Taco Perogies

This is a hit with the younger crowd. I made it with a group of middle school students and they loved it so much some were going home and making it for the family.

This is fusion cooking like no other, Ukranian and Mexican, in one easy to make casserole. Supper is on the table in less than an hour. And do make the taco seasoning mix. You will never buy the packaged stuff again.

Just add a crisp green salad and dinner is ready.

-->

Taco Perogy Casserole

Purchased or thick dough perogies work best in this recipe. Thin dough perogies may break apart.

1 35 oz. package of bacon flavoured perogies 1 kg

1 lb. lean ground beef 500 g

1 onion, finely diced

1 green or red pepper, chopped

2 tbsp. taco seasoning (recipe follows) 30 mL

1/2 c. beef stock 125 mL

1/2 c. sour cream 125 mL

2 – 3 ripe tomatoes, seeded and chopped

1 c. cheddar cheese, grated 250 mL

2 green onions, cut on the bias

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook perogies until warmed through. Drain and set aside.

While the perogies are cooking brown ground beef in a large pan that has been lightly oiled. After meat begins to brown add onions and peppers and cook until the beef is completely cooked. Stir in taco seasoning.  Add beef stock and cook until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream and tomatoes.

Assemble by lightly oiling a 9 inch x 9 inch (22 cm x 22 cm) baking dish. Put half of the perogies on the bottom and top with half of the beef mixture. Top with half of the grated cheese. Repeat with another layer of perogies, ground beef and grated cheese.

Broil until cheese melts. Garnish with green onions and serve.

Taco Seasoning

A well stocked spice cabinet does not require any seasoning mixes.

2 tbsp. chili powder 30 mL

1/2 tsp. garlic powder 2 mL

1/2 tsp. onion powder 2 mL

1/4 tsp. cayenne 1 mL

1/2 tsp. oregano 2 mL

1 tsp. paprika 5 mL

1 tbsp. ground cumin 15 mL

sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste

2 tbsp. flour 30 mL

Mix thoroughly and store in a container with a tight fitting lid.

Cottage Cheese Perogies

My batch of perogy dough makes millions of the tasty little dumplings.  I have made potato with asiago cheese, potato with sauteed onions, potato with morel mushrooms, potato with truffle sauce, saskatoon berry, and carrot puree with Egyptian spices.

And I still have dough!  I have never had cottage cheese perogies and I hear people rave about them.  I have egg yolks in the fridge so this is perfect.

Serve, as usual, boiled and with onions sauteed in butter and with sour cream.  You could also fry them after boiling.

Cottage Cheese Perogies

2 cups dry curd cottage cheese
3 egg yolks
salt and pepper to taste

Mix in a food processor and fill perogy skins as prepared in my previous post.

Pureed Carrot Perogies with Egyptian Spices

 I had a lot of perogy dough from participating in the Daring Cooks Challenge so made a few more varieties.  This one is very interesting and unusual.  Loved it.

Pureed Carrot Perogies with Egyptian Spices

2 T toasted ground almonds
1 T ground coriander seeds
1 T ground cumin
2 T finely cut unsweetened coconut, toasted
1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper
2 c pureed carrots
2 T tahini
1/4 t ground ginger
1 t harissa


Boil carrots to make 2 cups of carrot puree.  Use just enough of the cooking liquid to puree the carrots in a food processor or blender.  If the mixture is runny, then cook over medium heat to make it thicker.

Toast almonds in a hot pan.  When lightly toasted, move them to a small bowl.  Toast the coriander and cumin in the same pan.  Just heat lightly and when lightly heated, add to the almonds.  Toast the coconut lightly and add to same bowl.  Add salt, pepper and ground ginger.

Mix the spices with the carrot puree.  Add the tahini and harissa and mix until well blended.

Use about a teaspoon in a perogy skin.  See my previous post on making the perogy dough.

Boil in salted water and serve with butter, sauted onions and sour cream.  Can be frozen before boiling.  Cook the frozen perogies by dropping into salted, boiling water while they are still frozen.

Perogies Daring Cooks Challenge

The August 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by LizG of Bits n’ Bites and Anula of Anula’s Kitchen. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make pierogi from scratch and an optional challenge to provide one filling that best represents their locale.

My friend, Luscious Linda, taught me  how to make perogies a couple of years ago.  We used her Baba's recipe which went something like this...take one large bowl and fill it half full of all purpose flour.  Add two coffee cups of unbleached flour....etc.  We followed the directions and Linda tried to remember how big a large bowl was or what size a water glass would be.

As we went along, we also measured and wrote down the recipe.  This is it!  And, hey, it works beautifully.  Don't go out and buy those hokey perogy makers.  There is absolutely no need.  Just use a 'juice glass' to cut circles.  Then roll them again to make ovals and fill and fold.

