world-kuliner

Pierogi for Christmas
In Poland and other Eastern European countries that enjoy filled dumplings, many people don't think twice about whipping up a batch of pierogi, koldunai (Lithuania), piroshki (Russia), vareniki (Ukrainia), or Jewish kreplach. But, in America, pierogi making is usually relegated to holidays like Christmas or Easter because people see it as too labor intensive.

It used to be that extended families, 20 or 30 adults, got together before the holidays to make pierogi in their basement kitchens. Every self-respecting Polish-American I know had one, or had access to one. A basement kitchen, that is. Today, it's iffy if one has a basement at all, what with homes being built on slabs, condo and apartment living and all.

But I digress. At these pierogi parties, each family would bring a different pierogi filling, and the dough would be made up at the host's house by the matriarchs of the clan. Then it was a process of rolling, cutting, filling and freezing or boiling on the spot.

Out came every pierogi-making gadget imaginable, as cousins tried to sell each other on their latest acquisitions. Some would roll out individual rounds of dough as for Russian pelmeni, while the diluted Polish strains opted for pasta rollers. In the end, however, the trusty rolling pin, some close to 100 years old, held sway.

Polka music or Christmas koledy (carols) played in the backgbround, kielbasa and sauerkraut provided sustenance, and a little piwo (beer) slaked the thirst.