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Polish Recipe Box

Babcia's Perogi Dough and Sweet Cottage Cheese, Mushroom and Kapusta fillings. From: Katrina Lehrner Pierogi Dough: Ingredients: 3 cups flour 1 cup water 1 egg pinch of salt ¼ stick butter Preparation: Make a flour mound on a smooth surface and add egg to the center of the mound. Slowly add in water, working dough continuously with hands until smooth and elastic. Cut dough into workable sections. On a well floured counter roll out dough fairly thin. Thin enough, though, that it is still opaque. Use a wide mouth glass (like a tumbler) to cut out the round shape. Fill each perogie with a Polish size teaspoon of the desired filling. Wet the edges of the circle and fold over one side to form a half moon. Crimp the edges of the perogie much like you would with an apple pie. If the edges are not properly sealed the perogies will open when boiled. Boil the perogie until they all float to the top (approx. 5 min). If they are over boiled they will fall apart. It is almost guaranteed that some perogies will open during the boiling process. Once boiled drain well, and run under cold water to stop the cooking process. While the perogies are cooling, lightly brown butter in a frying pan. Transfer perogies into frying pan to coat them with the butter. Then immediately transfer them to a Corning Ware dish. Makes approximately 30-40 perogies. Filling: Sweet Cottage Cheese Ingredients: 2 pounds pressed cottage cheese 1 egg 1 ½ cup sugar (to taste) 1 tsp. vanilla (optional) Preparation: Run the pressed cottage cheese through a food grinder. Do not use a food processor, as it will make the cheese gooey. In a bowl mix together the pressed cottage cheese, egg, and sugar. Thoroughly blend until smooth. Taste, and make sure the mixture is pleasantly sweet, if not, add more sugar. Add vanilla if you want to spice it up a little. Then fill your perogie. Filling: Mushroom Ingredients: 1 pound mushrooms (depending on size of mushrooms and number of perogie) 1 medium onion ¼ stick butter Preparation: Sauté mushrooms, onions, and butter until almost all moisture has been drawn out of the mushrooms. Run mixture through the food processor until mushrooms are minutely chopped, but not a paste. Then fill your perogie. Filling: Kapusta Ingredients: ½ head cabbage 5-8 dry Polish mushrooms ¼ stick butter 2-3 tbs. flour Preparation: Shred cabbage. Soak dry mushrooms overnight and save juices. Fill a pot ¼ full with water and add cabbage. Bring to boil and simmer until cabbage has become soft (approx. a half-hour). Finely chop mushrooms and add to pot along with juices. Simmer until cabbage mixture is moist, but no excess water is found in the pot. In a frying pan, melt butter and mix in flour. Make sure no lumps are left. Brown mixture then add to cabbage mixture. It is best to make mixture a day in advance to get maximum flavour from the kapusta. It is necessary to add butter to give the necessary fat for flavour My Surnames: Bauer, Konarzewski, Tyl, Tecza, Tencza