I have taken part in many virtual cooking classes throughout lockdown to keep myself busy at home, but I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone and make a dish I had never attempted before. I was intrigued to find out about pierogi and visit Poland – virtually, which is as good as it gets right now!
I was the only person joining the pierogi making class, therefore Tomasz went at my pace which made the Zoom class more relaxing and enjoyable. Before making the pierogis, Tomasz explained why the dish was so important in Poland. It even has its own festival on one of the squares in Krakow, where Tomasz lives.
Thousands of tourists, locals and pierogi-lovers attend the Annual Pierogi Festival in Krakow, where local restaurateurs compete for the title of 'The Best Pierogi'. All other festivals were cancelled due to COVID, but The Pierogi Festival still took place due to its importance to Poland.
At the festival, vendors sell pierogis and everyone gets a voting card to vote for the best one. The winner gets a statue of Saint Hyacinth to put in their restaurant window.
Tomasz introduced me to his son who is 13 years old, and he told me that he was able to eat 44 pierogis in a day. After making them, I understand how he ate 44 in one day, because they are so tasty!
We started off by making the filling to go inside, which was mashed potato, caramelised onion, and cottage cheese; this is a traditional filling. Although we were using this as our filling, you can have sweet or savoury pierogi. I would love to try one with banana and chocolate inside!
Tomasz told me that he recently tried a Hawaiian style one, filled with pineapple and ham. A lot of people disagree with pineapple and ham on pizza, but I wonder if it is any good as a filling in a pierogi.
The filling was put to the side, and we began making the dough. We had to knead the dough for 8 minutes before leaving it to rest for 20 minutes. Tomasz shared this fantastic tip with me: To check when the dough is ready, push your finger in the middle of the dough and then take it out. If the hole remains there, the dough is ready. In order to prevent the dough from drying out, we covered it with a bowl and left it to rest.
I had so much filling left over at the end, as not much goes into the pierogi. Tomasz said that I could save this filling for sandwiches or crepes which was a fantastic idea to avoid wasting! Now I have mastered making pierogi, I will certainly be making them again and I am so excited to try different types of pierogi . I found the pierogi really filling so I could not eat very much, however it tasted just like pasta with a filling inside. The potato, cheese and onion made a fantastic filling.
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I would definitely recommend this Pierogi Making Class with Tomasz, as I got to learn all about his culture, the importance of pierogi in Poland and even got the opportunity to make my own pierogi with an expert! For anyone that hasn’t tried making Pierogi before, Tomasz gave really clear instructions and waited for me to complete each step before carrying on with the next step.
