Potato Cheddar Perogies

I asked my friend last weekend what I should do as my cooking adventure this week. She said "perogies!".  Challenge accepted.
It was a brilliant idea.

Perogies are a favourite guilty pleasure of mine.  I say guilty because they're served with cheese and bacon on top and sour cream on the side.  Not very healthy, but definitely very tasty.

Friendly warning however, this took me a little over 3 hours.  It wasn't difficult, it was just a long process. I started by making the filling, and let it sit on the counter to cool down while I made the dough.   Also -- you really really want to get a dough press for this. You can buy them at the dollar store. It's inexpensive and super useful if you're ever going to make dumplings, or ravioli, or even fancy finger sandwiches.  My mum happened to mention that she had one last week so I traded yard work for the use of her dough press to make these.  I really dislike yardwork.

Potato Cheddar Perogies
(from Canadian Living)
Dough
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 egg
3/4 cup water
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
Filling
1 lb potatoes, peeled and cubed (about 2-3 large potatoes)
2 Tbsp butter
1/3 cup finely chopped or grated onion
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
Topping
1/2 - 1 large onion, sliced and separated into rings for sauteeing
1/2 - 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
6-8 pieces bacon, cooked and crumbled (optional)
sour cream

1. Fill a medium pot with cold water, add salt and potatoes. Bring to boil.
2. In a medium frying pan, melt butter then add onions. Fry until golden and tender
3. Boil potatoes for 10-15 minutes or until tender.
4. Drain and transfer to a large bowl, mash well.
5. Add onions, grated cheese, salt and pepper.
6. Stir to combine, then set aside.
7. In a mixing bowl, combine flour and salt.
8. In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, egg and water.
9. Gradually add wet ingredients to flour and mix to combine.
10. If needed, add 1-2 Tbsp more water to bring the dough together.  It should be soft but not sticky.
11. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes, or using dough hook, beat in mixer for about 7 minutes.
12. Separate dough into two balls. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and set aside for 20 minutes. 
13. This is a great time to pour a glass of wine, or do some dishes. 
14. On a lightly floured surface, turn out dough, one ball at a time and roll to be ~1/4" thick.  
15. Using dough press or cookie cutter, you want circles approximately 3" in diameter.
16. If you're using a dough press, put the circle on the open face, pressing firmly against the "crimping" edge.  
17. Add about 1 tsp of filling, then wet the edges of the dough circle to help them stick. Fold in half, pressing firmly to seal. Repeat.  Re roll scraps to make the most of your dough.
18. Set finished perogies on a baking tray or lightly floured surface and cover with a dish towel.
19. This recipe makes 24-36 perogies, so any that you aren't planning on eating tonight, can be put into the freezer on a baking tray overnight, then transferred to a Ziplog freezer bag.
20. Fill a large pot with salted water, bring to a boil.
21. In batches, gently drop uncooked perogies into boiling water.
22. Remove the perogies when they float to the surface (~5 minutes).  Allow to drain.
23. Heat oil in a large frying pan. Sautee onion rings for topping.
24. When onions are clear and soft (8 minutes), set aside.  Add drained, boiled perogies to pan.
25. Turn after about 5 minutes, to get them golden brown on either side.
26. Serve topped with sauteed onion, crumbled bacon, grated cheese and sour cream.
27. To prepare frozen perogies, boil from frozen (will take ~10 minutes), then fry.

These perogies were fantastic, but they're definitely a special occasion treat.  They took an entire afternoon to make.  I haven't tried the frozen leftovers yet, but the fresh ones were better than the frozen ones you can find in the grocery store.

Ginger Green Beans and Spring Smashed Potatoes

I've had a lot of disappointing adventures in the kitchen recently. I tried making jam, which resulted in me having a strawberry flavoured explosion in the kitchen.  Then I tried to tackle making ravioli. It turns out that pasta is REALLY difficult to make.  Well maybe not so much difficult as finicy? Anyway, it ended up being more like delicious sweet potato filling in a leather wallet. Ick. The recipe for the ravioli and filling is from Petite Kitchenesse and was actually a great recipe. I'm definitely going to try out that filling again. I will be honest, I ended up eating most of it with a spoon :)

So when I finally got something right in the kitchen, even if it's something simple, I wanted to share it with you folks.  Sadly, because I'm horrible at remembering to get photos, there are no photos... but I'm sure you can use your imaginations.

I picked up some big juicy looking Toulouse sausages from the butcher yesterday, and decided to do a lemony potato smash and a green bean dish (thanks to the ladies on Facebook who helped me decide on green beans).

The potatoes were prepared according to this recipe which I posted a few months ago, with a few modifications, see below.

Ginger Green Beans and Spring Smashed Potatoes
Ginger Green Beans
~500g fresh green beans, washed, trimmed and sliced into 1-2" sections
1-2 t fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small red chili pepper
olive oil
sesame oil

Spring Smashed Potatoes
4 desiree potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
2 spring onions
zest of half a lemon
juice of half a lemon
1/2 t hot english mustard (optional)
1-2 T butter 
2 T white wine vinegar
salt
chives

Spring Smashed Potatoes

1. Place peeled, roughly chopped potatoes in a pot of cold water, add a pinch of salt.
2. Place over med-high heat, bringing to a boil and cooking potatoes for 30-40 minutes.
3. Clean and chop green onions.
4. Drain cooked potatoes and toss into a large bowl with butter, lemon juice, vinegar, green onion and lemon zest.
5. Mix well, smashing potatoes slightly with a large spoon but leaving some textured clumps.
6. Add hot English mustard, salt and chives to taste.  If potatoes seem dry, add more lemon juice, vinegar or butter as desired.

