Barber - Pierogi Love: New Takes on an Old-World Comfort Food

Pierogi Love

New Takes on an Old-World Comfort Food

Written and photographed
by Casey Barber

Pierogi Love

New Takes on an Old-World Comfort Food

Digital Edition 1.0

Text 2015 Casey Barber

Photographs 2015 Casey Barber

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except brief portions quoted for purpose of review.

Gibbs Smith

P.O. Box 667

Layton, Utah 84041

Orders: 1.800.835.4993

www.gibbs-smith.com

ISBN: 978-1-4236-4066-0

To Pittsburgh, which always has my heart

Growing up in western Pennsylvanias Allegheny Mountains, my culinary touchstones were as provincial as a city slicker would imagine. Nigiri, tom yum, and injera were completely unfamiliar to me for the first fifteen years of my life. But what I lacked in culinary sophistication, I atoned for with my unintentionally immersive studies in the foods of Pittsburghs immigrant population: Italian red sauce rich with pork fat; anise-scented pizzelles; kielbasa and sauerkraut bubbling in the Crock-Pot during the holidays; and plates of pierogies at weekend church fairs.

Even if you dont think you know what a pierogi is, chances are youve laid eyes on one at least once in your life. Quite simply, a pierogi is an Eastern European dumpling. A soft but slightly chewy half-moon of dough traditionally filled with potatoes, cheese, meat, sauerkraut, or fruit, then boiled and served with butter, pan-fried onions, or sour cream, a pierogi is its own special breed of comfort food.

The pierogi goes by different names depending on which country its being eaten in and what its filled with: Russians, Ukrainians, Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Lithuanians, and Romanians have all historically chowed down on pelmeni, vareniki, varenyky, piroti, or kalduny. Even in Poland, it might be known as a pierogi, pirogi, perogi, perogy, pieroshki, or piroshky. No wonder the uninitiated might be confusedfor such a humble food, it gets around.

And though Ill admit we western Pennsylvanians like to think of our region as the epicenter of pierogi pride in AmericaI mean, the Pittsburgh Pirates do have a pierogi mascot race at every home baseball gamewe cant take all the credit. From Chicago, which boasts an immigrant history as rich and plentiful as Pittsburgh, to neighborhoods in New Jersey and Brooklyn settled by Slovak and Ukrainian families, to pockets of Polish populations in Wisconsin, Michigan, and even Nebraska, pierogi lovers pop up throughout the United States.

But theres one problem: most people, even ardent pierogi noshers, associate pierogies with old-world sensibilities and peasant food. With this cookbook, Im rescuing the pierogi from its purgatory in fluorescent-lit, wood-paneled community halls and church basements and bringing it into the modern world. Pierogi Love takes that familiar wrapping and stuffs it with a host of unconventional, innovative, and decidedly non-traditional fillings. If Korean BBQ and tacos can happily co-exist, so can Indian rice pudding and Polish dumplingsor French onion soup, for that matter, or Southern pecan pie, or surprisingly elegant ros-poached pears.

What Im saying is that you might need to sit your grandma down before showing her this book.

Pierogies are unbelievably versatile and malleable. The modern pierogi is a party hosts best friend as a simple freeze-and-serve appetizer; a pop-in-your-mouth game-watching snack that rivals your favorite bar food; a kid-friendly weeknight dinner that boils up in minutes with enough left over for the next days lunch. Its most definitely dessert, especially when theres caramel and chocolate sauce in the mix. And Id venture that some of the sweet versions could give donuts a run for their money when theres a deep fryer involved. (Move over, beignets!)

Once you get started, you wont be able to stop the flood of new filling ideas pouring into your brain. Pierogi dough is a blank canvas for whatever you choose to stuff insidedont stop with the recipes here! I can envision a slew of worldly pierogies, from tikka masala to picadillo. And my jam- and pickle-making friends are already having a field day filling the dough with their own inventive preserves from their pantries.

I hope Pierogi Love encourages you to see this classic food in a new light and inspires you to spread the pierogi love in your own lives.