Polish food: PIEROGI / BARSZCZ / USZKA

This post is dedicated to PIEROGI - a dish that is popular in Poland and through eastern europe.

Pierogi is a kind of dumpling filled with different types of fillings. The most popular is the mixture of curd cheese, potatoes, onion, salt and pepper and we call those "ruskie" that means literally russian pierogi. Only thing is that they are not russian ;) They are great when served with cream. The 2nd most popular would be those with meat. 3rd or equally popular as the two previously described would be the ones with sour cabbage and mushrooms . So here, you have just learned what are pierogi: "ruskie", "z mięsem" and z "kapustą i grzybami".

During the Christmas period in Poland, pierogi "z kapusta i grzybami" are in their prime. Polish people eat also a special kind of pierogi that are purely with mushrooms. The making process is the same as for normal pierogi but in the final stage they are beeing sealed into a different shape than normal pierogi. And this shape reminds a bit of an ear. That is why we would call them ears - uszka in polish. We eat "uszka" with the red soup made from beetroots called "barszcz".

Apart from pierogi served with no sugar, polish people also eat some pierogi in their sweet version.

Add fruits to the dumpling's dough and you have perfect summer dish like pierogi with berries, or pierogi with sweet ricotta or sweet curd cheese. Many different variants.

And if you would like to cutify your pierogi a bit - especially those with fruits. Add a food colouring to the dough to have a rainbow colour pierogi. Yay!

The making of pierogi is easy and everyone can do it. Instead of presenting here step by step on how to do it I found a very decent video tutorial in english to enjoy.

In Poland you may purchase them frozen ready to be cooked or you can do it by yourself. Go to the chilled or frozen food section in any supermarket.

You can find also ready to eat barszcz (the beetroot soup) in paper box. (You can cook it or heat it in the microwave) in a section with soups or a soup concentrate (in glass bottles). There is also a soup in powder. This needs to be mixed with water and cooked before serving. My favourite is the liquid one in the paper box - "krakus" brand one.

LINKS TO RECIPES