Fake-Out Perogies - Rec Idea

[CharlieD]

Amy, I posted the recipe in "soup forum too", just in case.

[expatgirl]

36 degrees (F) here and rainy & nasty outside---time for Charlie's soup de jour!!!!!!!!

[lindochka]

In my family, vareniki are boiled and perogy are fried. Pirozhki are made with a different dough and are traditionally fried (but I prefer them baked). Then there are pelmeny...

We're neither Russian nor Ukrainian, but Belarusian. (Really Belarusian, not Polish.) And if anyone would like to share any Eastern European recipes (I'm not fussy about the specific geographical area), I would really appreciate it. I grew up eating what I think of as the basics of good, "down home" Eastern European cuisine and know how to make much if it but I'm always interested in learning more.

[David Cottrell]

Originally Posted by lindochka

In my family, vareniki are boiled and perogy are fried. Pirozhki are made with a different dough and are traditionally fried (but I prefer them baked). Then there are pelmeny...

We're neither Russian nor Ukrainian, but Belarusian. (Really Belarusian, not Polish.) And if anyone would like to share any Eastern European recipes (I'm not fussy about the specific geographical area), I would really appreciate it. I grew up eating what I think of as the basics of good, "down home" Eastern European cuisine and know how to make much if it but I'm always interested in learning more.

Hello Lindochka, You know much more about all this than I so please let me turn the question. As a family with Belarusian traditions do you have a family recipe for borsch, borscht, etc. no matter how you spell it? I have been looking for a borsch recipe that I can relate to Belarus (or is it Belarusia?) for my website Books by Volunteers who serve Ukraine Orphans. I have about 18 borsch recipes in a little collection there - including two from CharlieD. I would be ever so appreciative if you could help me out. Please do go to the website and click the World's Best Borsch tab and then take a look at some of the recipes.

Hope you can contribute - I have borsch from all around but none from Belarusia and none from Moldavia.

Thanks, David, P.S. good to meet you!

[lindochka]

Hi David! The thing with borsch is that there are roughly as many variants as there are people who make it. My personal favorite is a sweet-and-sour meat-and-cabbage variety my father's mother made (her parents came from Lithuania) but it's not what my family members in Belarus make. But good borsch is good, no matter what!

Over the last few years since I located and first visited my European relatives, I've been finding that there have been changes in the cuisine that probably occurred after (and perhaps as a result of) the Russian Civil War/Revolution and the establishment of the USSR. Among other things, people living in what had been the Russian Empire moved away from their native regions (not always involuntarily) and subsequently incorporated into their personal repertoires foods which were previously unknown.

My cousins aren't the only Eastern Europeans who use ketchup both as a condiment and as a component in sauces and gravies, but I don't remember my Belarusian-born grandmother even having it in the house. (She arrived in the US in 1913.) OTOH, I make some classical dishes that my cousins are unfamiliar with but which were appreciated by an elderly friend who'd emigrated in 1920 and fondly remembered such food from her youth.

Well, I certainly have digressed from the subject of borsch, haven't I?

Thanks for the invitation to your site -- I will definitely visit! And if you can be patient, I will be There (as opposed to Here) before too much more time goes by and I'll be able to consult with my cousin Gena. He makes superb borsch (as well as other yummy soups) and we've already got plans to play in the kitchen together.

[David Cottrell]

Thanks Lindochka We will have soup by and by!

[expatgirl]

Welcome, Lidochka to our thread---glad that you want to contribute-------