In the Kitchen With Mattie

Archive for June, 2010

We love pierogies! Unfortunately, living here in the deep south there is no place that has them made fresh like we used to be able to get in NYC. Hence I taught myself how to make them years ago.  When I first bought a dish of them to hubbys job no one would dare to try one, then slowly they did and soon they became addicted to them, they often asked him to get me to make them a bunch and for a little while I did, then it got to be overwhelming, there were only about 6 guys working there but between them they could put away a good 150 of them as a snack alone. Now I just make them for family here. One of those guys that hubby used to work with saw some in the frozen food case at the supermarket and was all excited about them, he was soon disappointed when he tried them, they are no comparison to a fresh made one for sure. They do take me the better part of a day to make a batch but it is soooo worth it, I make a large batch and then freeze them in meal sized portions, if you are going to go to the trouble of making them I would suggest you do the same. We like two of the typical fillings although you can fill the dough pockets with just about anything you like as long as it is not too wet. Our favorites are stuffed with potato, cheese and carmelized onions and the other is dried mushrooms and saurkraut. Hubby likes his with lots of carmelized onions on the side and I like mine with sour cream, other people like theirs with apple sauce or in the case of pierogi stuffed with a sweet cheese filling they like them with a fruit preserve on the side, in any case roll up your sleeves and make a large batch of them and enjoy!

                                            Pierogi Dough

5 cups of all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs scrambled together

1/2 cup soft butter

1 cup sour cream

1/4 cup milk (add a little if dough is dry)

Add the dry ingredients to a large food processor bowl and pulse to combine, add the wet ingredients and pulse until you have a dough that comes together. Remove from bowl and form into a large disc, wrap in plastic and let rest for at least 30 minutes. Place flour onto the counter and cut dough into 4 pieces, cover 3 of them with the pastic and place the fourth in the flour on counter to coat it. Roll the dough out as thin as you can and cut circles 3-4 inches, stuff with the filling of your choice and then seal edges tightly, set aside on sheet pan sprinkled with flour, don’t crowd them. Continue until you have rolled and filled all the dough. To serve you can boil them in a large pot of water until they rise and serve or after they rise remove them from the water and place in a saute pan that has some carmelized onion and butter in it, cook and toss them until they begin to brown and then serve them. Freeze the uncooked ones on a flat sheet pan and then place in zip top freezer bags, do not defrost before you put them into the boiling water.

                                          Potato, Cheese, Onion Pierogi Filling

2 very large russet potatoes, steamed then peeled and put thru ricer

1 cup sharp cheddar cheese grated

1 cup diced onions, carmelized in 2 tablespoon butter, then cooled

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/4 cup sour cream

Mix all together and use to fill pierogi dough, seal edges well and crimp with a fork.

                                           Mushroom Saurkraut Pierogi Filling

1 pound bag saurkraut, drained very well

1/2 ounce package dried mushrooms, reconstituted in 1 cup boiling water

         remove from water when softened and drain well

1 teaspoon Maggi Seasoning

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Drain saurkraut very well, then chop in food processor, add mushroom and chop again until the mixture is finely chopped, place in bowl and add Maggi and pepper, mix all together well then  place in a saute pan over low heat to help dry out the mixture, remove from heat when it is dry, allow to cool and use to stuff pierogi, seal well and crimp edges with fork. It is very important that you make sure the filling is dry or the dough will fall apart and not seal well.

I have used all sorts of things to fill pierogi, such as leftover pot roast and all kinds of vegetable mixtures, they are not conventional but are still very tasty and we enjoy them.

We have had enough ribs and BBQ to last us at least another week or two, we are seriously overdosed on all we ate for the past 2 days. Today we both wanted something about as far as we could get from BBQ and so I made Tortellini with Meatballs. It came out pretty good and will only get better when the sauce gets re-heated after cooling down overnight. I used Celantano Frozen Cheese Tortellini, they are the only kind we can get here in the deep south, I wasn’t in the mood to hand make some today, these are OK but don’t campare really to hand made ones, then again it will usually take me a good couple of hours to make them fresh and I really appreciated not having to do that today.

                                                   Tomato Sauce

1 stalk celery, washed and chopped finely

1 large carrot, scraped and finely chopped

3 cloves fresh garlic, peeled and smashed

1 cup diced small onion

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 teaspoon fresh oregano chopped

1 cup dry white wine

3 tablespoons olive oil

2—28 ounce cans San Marzano tomatoes, chopped

6 large fresh basil leaves

1 teaspoon sugar (if needed, if tomatoes taste a little bitter)

Heat a 3-4 quart saute pan, when hot add the oil and let it heat.  When the oil is hot add the onion, salt , carrot and celery mixture, let it saute until it gets some color about 10 minutes on medium-low heat, keep stirring it so it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. When it is nicely colored add the garlic, crushed red pepper and oregano and stir and cook until it is fragrant, about 2 minutes on low.  Add the wine and scrape the bottom of the pan, allow half the wine to evaporate and then add the tomatoes and 1/2 can of water,  bring to a simmer and cook for 40-60 minutes until reduced a little, taste and add the sugar if it is needed, when finished add the fresh basil to it.

