CIEE Cooking Competiton

Svyatoslava Vlasyuk - Ukraine

Pirogues - Pirogies

INGREDIENTS: 

For the dough

3 cups all-purpose flour plus additional for kneading
1 cup water
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt

For potato filling

1 1/2 lb russet (baking) potatoes
salt
black pepper

For onion topping

1 medium onion, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
butter

HOW TO MAKE

Make dough:
Put flour in a large bowl and make a well in center. Add water, egg, oil, and salt to well and carefully beat together with a fork without mixing in the flour. Continue stirring with a wooden spoon, gradually incorporating flour, until a soft dough forms. Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and knead, dusting with flour as needed to keep dough from sticking, until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes (dough will be very soft). Invert a bowl over dough and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour.

Make filling while dough sits:
Boil and mash the potatoes.

When mashed potatoes are cool enough to handle, spoon out a rounded teaspoon and lightly roll into a ball between palms of your hands.

Make onion topping:
Cook onion in butter in a 4- to 5-quart heavy saucepan over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally (stir more frequently toward end of cooking), until golden brown, about 30 minutes. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper.

Form and cook pirogues:
Halve dough and roll out on lightly floured surface with a rolling pin into a 15-inch round (1/8 inch thick). Then cut out rounds with lightly floured cutter. Holding 1 round in palm of your hand, put 1 potato ball in center of round and close your hand to fold round in half, enclosing filling. Pinch edges together to seal completely. (If edges don't adhere, brush them lightly with water, then seal; do not leave any gaps or pirogue may open during cooking.) Transfer pirogue to a lightly floured kitchen towel (not terry cloth) and cover with another towel. Form more pirogues in same manner.

Bring a 6- to 8-quart pot of salted water to a boil. Add half of pirogues, stirring once or twice to keep them from sticking together, and cook 5 minutes from time pirogues float to surface. Transfer as cooked with a slotted spoon to onion topping and toss gently to coat. Cook remaining pirogues in same manner, transferring to onions. Reheat pirogues in onion topping over low heat, gently tossing to coat.

Pirogue is a traditional Ukrainian dish. We make it all the time. But also there are a lot of different kinds of pirogues with cheese, strawberries, meat, etc.

My host family liked pirogues a lot. They refilled their plate's a couple of times. I was a bit upset, because they didn't leave any pirogues for my host sister Savannah! But I liked that they ate it all.