Roasted Garlic Pierogi

Marrying into a Catholic family and being part Polish means one thing during lent:

Pierogi on Friday.

Whether you call them pierogi or pirohy, these delightful, potato-filled dumplings are a staple to lent in Youngstown, Ohio.

Running into a couple unexpected days off last week, I used an afternoon to make some pierogi.  While these are a favorite, I did forget how much work goes into these, especially if you're working alone.  This is a great project if you have some friends who want to spend some time together or if you have some little hands able to help.

I apologize in advance for the horrible lack of pictures.  Clearly I need to figure out how to take pictures while using two hands to demonstrate...I'll work on growing a third (or fourth) hand...

Roasted Garlic Pierogi

Dough:

2 cups flour, plus extra for kneading and rolling dough
1/2 teaspoon iodized salt
1 large egg
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup butter, softened and cut into small pieces

-Mix together the flour and salt.

-Beat the egg, then add to the flour mixture with the sour cream and butter.  Work the dough until it absorbs all of the flour mixure and loses the stickiness (add more flour if necessary).

-Wrap and plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes or overnight.  Dough can be kept in the refrigerator for 2 days.

Filling:

About 2 pounds red skinned russet potatoes (4 large)
2 heads garlic
1/4 cup sour cream
3/4 teaspoon iodized salt
1/2 cup shredded cheddar

Pictures aren't worth as many words as smells...

-Preheat oven to 400.  Cut the tops off the garlic.  Place on aluminum foil, drizzle with oil, and wrap into a packet.  Place into preheated oven and roast for about a half hour, or until browned and soft.

-While garlic is roasting, peel, dice, and boil potatoes (in salted water- see dear, I listen!).  Once potatoes are soft, drain and push through potato ricer.

-In mixing bowl, add roasted garlic to riced potatoes.  If garlic is still too hot to handle, you can hold it using a paper towel.  Turn on mixer and add sour cream, salt, and cheddar cheese.  Mix until smooth.  If your potatoes are not smooth and creamy, feel free to add more sour cream, some heavy cream, or some butter.

To make pierogi:

-Bring a pot of water to boil.

-Roll dough.  If using a pasta roller, follow instructions.  I typically roll mine with the attachment for my KitchenAid.  Following the instructions, I roll to a thickness of 4 or 5.  If you are using a rolling pin, roll to about 1/16 inch thick.  Cut into 4" circles.

-Place a small portion of filling onto the dough.  I use a portion scoop to help me make uniform pierogi.  For this size dough, I use a size 70 scoop.  (The size refers to how many portions per quart the scoop gives, so the smaller the number, the larger the portion and vice versa.)

-Envelop the filling with the dough.  You may need to squish the filling to help fill the portion evenly.  Pinch the dough.  If the dough doesn't stick together easily, before pinching the dough together, you can dip your fingers in some warm water and run it around the inside of the dough.  It will act like a 'glue' to help them stick together.  I typically use this method to ensure the pierogi will not stick.  This also helps if your dough dries a little between rolling/cutting and filling/sealing.

-Boil pierogi in smaller batches (I boil about 8 at a time in a 3 quart sauce pot) for about 3 minutes (until they float for a minute or so).  If you want to freeze extra pierogi freeze them in a freezer bag at this point.  When you want to prepare them, proceed from this point.

-After pierogi are boiled, saute in butter and serve.

My husband said: "They don't even need bacon!"  I consider that a major victory!

Roasted Rosemary Sage Chicken

Warning: this recipe is not for the calorie-conscious.

Today we're working on conquering my fears.  Fear of what? Whole chickens.  (Well, my husband would say salt and seasoning too, but that's a story for another day)

What also scares me about chicken is that most packages look like this:

Notice anything missing?  Like...chicken?

So we've been purchasing fryer chickens from Catullo Prime Meats who gets their chicken from Lamppost Farms.  Fresh, local, and...well...chicken.  The fryers are reasonably priced and a good size for just the two of us.

I'd never worked with a whole chicken before, so last week my husband walked me through breaking down and roasting a chicken.

Under his careful instructions, I made a flavorful, moist, and tender roasted chicken.  His reaction: "It's probably better than any chicken I ever made."

So I bought another chicken with the goal of doing it solo.  His advice: "It was perfect last time. So don't mess it up."

No pressure.

I had a little trouble breaking down the chicken, so he helped me again, then I proceeded to prepare the chicken on my own.

Yes, two sticks of butter.  Don't say I didn't warn you...
About how delicious it will be...

Chiffonade the sage

 

Stack the leaves               then roll               .

and make thin slices along the roll

Destem and chop the rosemary.  (I did not chop the rosemary but found myself picking some of it off as I ate because eating whole pieces of rosemary is just awkward.)


Sweat the diced shallot over low heat.  Add the roasted garlic, mash the roasted garlic and mix together.  Then add the white wine.  Cook for a minute more, remove from heat to cool.

Make the herbed butter mixture.  Add the herbs and pepper, mix until combined.  Once the shallot mixture is cooled, add to the butter mixture and combine.

Spread the butter mixture over the chicken.  Start by working some of the herbed butter between the meat and the skin.

 Then spread the remaining mixture over the tops of the pieces.

