Recipe: Pierogi Ruskie (Gluten Free)

One of my favourite Polish dishes are Pierogi Ruskie, which are basically spiced-potato filled dumplings that are just delicious! Here is my gluten free spin on the recipe! For those of you who don’t have to follow a gluten free diet, I will post a regular recipe in the next couple of days! 

Filling ingredients:

• 1kg potatos (peeled and halved/quartered)
• Two onions (finely diced)
• 300g hard ricotta cheese
• Salt
• Pepper
• Butter

Dough ingredients:

• 1kg gluten free plain flour
• 370g water
• 6 eggs

(I make the dough in two batches using my food processor, so I do 500g flour/185g water/3 eggs per batch)

Method:

1. Boil the potatoes
2. Fry the onion in butter until golden 
3. Once the potatoes are cooked and drained, and the onions are golden brown, allow both to cool down for a few minutes.
4. Using a potato masher, mash the potatoes, onions and ricotta. Add salt and pepper to taste. I like the filling quite peppery!
5. Make the dough! Either by hand (pour the flour into a heap on the bench, make a crater and add eggs one by one, slowly working them in. Slowly add the water and continue kneading for a couple of minutes until the dough forms), or pop all the ingredients in your food processor and follow manufacturers instructions for dough making. Check for the texture of the dough, as gluten free flours vary. If the dough is too sticky, add a little flour. If it crumbles, add a touch of water.
6. Rolling out the gluten free dough proves hard. It is doable, but as we were making these with my brother the other day, he started rolling the dough into balls in his hands then flattening them out into circles with his fingers. This method worked wonders!
7. Fill each circle of dough with a spoonful of filling and close off the dough shaping a ‘pieróg’ (the singular form of ‘pierogi’).
8. Once they are all done, prepare a big pot of boiling water. Drop 6-8 pierogi at a time into the boiling water, they will fall to the bottom of the pot. Once they float up to the top, give them another minute of cooking time and remove with a slotted spoon.
9. I then tend to pop them straight into a frying pan with some butter, you don’t have to, but I think they taste much better fried up a little! Even better if they’re fried up with some diced bacon!
10. Serve on their own, with the bacon and/or sour cream! Enjoy!! ❤️