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| Pierogies, after a quick fry in some butter |
I can't help but think of my Babcia every time I make pierogies. The way she shuffled her feet on the linoleum floor of her apartment, her thick Polish accent and tough as nails attitude and fierce pride. Babcia (affectionately called "Bobbie") was a heck of a lady. You knew not cross her but you also knew how much she loved you and how proud she was. Unfortunately I was only 9 when she died but the story goes that towards the end, when things got bad, my Dad went to visit her in the hospital and as stood next her bed, he head bowed and murmured a prayer. She must have sensed someone was in the room because she opened her eyes, looked him square in the face and yelled in her thick Polish accent, "David! What are you doing?! Don't worry, if I die, I tell you!" Then she dismissed him, ordering that he return to work.
I always wish that I got to know her as an adult. I'm sure she would have shaken her head in disagreement when I didn't bring "a nice Polish man" to dinner and she would have questioned what the heck I was wearing (let's face it, the early nineties were bad years for us all). But I also like to think we would have sat down at the table in her kitchen and over coffee, talked about her childhood in Poland. She would have wanted me to know all about it. Even as a kid, I remember her constantly telling me that "I'm a good Polish girl" (or was it reminding me to "be a good Polish girl"?) We would have talked for hours and then I would have had to drop her off at Bingo. Bobbie loved that Bingo.
As I write this post I can't help but laugh a little and smile at the memory of her. Although she passed away years ago and I never got to have that chat with her, I have food to connect me to her and I still think of her every time I make any sort of Polish food. Now if that isn't a great legacy, I don't know what is.
This recipe isn't her original, I adapted it and changed it a little (I'm sure she would have had a thing or two to say about that) but all the basics are still there. The beautiful thing about pierogies is that, like ravioli, you can fill them with almost anything you can think of. Traditional Polish stuffings (at least the kind that Bobbie made) were always potato and cheese, cabbage, mushroom and onion and two types of sweet pierogies, blueberry and apple. (The blueberry ones were always my favorite). I ended up stuffing mine with cheddar-truffle potatoes. I'm sure she would have had something to say about that too. But I also think she would have tried one and even though there's no way she'd admit it, I think she would have liked it.
Check out the recipe and more pictures after the jump and be sure to click back tomorrow, I'm going to show you Bobbie's trick with what to do with leftover pierogie dough...
