in college, nearly 10 years ago, and I never bothered with them until a few years ago, when I bought a box of Mrs. T's pierogies.
Unfortunately, the pierogies did not taste as good as the ones from the West Side Market or any of the Hungarian or Eastern European restaurants.
So I finally made these pierogies:
Dough
- 2 handfuls of flour
- 1 large egg
- warm water
Make a nest with the flour, and put the egg in the center. Fold the egg into the flower, and mix in just enough warm water to make a ball of dough. If sticky, add mix in some flour.
Potato filling:
- 2 c. potatoes, cooked
- 3 oz. cream cheese
- 1 small onion, diced and sauteed in butter
Mash the potatoes with the cream cheese (I also added some butter). Mix in the sauteed onions.
To make the pierogi:
Pinch off a small bit of dough, roll into a ball. Roll out into a thin disc. Put 2 spoonfuls of potato filling on the disc and fold in half. Pinch the ends closed. Boil pierogi in a pot of salted water. Pierogi are cooked when they float on top of the water. Drain and rinse with cold water. Fry the pierogi in a pan with melted butter (can also cook some onions with it, too). 
We've also been on a mission to clean out our fridge and pantry (in other words, eat whatever we have). While this sometimes leads to eating things that I don't particularly like (canned peas, or yucky condensed corn chowder--which I didn't buy, by the way, but I was hungry), or things that are better tasting, such as brownies...I wanted somethign that didn't come out of a powdered mix. So I defrosted some chicken breasts and made sure that I had chicken broth and cream cheese. I found a recipe for this chicken with a creamy pan sauce, so here is the recipe, courtesy of kraft foods.
- 4 small boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 2 Tb flour
- t Tb oil
- 3/4 c. chicken broth
- 4 oz. cream cheese, cubed
Coat chicken with flour. Heat oil in large skillet. Add chicken, cook 5-6 minutes on each side, or until cooked thoroughly. Remove chicken from skillet, reserving drippings in skillet. Cover chicken to keep warm. Add broth to skillet, stirring to scrape up browned bits from the bottom of the skillet. Add cream cheese, cook for 3 minutes until cream cheese is melted and sauce starts to thicken, stirring constantly with a wire whisk. Return chicken to skillet, turn over to coat both sides of chicken with sauce. Cook 2 minutes or until chicken is heated through. Sprinkle with parsley. Note: you can use other herbs. I used fresh basil from my own little garden! Labels: recipe |
