Dumpling Days The secret to pinching perfect perogies.
W OR D S + PHO T OGR A PH Y
Cinda Chavich
F
ull disclosure—I may have a perogy problem. My devotion to these little dumplings is rooted in childhood memories of my grandmother’s steamy kitchen and her tender perogies filled with potatoes, cheese, mushrooms, and even plums. We slathered them with sour cream, doused
Perog ies with but ter y fried onions and sour cream.
Making perogies is simple, less recipe and more technique. There’s a basic dough to mix, a filling of seasoned mashed potatoes, often combined with shredded cheddar or sautéed onions, and that’s it. Every grandmother has a slightly different twist. Montgomery uses sour cream and flour
them in buttery fried onions, and ate them with smoky garlic sausage on the side. It’s my
(no eggs) in her tender perogy dough recipe. When I was a kid, we sometimes added mashed
definition of comfort food.
potato to the dough, too, for a soft, almost gnocchi-like wrapper.
Such is my penchant for these Eastern European staples (pyrohy, pierogi, varenyky), I’ve
Others prefer their perogies with a thin, translucent skin—a pre-made egg roll wrapper can
even followed Alberta’s Perogy Trail, touring Edmonton’s Willy Wonka-esque frozen
stand in for hand-rolled dough to save time, just make sure to wet the floury edges to get a
perogy factories, visiting “living” Ukrainian museums where costumed docents cook
good seal.
dumplings, and driving dusty backroads to see the world’s largest perogy, a towering 27-foot perogy-on-a-fork sculpture in the tiny town of Glendon. In my family, perogies turned up at both everyday dinners and holiday celebrations. The delayed Orthodox (a.k.a. Ukrainian) Christmas in early January was always a time to create, and consume, perogies. So gathering to pinch perogies in midwinter makes perfect sense.
The mashed potato and cheddar cheese filling is probably the most popular today, but you can also find perogies filled with sautéed mushrooms and sauerkraut, cottage cheese, even meat or fish. Don’t use too much filling. It’s important to make sure the edges are clean so you get a good seal or perogies may burst open when
At Bella Montgomery’s Perogy Pinchers of Victoria cooking classes, you can learn about
boiled. A three-inch diameter perogy holds about a teaspoon
making perogies, island-style, year round. “We started small, with ten or 12 people, and
of filling. Pinch gently, says Montgomery, pressing the edges
now routinely have 25,” says Montgomery of the hands-on, two-hour classes she runs at
shut with the pad of your thumb after folding the dough over the
various community centres, church basements, and other venues around town. “I bring the
filling. (Traditionally, perogies were never sealed with a fork or
dough and we mix up the filling and learn to pinch perogies.”
metal utensils to guard against puncturing the dough.) Put filled
When Montgomery moved to Victoria from the prairies, she started making perogies, using her own family recipe, as a way to stay connected to her Ukrainian roots. Many of the others who join her perogy classes have childhood memories of delicious dumplings, too. But, like me, they don’t often take the time to make perogies. That’s because the job of pinching perogies—like making Chinese dumplings or samosas or any other fiddly food—is best when it’s done collectively. Many hands make light work, as they say, and many hands make many perogies, tasty treats that can be frozen and saved to eat another day. “It makes it a heck of a lot easier,” says Montgomery who recalls family perogy-making sessions, turning out “50 or 60 dozen at a time” for holidays and other events.
perogies into boiling water, with a touch of oil and salt, and stir gently with a wooden spoon until they float to the top, then remove carefully with a slotted spoon The origin of the perogy (pierogi) is debatable—dumplings feature in Slavic cultures, from Ukraine, Poland, and other points across Eastern Europe — but thanks to early immigrants from these parts of the world, it’s a peasant food that’s found its way into our food culture. Today, perogies are as ubiquitous, and Canadian, as poutine and Nanaimo bars, with chefs riffing on the dumpling for breakfast, lunch, appies, and dinner. You’ll find local food trucks that specialize
Which is the other attraction to today’s perogy class—everyone arrives with their mixing
in perogies; restaurants like Victoria’s Sült Pierogi Bar with diverse
bowls and baking trays, with the promise of leaving with their own perogies to take home.
perogy fillings and toppings (think barbecue tofu, kimchi and black
10 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020
