Frozen Pierogis/Pelmeni/Vereneki

[NotQuiteCockney]

Just got some from the local Eastern European shop. Are there "nice" brands of these? I wonder about the ingredients etc, but am far too lazy to make 'em myself ...

[jellyjelly]

Could you enlighten me abotu what they are.

[NotQuiteCockney]

Oh, sorry, they're filled dumplings, essentially. Bit of filling (curd cheese, meat, saurkraut or mushroom), and a dough shell. You buy them frozen, then boil them a bit, then fry them a bit, with some onions. Serve with soured cream, or thick yogurt.

They're pretty standard food in Canada, where we have a larger Eastern European population.

[FrannyandZooey]

NQC - pierrogi are just THE BUSINESS!!!! (mouth open in greed)

I have a Polish ex. He still brings pierrogi round for us

[CHICagoMUM]

Oh sounds yummy.

[NotQuiteCockney]

FaZ, you can get 'em, frozen, from Eastern European shops. Although I would read labels carefully, the saurkraut ones I got turn out to have pork in them. Not a problem for me, but would be for some ...

[FrannyandZooey]

Urk. I think I will just wait for the once or twice a year my friend makes them for us. He does a sauerkraut version and a sort of vegan cheese version (I hate to say it but his pre-vegan conversion version was loads better)

I would have thought you could have handled making them yourself, did you never fancy having a go?

[NotQuiteCockney]

I have a pastry phobia, of sorts. I am ok with puff and filo, but not any others.

I do have some recipes for pierogis, from a scary Canadian cookbook, but they're either a) really daunting or b) totally fake.

[FrannyandZooey]

The ones we have are not pastry-ish at all, more like a pasta I would say. I can't do pastry of any kind, I have a mental block on it.

[NotQuiteCockney]

I don't make filo and puff pastry (well, nobody makes filo), but I work with them well.

Filo is actually really easy to work with, you just have to move fast. The last kids' birthday party I did, nearly all the food was filo parcels.

You're right, though, it's a bit more like pasta than pastry. But I've never made pasta, either.

The thing that bugs me with pastry (and pasta, and bread), is you can't fiddle with it too much, or it goes wrong. I'm used to fiddling with things until they're right, iyswim.

I will have to get over my pastry incompetance at some point, but there are always other things I want to cook.

[carla]

NQC, just out of interest, what sorts of things did you put in your filo at your last children's party?

[NotQuiteCockney]

I did one with pumpkin, and a bit of cheese and some spices, and the other was brie and cranberry. (I don't do kid's food per se. The kids seems to eat ok.)