Pierogis

My friend introduced these Pierogi to me a few years ago when I was living in Florida.  His family has a tradition of making some Eastern European dishes during the Christmas season.  I got the opportunity to try them and immediately asked for the recipe!  They are pretty easy to make considering I've never made them before nor have I ever watched his mom make them.

First thing you have to do is make the filling.  For mine I make mashed potatoes, then finely dice up 1/2-1 whole yellow onion and saute in butter until clear.  Mix the onions into the mashed potatoes, add some salt, pepper, and a few shakes of paprika and stir to combine.  Set aside.

The dough is so easy!  It uses ingredients that can be found in any home and cut a different way, can be used to make noodles for noodles and cabbage!

4 cups flour

egg replacer of your choice for the equivalent of 2 eggs

1/2 cup mimicreme (mixed with 1/2 cup of water)

salt
mashed potatoes, flavored to your liking (I add onion or garlic)

Mix all the ingredients together until the dough forms, you may need to add a little more water to get all of the flour incorporated.  Roll out the dough to about 1/16 inch thin.  Boil a pot of water.  Use a glass to cut the dough into circles.  As you make a circle, fill with about 1 tsp of the mashed potato filling and fold over to make a half moon shape.  

If cooking immediately:  Drop into the pot and boil each pierogi for about 10 minutes or until it floats to the top.  Then fry in butter with some more diced onion.  Fry each side until they get lightly browned.  Then YUMMY TIME!

OR!!! You can freeze the pierogis after filling and folding.  Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper, then put UNCOOKED pierogis on the baking sheet and into the freezer.  When you're ready to cook them.  Boil in water for 10 minute and fry as noted above! (Note: do not cook, freeze and re-boil.  Doing so results in an overcooked "noodle" shell and the filling will come out! sadface)

Enjoy!