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Irish meets Polish: Corned Beef & Cabbage Pierogi

Posted on March 23, 2012 by provocativepalate

Corned Beef & Potato Pierogi. The best of Irish and Polish foods combined!

This is one of those posts that I almost want to start with a “why bother.” Why bother because I am posting on how to use up those delicious St. Patrick’s day leftovers a week later. Likely (aka hopefully) you don’t have any left, but perhaps you froze some of your corned beef for later. If that’s the case, then you’re in luck. But even if you need to create the filling from scratch, these are some delicious and SUPER EASY pierogi.

In our household the Polish (that’s me) and Irish (that’s my hubs) play nicely, so what a lovely way to combine some of our loves into one tasty lil’ dumpling.

Side note: depending on who in my family you ask, some will tell you that we are German, others will tell you we are Polish.

I made these pierogi a little more healthful by using half whole wheat flour and substituting plain Greek yogurt for what would be sour cream.

This recipe created enough dough for me to make about 40 pierogi. I boiled and sauteed about 20 of them for dinner and leftovers the next day. The other 20 I froze for a quick weeknight dinner. They need to be frozen individually first (so that they don’t all freeze together in a big clump) by laying them out on a pan sprinkled with cornmeal and once frozen throw them into a freezer bag and back into the freezer. I have a feeling I (or my hubby) will thank me for that later.

Here is the recipe – be sure to comment and let me know how you liked them!

Ingredients

Dough

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups plain Greek yogurt
2 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
2 tsp. kosher salt
2 tsp. olive oil

Steps for preparing dough

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl using hands to mix together until a dough forms. A stand mixer with a paddle attachment can also be used for this. The dough will be very sticky at this point.

2. Take the dough out of the bowl and put onto a well floured board. Divide the dough in half. Knead each piece of dough a few times on the floured surface until less sticky but still tacky. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let rest for 10 minutes.

The dough just hangin' out waiting to be made into pierogi

3. On a well floured surface, roll each half of the dough into a thin circle, 1/4-inch thick. Cut the dough using a 3-inch circle cutter.

All ready to be filled with yummy fillings!

Filling

I used the leftover potatoes and carrots from my crock pot that were cooked with the corned beef. Cooking the potatoes with the corned beef provided a lot of flavor to the potato filling. If you are making this from scratch you will need to boil some potatoes.

1 medium onion, diced
5 potatoes, peeled and boiled
butter to taste
1 cup shredded swiss/gruyere cheese (or other sharp cheese)
leftover corned beef, shredded

2 tablespoons of butter for browning the pierogi

Variations for filling: Just potato and cheese or ground beef and onion

1. Caramelize the onion with some butter and olive oil. Remove the potatoes and carrots from the liquid in the crock pot and heat them up in a pan. Add the caramelized onions to the potatoes and mash together. Add the cheese and mix together.

2. Place 1 tablespoon of the potato filling in the center of each circle of dough and lay a small piece of corned beef on top and fold over. Press and seal into half-moon shapes. Use a little water to seal the pierogi. Using the tines of a fork press around the edge gently to get a good seal.

Fill 'er up! Almost there...

Filled and sealed. Ready to be cooked and eaten! YUMM!

3. In a pot of boiling, salted water, cook the pierogi for 8 minutes, or until they float. Remove from the water and drain.

4. In a saute pan, melt some butter. Sear the pierogi for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, or until they are golden brown. Remove from the pan. The pierogi will need to be sauteed in batches.

Garnish with green onion and serve with sour cream (or more Greek yogurt if you’re trying to save calories). I served this delicious dish with a green salad.

Enjoy!

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Posted in Affordable Eats, Leftovers, Palate Pleasers and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Whiskey Caramel Cinnamon Rolls with Fireball Cinnamon Whisky

Posted on January 12, 2012 by provocativepalate

whiskey. caramel. carbs. What else do you need?

This dessert… or breakfast… or snack (it’s ok, I won’t judge you even if you eat it for dinner) was inspired first by my love for a good bread pudding. I love me some bread pudding with yummy, warm and gooey whiskey carmel sauce. If it’s on the menu at a restaurant I have probably had it. I’d venture to say that there is few things better in this world. A few weeks ago I also had one fierce craving for cinnamon rolls, but I didn’t dare indulge my craving unless I was going to have a decent cinnamon roll at best (I could have fallen hard for even one of those mall cinnamon rolls.. yep you know the one). On a recent trip to the liquor store with my hubby, I got a mini bottle of Fireball Cinnamon Whisky. I had never tried it, but after rave reviews from friends and my hubs, I thought I better try it. But did I drink it? No. I made the best cinnamon rolls with it.

