Homemade Perogies with Port aged cheddar filling

Homemade Perogies with Port aged cheddar filling

Good evening, Ian here. So, as promised earlier, I managed to convince my dear mom over today to make up a batch of her homemade perogies! My mother learned how to make these from her mother, a first generation Lithuanian immigrant who used perogie making as an all day long family activity for my mother and her siblings. My mother, when asked about any “ secret family recipe” couldn’t actually provide me with any sort of handwritten recipe, as she informed me that she “used ingredients for this by feel, not measurements”, so this is an effort to capture accurately a record of this really special recipe. I have really fond memories of spending afternoons with my mom when I was little making these and just chatting about my school, and her work, really just the best kind of childhood cooking memories. So, without further ado, here is the recipe for these absolutely delicious result of my mothers family perogie recipe, with a little twist added by myself (p.s it’s the port aged cheddar).

Dough
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 cups warm water
Salt to taste

Filling
4-5 Yukon Gold Potatoes
½ Brick of Port aged Cheddar (aged cheddar will do fine), Grated
2 tablespoons of Butter
½ cup of 1% milk
Salt to taste

ONION AND BACON
4-5 strips of bacon, fried & finely chopped
1 whole white onion, finely chopped and fried

DOUGH
In a large bowl measure 4 cups of flour. Make a well in the center of the flour, add the oil into the well. Slowly pour the water into the flour and oil, mix with hands and kneed dough until the dough forms into a soft ball. Cut dough ball in half and set one half aside. Sprinkle a cutting board with flour. Place half dough ball onto flour board and roll out dough until the dough is the same thickness as a pie crust dough. Use a cookie cutter, or a medium sized glass to cut out circles in the dough ( you can use any shape here, circles, squares, preferably something that can be folded in two).

PEROGIES
Place 1/2 teaspoon of the potatoe mixture into the center of the dough. Fold the dough together forming a half moon shape. Firmly pinch edges together to seal the perogie. Place formed perogies aside on a plate and arrange so that they don't stick together. Cover with another to prevent the perogies from drying out.
Take the remaining half dough ball and repeat the DOUGH and MAKING PEROGIES steps.

ONION AND BACON
Finely chop onion and add to a frying pan. Fry onion until done. Add bacon strips and fry until crisp, then chop finely

COOKING PEROGIES
Boil water in a large sauce pan. Gently drop perogies into boiling water. Boil for 5-minutes or until perogies float to the surface. Drain perogies using a collander. Place perogies into large serving bowl. Pour onion and bacon mixture over the perogies making sure the perogies are well-coated. This prevents the perogies from sticking. Sprinkle chopped, cooked bacon over the perogies. Serve with sour cream.