Pierogi Ruskie (Ruthenian Potato and Twaróg Dumplings)

// SUPPLY LIST

// OPERATIONS

1. 1 Make the dough first, because it needs the longest rest: combine the 500 g flour and 1 tsp fine salt in a wide bowl, make a well and pour in the 2 tbsp oil and the 275 ml of water at 80°C/176°F — hit that temperature by stirring 200 ml freshly boiled water into 75 ml cold tap water, because water merely left off the heat for a minute or two is still around 95°C/203°F and sets the flour into lumps you cannot knead out. Stir with a wooden spoon to a shaggy mass, turn it onto an unfloured worktop and knead 8-10 minutes until it is completely smooth, faintly satiny and springs back slowly when pressed. There is no egg here on purpose: the hot-water dough of the region stays supple as it cools, while egg-enriched dough goes tough and leathery by the time the second batch reaches the table. Cover with an upturned bowl and rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours while you make the filling — unrested gluten springs back and the discs shrink the moment you cut them, which is the single most common cause of a miserable rolling session.
2. 2 Put the 600 g of potato chunks into a 3 litre (5 pint) saucepan, cover with cold water by 3 cm, add the 2 tsp of salt for the potato water and bring to the boil at 100°C/212°F over high heat, then drop to a steady simmer and cook 18-22 minutes, until a knife slides into a chunk and back out with no resistance and the outer edges are just beginning to fray. Starting them in cold water is not fussiness — dropped into boiling water the outsides collapse before the centres are done and the filling turns wet. Drain, return them to the dry hot pan off the heat for 1 minute to steam dry, and leave uncovered.
3. 3 While the potatoes cook, melt the 30 g of butter in a 28 cm/11 in heavy frying pan over medium-low heat and add the 300 g of diced onion with a good pinch taken from the filling salt. Fry 25-30 minutes, stirring every 2-3 minutes, until the onion has collapsed to about a third of its volume, is deep amber right through with a few darker catching edges and smells sweet rather than sharp; onion this quantity will not get there in the fifteen minutes people usually allow it. Do not rush it over high heat either: the filling is only three things, and scorched onion makes the whole batch bitter with nowhere to hide. Scrape the onion and every drop of its butter into a large bowl.
4. 4 Pass the hot potatoes through a potato ricer or a fine mouli directly into the bowl with the onion. Never use a food processor or a stick blender and do not beat them with a whisk — shearing cooked potato starch turns the filling into wallpaper paste that will not hold a pleat. Crumble in the 400 g of twaróg (if it is at all wet, press it in a sieve or a square of muslin for 20 minutes first, or the filling will slump and weep through the seams), add the rest of the filling salt and the 1 tsp of white pepper, and fold with a spatula until just uniform, no more than 20 strokes. Taste it warm: it should read slightly too salty and clearly peppery, because the dough and the soured cream will mute it. Spread the filling 3 cm deep on a tray, cool to room temperature, then chill at least 45 minutes until cold and firm — warm filling steams inside the dough and blows the seams open in the pot.
5. 5 Cut the rested dough into four pieces and keep three of them covered at all times, because dough that skins over will not seal. Roll one piece on a lightly floured worktop to 2 mm thick — thin enough that you can make out the shape of your hand through it — and cut 9 cm rounds with a cutter or a thin-rimmed glass; gather and re-roll the offcuts once only, as twice-rerolled dough is tight and tears at the curve. The batch gives about 50-55 rounds, which is eight or nine pierogi a head for six people.
6. 6 Place 20 g of the cold filling on a round, slightly off-centre — that is a rounded tablespoon rolled into a ball, not a teaspoon, which leaves the dumpling hollow and doughy, while a heaped tablespoon will burst the seam. Fold it into a half moon and press the seam closed with dry fingers, working outward from the middle and pushing all the air ahead of you. Do not wet the edges with water or egg wash: a freshly cut, correctly hydrated disc bonds to itself, while water makes a slick seam that unzips in the pot — if a round has dried and refuses to bond, re-roll it rather than wetting it. Crimp the sealed edge into overlapping pleats along the curve or press it flat with fork tines, and shape three or four this way before going any further.
7. 7 Cook one pierog as a tester in a small pan of boiling salted water for about 3 1/2 minutes — 2 minutes after it floats — then lift it out and eat it. This is what a professional kitchen does and it costs you nothing: it tells you whether the filling needs more salt or pepper and whether your seal holds, at the point where you can still fix both. Adjust the remaining filling accordingly, then shape the rest, laying them on a well-floured tray or cloth without touching each other and covered with a tea towel.
8. 8 To make ahead, freeze the raw shaped pierogi in a single layer on a floured tray at -18°C/0°F for 2 hours until solid, then bag them and cook from frozen exactly as below, allowing 1 extra minute after they float. Never refrigerate raw pierogi overnight — the filling weeps into the dough and the bases go grey and sticky.
9. 9 Bring 5 litres of water to the boil at 100°C/212°F in a wide 6-8 litre pot, add the 2 tbsp of coarse salt, then reduce the heat until the water moves at a gentle rolling boil rather than a violent one that batters the seams apart. Slide in 10-12 pierogi, stir once gently along the base of the pot with a wooden spoon to stop them sticking, and wait: they rise to the surface after 60-90 seconds, and from the moment they float they need 2 full minutes more, because the pleated seam is the thickest dough on the dumpling and floating alone means only the thin part is cooked. Lift them out with a spider or slotted spoon, drain well, and toss in a warm bowl with a little of the 20 g of butter set aside for tossing so they do not glue together while the next batch cooks.
10. 10 While the batches boil, make the okrasa: put the 120 g of lardons into a cold 24 cm/9.5 in frying pan, set it over medium heat and render 8-10 minutes until the fat runs clear and the pieces are golden and crisp rather than leathery. Add the 150 g of sliced onion and 80 g of the butter and fry 8-10 minutes over medium-low heat until the onion is glossy, gold and completely soft with no raw bite left. For the vegetarian version leave the bacon out entirely and fry the onion in the 80 g of butter alone, giving it 2-3 minutes longer to take colour without the rendered fat — this is how the dish is eaten through Lent across the region and it is not a compromise.
11. 11 Let the boiled pierogi sit for 1 minute so the surface dries slightly and stops being slippery, then pile them into a warm dish, spoon the okrasa with all its fat over the top, and serve immediately with the cold soured cream on the side and more white pepper at the table. Any left over are traditionally the best part of the next day: fry them in butter in a 28 cm/11 in pan over medium heat for 3-4 minutes per side, until blistered, deep gold and crisp at the pleats.

// CLASSIFICATIONS