Ginger Green Beans

1. Heat a small amount of olive oil in a frying pan. 
2. Add green beans and toss in oil. Cook at medium heat for 5-10 minutes.
3. Add garlic, ginger and chilli, tossing to coat in oil.
4. Cook for further 5 minutes, or until green beans are desired level of 'crunch'.
5. Transfer to a serving bowl and add a small glug (1-2 t) sesame oil for flavour.

I keep forgetting to include this in recipes - but this makes enough green beans for two and enough potatoes for probably 4, but I love leftover potatoes.  These are simple enough that I'm sure you can figure out how to scale these recipes up to feed more people.

On a side note - I actually much prefer my mashed/smashed potatoes with the skin still on, but the potatoes I picked up this week had really dry and scaly looking peels.  Clearly not the best produce is available at the supermarket in the mall.  Not only does leaving the skin on the potatoes give a nice visual effect, it also provides texture and more importantly, I'm told that there is a lot of good vitamins and minerals directly under the skin.

For the green beans, this is a variation on a recipe I've been toying with for a while - the Chinese 5 spice green beans. I'm constantly changing it around. Adding discs of ginger instead of finely chopped bits, adding bacon or water chestnuts, sometimes some toasted sesame seeds.  It's something that's easy to have a lot of fun with and (unless you have 5 spice to add) requires very little effort towards seasoning. Really, green beans are one of the best vegetables.

Is it weird that my grocery store and butcher are in a mall?

Scotch Fillet with Salsa Verde Surprise and Fresh Spring Mashed Potatoes

Hi Folks,
I've been meaning all week to cook something worth putting up on the blog, but it's been a lazy cooking week.  Chicken salad and sweet potato fries are not exactly the most exciting of recipes to create or share (even if they are quite delicious).  So, today being Friday I decided it was time to create something fun and new.

To provide a setting for this meal I'll tell you that in Australia winter begins in June, and no, it's not quite as harsh as Canadian winters, but it's still cold, and instead of snow we get rain and hail and wind, and it calls for comfort foods.  Now, at the end of August, the weather is turning beautiful and it's feeling very much like spring time is just around the corner.  Or well, it feels like a Canadian summer :)  So I wanted to make something fresh and light that made me feel like springtime, and here you have it.

Scotch Fillet with Salsa Verde Surprise and Fresh Spring Mashed Potatoes
Salsa Verde Surprise
3-5 Fresh Strawberries
1 Avocado
1 Red Onion
Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar
a pinch white sugar
a pinch salt


Fresh Spring Mashed Potatoes
3 potatoes, peeled and chopped in large chunks
2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
2 green onions, washed and roughly chopped
2 T butter
Lemon Juice - 1/4 lemon or maybe 1-2 T lemon juice
Salt


Steak

1. Place 2 steaks on a plate and splash liberally with balsamic vinegar and sprinkle with brown sugar, both sides.
2. Allow steaks to sit at room temperature 10-15 minutes to absorb flavours.
3. Barbecue steaks to desired level of 'done'ness.

Salsa Verde Surprise

1. Heat frying pan to med-high with a splash of olive oil.
2. Finely chop red onion and add to pan.
3. Wash, hull and chop strawberries and place in a small bowl with 1-2T balsamic vinegar and 1/4 teaspoon white sugar, stir to combine.
4. When onion is softened and beginning t change colour, add strawberry mixture to frying pan.
5. Chop avocado into pieces similar in size to onion and strawberry.
6. Remove strawberry and onion mixture from heat after ~5 minutes, combine in bowl with avocado, stir and add salt to taste.

Fresh Spring Mashed Potatoes

1. Add peeled chopped potato to a large pot of cold water, add salt and bring to the boil.
2. Boil potatoes for 15-20 or until soft.
3. Heat oil in a pan, add garlic and green onion, cook until soft.
4. Drain potatoes and put into a bowl, add butter in small chunks.
5. Mash potatoes, add garlic, green onion, lemon juice and salt to taste.

Serve the avocado, strawberry and onion mixture on top of the steak.

Strawberries and avocadoes are both on sale here, which is awesome, because I love them and am always looking for excuses to buy them when they are in season.  The other day at the grocery store I saw scotch fillet steak on sale and I had a serious aha moment. While getting things ready for dinner I had some potatoes that needed eating and I was trying to figure out a way to make mashed potatoes that would suit the more fruity flavour of the steak and I remembered a clip from Masterchef a few years ago where they put spring onions into mashed potatoes and figured "Hey, I can maybe make something like that.... only less awesome."  So this is a completely original idea, that has been inspired by a whole bunch of other things.. so maybe not so original. I also found that we had a lot of leftover salsa verde... so these proportions could easily be used for 4 people. Or you could just eat the extra with a spoon :)  Also, I'm not entirely sure what salsa verde is, but it seemed the closest and easiest way to describe the 'mix of awesome' that I created.

The additional kick to this meal was two zucchini that I had chopped diagonally into ~1/4" thick slices and coated in olive oil and sprinkles with fresh sea salt and ground pepper and thrown on the barbecue. 

Turns out the whole meal was pretty awesome. The only complaint I have is that I tried to take pictures but the damn flash on my camera is broken so they look really unappealing.