August Daring Cooks Challenge - The Pierogi!

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. 


Remember those really fun school projects when you had to research your family history - you know, your family's lineage - and you ended up going to your mom at the very  last possible moment for the info?

"Hey Mom...where does our family come from?" 

"Well, on dad's side our family comes mostly from England...and on my side we come from Germany and Ireland."

And ever since middle school, as far as any of us knew, our family originated from those three countries...until just a few years ago. One of my aunts was searching for the same answers I was when she found a surprise none of use were expecting - a large portion of my dad's family hails from Poland. Now this information meant a few things to me, but above all it meant I could embrace one of Poland's traditional foods, the pierogi! 

But of course life is busy and unpredictable and I was never able to try those lovely little dumplings filled with meat and other goodies, until I joined the Daring Cooks! I'm so excited to say this was my first ever Daring Cooks challenge, and how fun it was! I not only got to try a new recipe and technique, but a traditional food of Poland! 

I've made samoas and potstickers, but never a pierogi. I wasn't quite sure how it was all going to turn out, after all you have to boil meat filled dough balls. All I could picture was slipping them into the boiling water and slowly watching the turn into a big, squishy dough ball. My vision was very messy. There were a lot of dishes.


I'm so happy to say my experience was nothing but absolutely thrilling! I made two different fillings for my pierogi: a traditional potato, cheese and bacon filling and another with a very non traditional filling - ground pork, locally made teriyaki sauce, onion, cheese and pineapple. Boy were they tasty! 

I can't wait to try more fillings, especially one with potato, salmon, dill, capers and cheese.