                                                  Meatballs

2 pounds ground beef or mixture of beef and pork

1 cup onions, diced and sauteed until soft and cooled

2 cloves fresh garlic, smashed and sauteed with the onions

3 slices white bread, grind in food processor or Ninja machine

1/4 cup whole milk

2 whole eggs

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon fresh oregano

1/2 cup fresh chopped parsley

3/4 cup fresh grated parmeasan cheese

Place everything into a large mixing bowl and combine thoroughly, make meatballs about the size of a golf ball and then saute them until browned all around in the olive oil, drain and  add to the sauce and continue to simmer for an hour. Serve with ravioli or your favorite pasta, you can also slice them and layer them into lasagna. The sauce will thicken up more as it cools.

We decided to fire up the big smoker and smoke a load of ribs for the holiday. The local grocery had really nice meaty St Louis style on sale so I picked up a large slab of them. On the way out I happened to notice a refridgerator case loaded with these brown boxes and a big SALE sign on the case, curious I went and took a look……….the boxes contained “Swifts Premium Ribs Tips” and weighed 10 pounds, the price was reasonable so I threw one in my cart and decided to give them a try, I figured I would cook a few of them along with the St Louis ribs.  What I discovered upon arriving home was that inside the box, vacumn packed was one big block of rib tips, they were frozen solid, all crammed together. I set the box into the bottom of the fridge to defrost. On Sunday night I separated all the now defrosted tips and discovered there was a LOT of them, I set them and the slab of St Louis style into a simple brine for overnight. Bright and early Monday morning Mick set up and stared the smoker while I formed a few burgers and made some potato and pasta salads. When the smoker was ready I started laying on all the ribs after giving them a simple rub, they covered the whole bottom rack of the smoker………I did say there was a lot of them! I let them smoke for 7 hours and then built a small fire on one end of the smoker to cook the burgers and hot dogs, can’t be a cookout without them! The ribs came out perfect, just about fall off the bone, very moist and tender with great smoke flavor, the fat on them just melted away. It turns out we didn’t really care for those ribs tips, they were mostly small round bones connected by a little meat and were quite a bit of work to eat, if you are trying to cut back on your food intake I might reccomend them as it will take you an hour to get the equivilent meat of one regular rib. The St Louis ribs on the other hand were absolutely great, very meaty and succulent, we’ll stick with this type from now on.

I will give you the recipe for the pasta salad I make, it has become very popular over the years and people request it when we have to bring something to a gathering. The Potato Salad I made is below.

                                          Matties Pasta Salad

1 pound of your favorite small pasta, cook, drained and cooled

2 small cucumbers, peeled and diced

1 red, 1 green and 1 yellow pepper, seeded and diced

1 bunch green onions, sliced on diagonal, white and green parts

3 stalks celery, diced or cut on diagonal

5 Roma tomatoes, diced or one basket of grape tomatoes cut in half

1/2 teaspoon Accent seasoning

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 cup light mayonaise

Cook the pasta of your choice and drain, rinse well with cold water and place into a large bowl. Chop all the vegetables and add to the pasta, mix well.

Into a small food processor or the mixer cup of a Ninja (if you have this great machine) add the mayo and the Accent and pepper and mix together. You may like more mayo but as the vegetables will make liquid it will thin out as it sits, this is not a heavy mayo salad, you can add more mayo if you’d like but try it with the 1 cup to begin with and stir it after a few hours to see if you want more. This is best made the day before you need it so all the flavors come together.

If you want you can also add some shrimp or crab and make this a meal, my sister likes it that way. I came up with this salad many years ago and so far there hasn’t been one person who has eaten it that doesn’t like it, even if they never before like a pasta salad. Give it a try and see how you like it.

                                                         Potato Salad

3 pounds of red skinned potatoes, diced and steamed until tender

1 large stalk of celery

1 small onion

1 cup Hellmans Mayonaise

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon yellow mustard

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons sweet relish

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

6 hard boiled eggs

I steam the diced potatoes in a pressure cooker for 4 minutes, I put the diced potatoes on a trivet in the cooker so they don’t get watery.

When potatoes are steamed and still hot sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of white vinegar, set aside to cool. In a Ninja or food processor place the celery, onion, mustard, mayonaise,  salt and pepper, blend until it is smooth then pour over the cooled potatoes and mix well. Chop the hard boiled eggs and add to the potatoes along with the relish and the parsley, mix all together very well and then refridgerate until it is cold, stir again before serving, if you need it you can add a little more mayonaise.

Note:  You can also leave the celery and onion chunky, just dice it  and add to the dressing and mix well, in that case you would not have to do this in the Ninja or food processor and it could all be put together by hand.