Today’s dinner brings back memories of college days when perogies were a gourmet dinner and almost revered as a dinner celebration. I first experienced perogies my first year of college when the lady I was living with invited me to join her for dinner. Having never tried them before, I was more than willing to give them a try-after all, a free meal is a free meal when you’re short on cash and long on appetite! It’s quite a simple dish, nothing more than a boiled dumpling of unleavened dough, typically stuffed with a mashed potato filling. The dumpling itself is the base for the dish, and can be prepared a number of ways, ranging from the very basic salt, pepper and some butter, or topped with hot mushroom soup (condensed soup with no milk or water added, heated with a bit of garlic powder), to the more fancy version that I happen to love best-topped with bacon, onion, cheese and served with sour cream on the side.
The all mighty dumpling has its origins in Slavic cuisine, and was a staple dish for Eastern European families after World War II, and was commonly stuffed with ingredients that were available to the families at the time. Canada has the second largest market next to the United States when it comes to perogy consumption, due in part to a large eastern European population, mainly in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Admittedly, I have yet to make perogies from scratch, so I fall back on the perogies that I find in my grocers freezer. Although they are not as tasty as homemade, grocery store perogies will do in a pinch.
It’s a pretty simple recipe, and, as with a lot of my recipes, not much measuring is done. It’s pretty straightforward and not much in the way of ingredients and cookware is needed. Here’s the recipe:
• Perogies (your choice of flavouring, brand, etc)
• ½ lb bacon, cut up into small pieces (or you can use a package of real bacon bits if you don’t feel like frying up bacon or don’t have any on hand-I recommend Oscar Meyer, found in the salad toppings area of your grocery store)
• 2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
• ½ large onion, diced
• 1 Tbsp. butter
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Sour cream, optional
Prepare perogies according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large frying pan, fry up bacon until crisp; drain bacon in paper towel (if you are using the package of real bacon bits, you can omit this step). Pour off the bacon fat from frying pan. Add butter and diced onion and fry up until onion is golden. Once onions are cooked, add back in your perogies and your bacon and toss gently to combine. Add in your cheddar cheese, and heat until cheese is melted. Serve warm with a dollop of sour cream on the side.
Happy Eating!
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