Place on a rack on a sheet pan and roast until the temperature reaches 165.

Roasted Rosemary-Sage Chicken

Ingredients:

1 chicken, in halves
Kosher salt
Pepper
1/2 clove roasted garlic
1 scallion, diced
1 oz white wine
2 sticks butter, softened
Fresh rosemary, destemmed (I used about 4 sprigs and would chop it next time)
Fresh sage, sliced into a chiffonade  (I used about 4 sprigs)

Instructions:

-Lay out the chicken, pat dry, and season with salt and pepper.

-Preheat oven to 400.

-Sweat the scallions with some kosher salt in a small saute pan over low heat.  Once the scallions are soft, add the roasted garlic and smash the roasted garlic until smooth.  Add the white wine to deglaze the pan.  Remove from heat and allow to cool for about 10 minutes.

-In the meantime, in a small bowl combine the butter, rosemary, sage, and some pepper.  Mix until combined.  Once the scallion mixture is cooled, add to the butter mixture and mix until combined.

-Rub the butter mixture on the chicken.  Start with where you can get under the skin and massage some of the butter into the meat, leaving some of the seasonings and butter in between the meat and the skin.  Smear the remaining butter over the top of the skin.

-Place on a rack on a baking sheet (so you don't get all that butter pooling at the base of your chicken).  Bake for about an hour to an hour and a half, or until you reach a safe internal temperature (165 degrees).  Check the temperature at more than one place as the thigh and breast won't bake evenly.

-Once the chicken has reached 165 degrees, remove from the oven and allow to rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.  Allowing the chicken to rest prevents loss of the moisture as well as providing a couple extra degrees for carry-over cooking.

Roasted Chicken: worthy of the farmer's table.

Spring (de)Frost

As part of the spring cleaning that's been running rampant through my home, I decided to defrost my chest freezer.

While I was standing there with a hair dryer trying to speed the process along (let's face it, there's nowhere to put that much stuff to allow the freezer to casually defrost on its own), I started laughing at myself.  Not every young woman has a 24 cubic foot chest freezer. (And then an additional 7 cubic foot chest freezer...)  And one that big...well, what 20-something year old woman would really want to fill it?

The freezers were actually purchased for the purpose of helping me freeze cookies and other baked goods for the holidays. However, over the last year or so, they've been overtaken with produce frozen at the peak of freshness, which we use both for ourselves as well as to make jelly with our own strawberries and peaches out of season.  During the process of organizing my freezer, I was actually quite surprised to discover that the amount of purchased packaged food in any of our freezers was limited to just a few bags of frozen cheese, a couple containers of cool whip, a jug of local maple syrup (yes, in the freezer! It will keep almost indefinitely here), a bag of shrimp, and one sole bag of Mrs. T's pierogi.  As I write this, I'm still pretty stunned at the fact that so little in our freezers is prepackaged prepared food.  And I'm kind of very extremely proud of that fact too.  

Why hello there, top layer of wedding cake...
I look forward to eating you in 10 1/2 months...

This summer I plan to share with you what I've learned from my husband's family to prepare some of the vegetables and fruit for freezing.  While freezing does require an additional appliance and some space, it's definitely worth it to be able to toss some of our favorite sweet corn into a batch of chili in the middle of winter, or to be able to make fruit smoothies with our own produce whenever we get a craving for some strawberry goodness.

We're running a little low...

With such a large freezer, I've found it helpful to use a dry erase board to display the contents of my freezer, changing quantities as I add and use items.

March is Frozen Food Month- do you freeze any produce for use in the off-season?  How do you keep it organized?

How Did I Get Here?

I said yes.

Simple as that.  Two years ago (to the day!) my high school sweetheart dropped to one knee and asked me if I'd marry him.

With my answer, I agreed to so much more than marrying my husband.  I agreed to a lifestyle.

This winter I fulfilled that promise to marry him and gained the title 'farmer's wife.'

Our Wedding Day

My husband is a third generation farmer and we live on his family's produce farm in Poland, Ohio.  In the spring I am greeted by the fragrant smell of strawberries as I pull up the drive and pass people picking berries in the field.  Our backyard is home to miles of rows of tomatoes, peppers, and the local favorite, sweet corn.

Every day I learn something new about what being a farmer's wife entails and what is expected of me. (Just last night I was seeking advice from my Facebook network, asking how to make washing Carhartts sound less like my basement is a foxhole under attack).

There are other expectations of a farmer's wife that will require much more than one load of laundry to help me live up to.  With the title 'farmer's wife' I am expected to know all about what my husband does.  While I've vastly expanded my knowledge base in the nearly nine years we've been together (has it really been that long??), I learn more every day.  Beyond knowing about food, there is also the expectation to cook good amazing fantastic the best dishes. (About that...I can cook well under supervision and I can bake a mean cake, but to leave me in the kitchen alone and expect a fantastic meal? This needs some work.)

Just after he proposed.
Perhaps a farmer's wife needs to learn
to apply sunscreen properly too...

This blog will be a place for me to share my journey toward fulfilling all of the expectations the 'farmer's wife' status.  I invite you to join me as I explore and learn more about the food we grow and challenge myself in preparing it into dishes worthy of being on the farmer's table.