Vareniki / Pierogi with potatoes and mushrooms or cherries and blueberries

Vareniki with berry or fruit fillings usually are topped with a little sugar and served with a fruity syrup. A few basic rules: the dough should always be elastic. Vareniki as well should never be allowed to stick to one another during cooking. Vareniki are served hot with sour cream, shkvarki (fried pieces of lard/ bacon), butter, or syrup separately. Vareniki with potatoes and mushrooms are served on top with sautéed mushrooms and caramelized onions.

Unbalanced

% Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Step 1

Combine milk, eggs, salt, and 3 cups of flour in a bowl. Knead the dough until thoroughly combined. Add 2 more cups of flour and knead again. Add the soft butter and knead until dough is smooth and doesn’t stick to the bowl or your hands, about 4 minutes. You can also use a mixer with the hook attachment. Cover and leave for 30 minutes.

Step 2

Boil the potatoes in salted water until soft, mash into a puree, mix with 2 tbsp of butter, garlic/onion powder and black pepper. Finely chop the mushrooms and onions, caramelize the onions in olive oil, remove them in a plate, then sauté the mushrooms in oil or butter, add salt and pepper. Mix mushroom and onions, add half of the mixture to the mashed potatoes, and the other half leave for the topping (serving)

Step 3

Roll out the dough thinly and cut with a cup or glass round shapes. Put the filling into each (about 1 tsp), connect the edges and tightly hold them together with your fingers. Alternatively, you can roll the dough and cut it into medium pieces then roll each into a circle, dipped in flour.

Step 4

Boil vareniki for about 2-3 minutes in salted boiling water in a large pot . Frozen vareniki take about 5 minutes for the vareniki to float to the top. Drain and add to a bowl. Add butter, gently toss to coat, and after serve them with sour cream or other toppings, depending on what vareniki you are making.

Step 5

For a crispy vareniki, once cooked, you can add them to a skillet with some butter and sear until crispy. Crisping them up in the skillet is a great way to reheat the vareniki next day. I like fried vareniki, so put your boiled vareniki in a pan with butter and fry on both sides over medium heat until golden brown for a couple of minutes.

Step 6

For sweet vareniki I like to use cherries and blueberries, so put 3-5 berries in the middle of your round shape of the dough, sprinkle a little bit of sugar and connect the edges tightly. I use frozen cherries for the filling, so when I defrost cherries there remains a lot of cherry juice which I use for making some syrup with sugar, corn starch, and some blueberries also. This syrup is perfect to add after the vareniki are boiled.

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