Pierogi

Homemade pierogi were on the menu last week. I for one, love them. Buttery, pan-seared, potato-filled, starchy comfort food. What's not to love? I realize today is the first day of spring and comfort food tends to lend itself to the colder seasons. Spring in New Hampshire still warrants comfort food. I wouldn't say spring is particularly warm here, but we are getting there!

This recipe is not my own but came from Tieghan Gerard of Half Baked Harvest. I was intimated by these at first because I would be making the pierogi from scratch, but I wanted to give them a try. This recipe was so delicious! If you love pierogi, then you should try these! They are far better than any pierogi you can get from the freezer section. You can find the recipe in Half Baked Harvest Everyday Cookbook.

I loved whenever pierogi were made growing up. It didn't make the menu often, but when they did, it felt like a real treat. These are extra yummy because sweet potato were used instead of white potato. The dough as you can imagine, was the most time consuming part. Once the potatoes are cooking, they take care of themselves and cheese is added and blended in. This dough uses whole wheat pastry flour and comes together rather sticky. In fact, I was feeling like I was doing something wrong at first because it felt almost too sticky to work with. Much like kneading dough, as you work with the batch and add in a little flour as you go, it becomes smoother and easier to work with.

Rolling the dough out to about 1/8-inch thickness, I used a 3.5" circular cookie cutter to form each pierogi. It is important to keep the dough pliable, so I kept the rolled out dough under damp tea towels as I worked. Just like sugar cookies, you keep reforming the dough, roll it out and cut into rounds until all dough is used. As I worked, I laid parchment paper out on my counter to place the dough rounds on, then covered them in a damp tea towel. The parchment keeps the dough from sticking to the counter. Once the dough was rolled out, about two teaspoons of the sweet potato filling was dropped onto the center of each circle. Brushing a bit of water to the edges, they are folded over and crimped around the edge - creating a half moon.

Put on a good playlist and enjoy the process. They are worth the effort. Look how cute they are! After the pierogi are all formed, they are boiled for about three minutes, then removed and drained. The next step was to make the sage butter sauce. This is where I changed up the recipe. Surprise, surprise! I love cooked onion with pierogi. I started by melting butter into a large skillet with six cloves of garlic smashed, one medium onion sliced, one shallot sliced and about a dozed fresh sage leaves. I cooked that down until the onions were soft and then added the boiled pierogi to the pan. I like mine to crisp up just a bit on the outsides and allow the onions and garlic to caramelize.

As you can imagine, the entire house smelled tantalizing and the sage crisped up beautifully. Sage has become a favorite herb of mine. I am actually growing it in two different whiskey barrels. One is in the garden out back and the other is near the front door. This meal was a hit and we were all scraping the pan to pile on the onions and garlic.