Charlie D's Ukrainian Recipes

[BreezyCooking]

I wish I could get my husband to eat beets, especially borscht. He's 100% Ukranian. Both his parents emigrated here from the Ukraine way back when.

While he does enjoy cheese pierogies, he'd rather eat worms & die than eat anything containing beets.

[mudbug]

Originally Posted by BreezyCooking

I wish I could get my husband to eat beets, especially borscht. He's 100% Ukranian. Both his parents emigrated here from the Ukraine way back when.

While he does enjoy cheese pierogies, he'd rather eat worms & die than eat anything containing beets.

LOL, Breezy - I'm 50% Cajun and hate okra.

[Dawnsey]

Charlie D, I didn't see the recipe for the pastry pirozhki - would love to compare it those I remember as a child. Would you please share?

[CharlieD]

Pastry pirozhki are very simple. I just buy pastry dough. For filling you can do what ever your immagination allows you. Cut the square, put filling in the middle fold into tringle. Bake in the oven for 20 or so minutes.

[urmaniac13]

Originally Posted by CharlieD

Pastry pirozhki are very simple. I just buy pastry dough. For filling you can do what ever your immagination allows you. Cut the square, put filling in the middle fold into tringle. Bake in the oven for 20 or so minutes.

What kind of pastry dough do you use? I really enjoyed pirozhki too, but I have to say the source of the product I had wasn't anything remotely russian or ukranian or any of the related area, so their authenticity was much in doubt. They were more like a savoury fried filled donuts. (Thus, as you can see, something obviously very different!) So I am very curious of the real pirozhki...

[buckytom]

charlie, i was surprised to see that you bake your pirozhki/pierogi.

my mil always fried them, in lots of butter, with sweated onions.

they were traditionally served with sour cream, apple sauce, and either cold or hot red cabbage slaw.

my wife would love the idea of baked pirozhki, being the health nut she is, always on the lookout for fat/calorie reducing methods of cooking.

how do you serve yours?

[Robt]

Thanks for a great thread. Charlie, I assume the Tomatoes are whole? The pickling seems a straight forward fermentation. Does one eat them as a side to other dishes or how are they used on Ukrainain tables?

I think 5 gal. may be a bit much for my first try but, I have to try this. Thanks again.

[CharlieD]

Pirozhki come in many varieties. There are deep fried ones, fried ones, baked bread type dough, baked pastry type dough. The baked ones I described above I make using Pepperidge Farm pastry dough. It comes frozen in the package here, it is the same type of dough as used for Napoleon (in case you need to find something similar)

The deep fried pirozhki I make are somewhat time-consuming. I use home made dough. It is yeast dough, so it takes time to rise.

I've never had pirozhki served with sour cream. Are you sure you are not talking about pirogy, Buckytom?

Robt, yes the tomatoes are whole and usually served as a side for meat dish. Instead of steak sauce or ketchup, or even instead of salad, but you just eat it with the entree. And yes, you can scale it down and make one gallon.

[Claire]

MIL learned to make what she called halupke (Like most of you, I'm spelling phonetically -- countries, cultures, and even alphabets are so different that you can't keep track) from her Ruthenian mother. Good Grief! Hubby says the zhinkrove (pieroge) he used to eat as a kid was made with a filling of mashed potatoes. We're talking poor people food here, it was a meal for (a) people who couldn't afford meat or (b) lent. It was boiled and then had butter drizzled over it, then toasted bread crumbs. He and his cousins used to call them "sinkers" because they were so heavy!

I've made many versions of cabbage rolls over the years, adopting various turns on it from Polish, Slovene, Slovak, Russian, etc, friends. Pierogi I don't do much.

[BreezyCooking]

Lol!! "Sinkers" are what our family calls our traditional Czech Bread Dumplings. Actually, since they're nearly always served with sauerkraut, they're more often known as "Sinkers with Grass".