This recipe makes a very large batch and they can successfully be frozen.  Lay the perogies out on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and freeze.  Then put them in a freezer bag.  To use, boil the frozen perogy in plenty of salted water.  Then they can be sauted in butter and served with sauteed onions and sour cream.

Perogy Dough

9 c all purpose flour

3 c bread flour

5 T canola oil

4 ¼ c warm water

1.     Mix and knead into a ball and let rest for 5 minutes.

2.     Dust rolling pin and counter top with flour and roll dough out to 1/8 – ¼ inch thick.  Cut into circles about 3 inch diameter.  Roll again a little bit more to make an oval.

3.     Continue until all dough is made into perogies.

4.     Boil perogies in a large pot of water that has had a little oil added, until they float, about 8 minutes.

5.     Serve with sautéed diced onions, butter and sour cream.

Saskatoon Berry Perogies

Mix 1 cup of sugar with 3 T flour.  Put 10 saskatoons and 1 T sugar mixture in each.  Close and pinch the seam together. 

These are little more challenging, believe it or not.  The sugar seems to get into the way when you are pinching the perogy shut and makes it difficult to get a bond.

I like these as a brunch item.  I tried them sauteed in butter and with brown sugar sweetened sour cream and liked it.  My Ukranian friend has them with melted butter and regular sour cream. 

Potato and Asiago Cheese Filling for Perogies

4 – 6 medium potatoes

1 c. grated asiago cheese

1 small chopped onion finely

Salt to taste

Milk to thin, if necessary

Pinch of pepper

Boil potatoes and drain.  Mash with the rest of the ingredients until it reaches a pureed texture.  Put one tablespoonful in each perogie.

Home again...finally!

After 5 days and 3000 miles I am back in Canada.  What a nice feeling to be home!  If it had not been -21C (-5F) I would have bent down and kissed the ground!

Thank you everyone for keeping tabs on me!  I love my blogging friends!  I am so frustrated without reliable internet.   Today I am in Calgary catching up on a few months of mail and errands.  Plus, I have a sister in town having surgery so I am glad to be here to help her out.  On Monday I am back to the little house on the prairie.

New experiences are wonderful but coming home is always exciting.  I don’t know if I have mentioned, but I am homeless at the moment.  I have sold my house in Calgary and now I have the task of finding a new house to call home.

In the meantime, I am living in a friend’s house in Neville, Saskatchewan.  I know, I had never heard of it either until they moved here.  It is in the middle of NOWHERE!  The village has about 10 houses, a post office and one grain elevator.  I am 37 km from a small city.   It is mixed ranching and grain farming in this area.

This is a picture of what I arrived to – freshly fallen snow.  This is the little house I will be living in for the time being.

Hey, I found an advantage to this cold.  Check out this Canadian champagne chiller!  It works really well and it was free!

I have no cell phone service or internet and I have finally figured out the satellite television.  This is quiet!  But I do have television!  Yeah for the Canadian Food Network – Chef Michael Smith is one of my favourite.  And Restaurant Makeover is another favourite program.

I had an overwhelming urge to make cabbage rolls.  This is the recipe from The Joy of Cooking.

Cabbage Rolls           adapted from The Joy of Cooking

Combine in a large bowl:

1 lb. lean ground beef

½ c white rice

1 large egg

½ c breadcrumbs

½ c water

1 carrot, shredded

1 onion, finely chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Bring to a rolling boil in a pot large enough to hold the head of cabbage:

Water to cover the package

1 ½ t salt

With a small sharp knife cut the core out of the cabbage.  Cook in the boiling water for 4 or 5 minutes or until the outer leaves are soft enough to pull off.  Remove the cabbage from the water and remove as many leaves as possible.  Return the cabbage to the boiling water for a few more minutes.  Remove the rest of the leaves.

The cabbage can also be frozen for 24 hours rather than boiling to soften the leaves.

Trim off the back spine of each leaf so it will be supple and can be easily rolled.  With the core end of the leaf near you and the hollow side up, put enough filling to leave a 1 ½ inch space at each end.  Roll firmly and fold in the right end as you roll up.  Tuck the left end into itself, closing the opening.  Repeat until all the filling and leaves are used.

Coarsely chop the leaves that were too small to use and a half onion.  Sauté in olive oil until soft.  Add:

1 28 oz can of plum tomatoes, puréed, cut up or broken

1 c water

2 T brown sugar

Put this sauce in the bottom of the baking dish and place the cabbage rolls on top.  Be sure to fit the rolls in tightly.  If they are not covered in the tomato sauce, add water or stock to cover.  Simmer for 1 ½ hours or bake in a 350F oven for 1 ½ hours.