Olga's Perogies

Auntie Olga as we called her was one of my grandfather’s sisters. She lived in Winnipeg, Manitoba with her husband Metro Cherewyk. Metro was quite a character, always stirring up trouble. Olga was just a wonderful, sweet lady, though she could give you hell if you deserved it. Both were very special to me and I miss them dearly. I regret not spending more time with the Winnipeg clan in general.

This is a recipe kindly donated by my cousin Mark in Edmonton. It is Olga’s original perogie recipe, plus a modern variation of the filling by Mark and his cousins (“the triplets” – sorry girls that is what we grew up calling you). I’ve tested all filling varieties except the dry cottage cheese; that is a little hard to come by here and it is not my favorite anyway. I can safely say each filling is worth sampling. Thanks Mark.

Ingredients

Dough:

5 Cups Flour

1 Tsp Salt

½ Cup Oil

1 ½ Cup of water (best to use potato water from filling)

1 Cup of Finely Ground Mashed Potato (best to go through a food mill)

Olga's filling:

Cook up potatoes, mash well, add fried onions, margarine, cheddar cheese and mix well.

Carlene, Deanna, Sherri, and Mark Fedorak Filling variations:

Cook 16 medium to large potatoes, mash potatoes, add margarine and divide into thirds and make each third as follows:

Potato and onion: Add 1 large fried onion (add second onion for stronger flavour)
Potato and Cheddar: Add 2 cups of cheddar cheese (until you get really orange colour) and 1 fried onion.
Potato and Cottage Cheese: Add 25oz of dry cottage cheese, and 2 tbsp of dill.

Preparation

Mix dough ingredients together, put down a little bit of flour to prevent sticking and roll out to about 1/8” thickness, then use a Campbell soup can to cut each perogy, put filling into cut out (usually less then you think you should – to much filling makes them pop open during cooking), then pinch the edges together. Ball up scrap, roll out again, and repeat until none is left.

Adding the finely ground mashed potato to the dough makes the perogies freeze better and keeps the dough from getting tough.

They can either be par cooked and then frozen, or fresh frozen. Best to lay out on a cookie sheet with wax paper so they can be frozen without sticking together.