Very often when we celebrated the holidays with my grandparents my grandmother would make these really amazing pirogies. Out of all of the dishes served for the holidays the pirogies were always my favorite. I would commonly take a small portion of turkey and fill the plate up with pirogies. I had not had the pirogies in a while so I though that I would try to make them over the holidays. It worked out well because I also wanted to cook a ham over the holidays.
The pirogies have a fairly simple filling consisting of ham, sauerkraut, mushrooms and onions. My grandmother always fried them in butter with sliced onions until the pirogies were golden brown and the onions were nice and caramelized. For a long time I though that all pirogies were made like this. I was pretty surprised to find out that pirogies are more commonly filled with potatoes and/or cheese, possibly with some bacon. I have tried these other types of pirogies and though I like them (especially with some sour cream) they will always take second place to these pirogies.
Since making the pirogies is a bit of work, it is perfectly acceptable to just make the filling. The pirogi filling makes for a really tasty sandwich! I only got about 20 pirogies out of the dough recipe so I a have a lot of extra filling for sandwiches. The filling also freezes well so I put some in the freezer and I can make some more pirogi dough later.
Grandma’s Pirogies
ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup milk (warm)
- 2 tablespoons butter butter (melted)
- 1 egg (beaten)
directions
- Mix the flour and salt in a bowl.
- Mix the milk, butter and egg in another bowl.
- Mix the wet and dried ingredients together and form a dough adding more flour if necessary though it should still be a bit sticky.
- Knead the dough on a floured surface a few times.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for an hour.
- Make the filling.
- Cut the dough into four equal pieces.
- Roll each piece into a log about 1 inch in diameter.
- Cut into 1 inch slices.
- Form a ball with each piece and roll the balls flat. Use a bit of flour so they don’t stick to the surface or the rolling pin.
- Place a tablespoon of filling in the middle and fold in half sealing the edge.
- Boil the pirogies until they float, about 3-5 minutes.
Filling
ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 onions (chopped)
- 1 pound mushrooms (chopped)
- 1 pound cooked ham (chopped in food processor)
- 1 28 ounce can sauerkraut (rinsed, drained and chopped)
- salt and pepper to taste
directions
- Melt the butter in a large pan.
- Add the onions and saute until tender, about 5-10 minutes.
- Add the mushrooms and saute until all of the moisture has evaporated.
- Add the ham, sauerkraut, salt and pepper and cook for 20 minutes stirring occasionally.
Those pirogies look great, but the filling sounds amazing! so different than the traditional kind.
I love family recipes. The pirogies look great, but I think they’re even more special because your Grandma made them and you loved them so. That is such a sweet post. The sandwich, by the way, looks terrific (I love sandwiches!).
Thanks for sharing a recipe from grandma…keep these dishes alive, update them, refine them…just keep them alive.
I had pirogies for the first time 10 years ago in Vancouver and loved them. I remember them being filled with potato, cheese and bacon and I had them with sour cream. Gorgeous. Your filling sounds really delicious.
Your grandma thought outised the box with these perogies just as you do Kevin. I will look forward to many more delicious recipes!
This is the first time that I’ve heard of pirogies. It sounds and looks delicious. It’s wonderful to have such fond food memories.
I have never made pirogies before, but they are on my “to-try” list for 2008!
The pirogies look really tasty Kevin. I love recipes like this where you get useful leftovers for lunch or to use in a different dish the next day.
Yummy Kevin! Those look so good. My best friend is Polish and every saturday after Thanksgiving her whole family gets together to make the pierogies for Christmas!
Happy New Year!
Your pirogies sound great. My experience has always been the potato and cheese kind and those are always a bit too heavy for me. I love the idea of frying them with butter and onions!
Grandmas cooking is always the best 😉
Wow this sounds REALLY good too. I found a trick the last time I made pierogies – cheat and use your pasta maker to make the dough thin. It works really well.
Oh my God, do these look mouth wateringly delicious! I love everything about pierogies — I don’t think a person could ever eat too man pierogies in a single life-time.
Never heard of them or ever saw them before and they look incredibly delicous! Something, I must try!
Kevin – I never that there were different types of pierogies until I met Pual (he is polish). We can get some great ones at the Future Bakery store on north Queen Street in Etobikoke.
These look amazingly good!
Wow, Kevin, amazing!Those look soooo good.
I absolutely love pirogies! A grandmother’s recipe is even better!
I grew up with pirogis made with sauerkraut and onion filling. I love them! The addition of ham sounds great.
Hello from Poland, it's great to find out that our national dish (actually we call it here "pierogi") is enjoyed so far away 🙂
And have you heard about pierogi filled with fruits? My favourite ones are with blueberries which can be picked in the majority of forrests here, yummy!
Babcie always made pierogies stuffed with cabbage (kapuste), but not usually with the ham because we always had kielbasa with them. Sometimes she would use mushrooms.
When blueberries were in season, we would pick the fresh ones from the woods near home and she would fill some with blueberries and a bit of sugar.
I rarely make them because the dough can be such a chore, but I plan to swipe your recipe and maybe fill a light pizza dough with it for a sort of Polish calzone.