I must confess that I am not much of a baker. I tend to steer towards cooking as it inherently more creative and allows for more trial and error than baking does. But I do love a good challenge and up until this post I had never made my own homemade cinnamon rolls. I relied on a heavy dose of Alton Brown for the dough recipe and altered a whiskey caramel sauce recipe with the Fireball Cinnamon Whisky – so I can’t take complete credit for it, however, I have yet to find this recipe anywhere else. I learned a lot about baking for this post and if it wasn’t for a dear friend who held my hand (through the phone) and held back my tears as the dough nearly didn’t rise, this may not have become a success.

I am now hooked on making homemade cinnamon rolls and have a few new ideas up my sleeve for next time. Enjoy!

You can watch the video here to prepare the dough: Alton Brown’s Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients

Dough (courtesy of Alton Brown from Food Network):

  • 4 large egg yolks, room temperature
  • 1 large whole egg, room temperature
  • 2 ounces sugar, approximately 1/4 cup
  • 3 ounces unsalted butter, melted, approximately 6 tablespoons
  • 6 ounces buttermilk, room temperature
  • 20 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 cups, plus additional for dusting
  • 1 package instant dry yeast, approximately 2 1/4 teaspoons
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
  • Vegetable oil or cooking spray

Filling:

  • 8 ounces light brown sugar, approximately 1 cup packed
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • Pinch salt
  • 3/4-ounce unsalted butter, melted, approximately 1 1/2 tablespoons

Note: I mixed up this recipe by adding a few dashes of vanilla over the sugar mixture and I chose to add chopped walnuts on half of the dough after I rolled it out (to see if we liked it better with or without nuts). Perhaps next time I make this I will experiment with a lil’ orange zest.

Directions

For the dough: in the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whisk the egg yolks, whole egg, sugar, butter, and buttermilk. Add approximately 2 cups of the flour along with the yeast and salt; whisk until moistened and combined. Remove the whisk attachment and replace with a dough hook. Add all but 3/4 cup of the remaining flour and knead on low speed for 5 minutes. Check the consistency of the dough, add more flour if necessary; the dough should feel soft and moist but not sticky. Knead on low speed 5 minutes more or until the dough clears the sides of the bowl. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface; knead by hand about 30 seconds. Lightly oil a large bowl. Transfer the dough to the bowl, lightly oil the top of the dough, cover and let double in volume, 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

Combine the brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl. Mix until well incorporated. Set aside until ready to use.

Butter a 9 by 13-inch glass baking dish. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Gently shape the dough into a rectangle with the long side nearest you. Roll into an 18 by 12-inch rectangle. Brush the dough with the 3/4-ounce of melted butter, leaving 1/2-inch border along the top edge. Sprinkle the filling mixture over the dough, leaving a 3/4-inch border along the top edge; gently press the filling into the dough. Beginning with the long edge nearest you, roll the dough into a tight cylinder. Firmly pinch the seam to seal and roll the cylinder seam side down. Very gently squeeze the cylinder to create even thickness. Using a serrated knife, slice the cylinder into 1 1/2-inch rolls; yielding 12 rolls. Arrange rolls cut side down in the baking dish; cover tightly with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator overnight or up to 16 hours.

Remove the rolls from the refrigerator and place in an oven that is turned off. Fill a shallow pan 2/3-full of boiling water and set on the rack below the rolls. Close the oven door and let the rolls rise until they look slightly puffy; approximately 30 minutes. Remove the rolls and the shallow pan of water from the oven.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

When the oven is ready, place the rolls on the middle rack and bake until golden brown, or until the internal temperature reaches 190 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, approximately 30 minutes.

Fireball Cinnamon Whisky Caramel Sauce: 

  • 1/4 cup of butter (1/2 stick)
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup Fireball Cinnamon Whisky
  • 6 Tbsp heavy cream

Combine the first four ingredients in a sauce pan and boil for 2 minutes.
Turn off the heat, stir in the cream.
Drizzle Drench rolls in this delicious sauce and enjoy.

Note: This sauce will make enough for about 6 of the rolls. It is so good you will want to double the sauce recipe above so you have enough for all of the rolls. Since there is just 2 of us in our house and the sauce is made so quickly, I chose to make the sauce two different times (the first night we had it for dessert and the next night we finished them up).

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