We are approaching week three of staying indoors. I have been spending a lot of time testing out new recipes, putting spins on old favorites, and mashing up different dishes. On weekends, I like to take my time in the kitchen, preparing dough, and transforming the dough into carb loaded goodness. One of my all-time favorite carbs is pierogies. Back in my college years, I used to stock up on boxes of Mrs. T’s pierogies in my freezer and whip out a box whenever I needed to satisfy my cravings for carbs. I had to pace myself because I would go through boxes upon boxes of pierogies during busy, stressful times in college (usually the week of finals). When I graduated from college and moved to Chicago, I continued to buy boxes of frozen pierogies to stock in my freezer for times when cravings kicked it. It became my go-to quick meals after a long day of teaching and grad school classes. Years later, I still occasionally buy a box or two at the supermarket just in case. The first time I paired pierogies with barbecue sauce was after a long day of work. I fried up a batch of pierogies and really wanted to dip the pierogies into a sauce. I ended up grabbing a bottle of barbecue sauce from my fridge and using it as a dipping sauce. After one bite, I never looked back. The combination of creamy potato stuffed fried pierogies dipped in smoky, sweet barbecue sauce was just divine. I couldn’t get enough of the combination and have been eating pierogies the same way ever since. This week, I attempted to combine my usual dumpling dough used to make my pork and cabbage dumplings with some potatoes mashed in sour cream, cheddar, and scallions, and ended up creating the most amazing potato dumplings. Kevin and I were both surprised by how good the dumplings turned out. They were so good, I ended up making them again over the weekend. My inspiration for the filling came from two of my favorite potato chip flavors – sour cream and cheddar and sour cream and onion. I like to use sharp cheddar cheese because of the savory, salty bite it imparts into food. Adding scallions helps impart a distinctly onion flavor into the dish. Folding in sour cream added a wonderful tang and helped soften up the baked potatoes. To ensure the filling was well seasoned, I sprinkled in some kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. The end result was perfectly filled creamy, savory, tangy potato dumplings dipped in a smoky, sweet barbecue sauce.
For the dumpling wrappers:
· 2¾ cups all-purpose flour, plus additional flour for kneading the dough
· 1 teaspoon kosher salt
· 1 cup lukewarm water
For the potato, sour cream, cheddar, and scallion filling:
· 3 small potatoes or 2 large potatoes, rinsed
· ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
· 2-3 stalks of scallions, thinly sliced and additional stalk of thinly sliced scallions for garnishing
· 2 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, cut into small pieces
· ¼ cup sour cream
· ½ teaspoon kosher salt
· ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
· 6 tablespoons of vegetable oil, for frying
· 2 cups of water, for steaming
For serving the dumplings:
· barbecue sauce
Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 375°F.
2) While the oven is preheating, make the dough by combining the 2 cups of flour and teaspoon of kosher salt in a large bowl. Add the lukewarm water to the mixture. Use your hands to thoroughly mix the dough. The dough will be sticky at this point. Gradually add the remaining ¾ cup of flour slowly into the bowl as you continue kneading the dough for about 3-5 minutes. Let the dough rest for an hour.
3) Once the oven is done preheating, place the potatoes on a baking sheet. Use a fork to prick the potatoes all over. Sprinkle on ¼ teaspoon of salt. Place the baking sheet into the oven and bake the potatoes for 50 minutes.
4) To make the filling, combine the scallions, cheddar cheese, sour cream, kosher salt, and black pepper in a bowl. Use a fork to stir the ingredients until well mixed. Set aside.
5) When the potatoes are done baking, remove the sheet pan from the oven. Carefully peel off the skins from the potatoes. Add the potatoes into the bowl with the sour cream mixture. Use a fork to mash all of the ingredients together. Set aside.
6) When the resting time for the dough is up, lightly flour a working surface or cutting board. Roll the dough out into a large circle. Use a bench scraper to divide the dough in half vertically, then horizontally, and finally diagonally until you form eight equal pieces. Divide the eight pieces in half again until you form sixteen equal pieces. Roll each of the triangular pieces into balls. Set aside.
7) Lightly flour a baking sheet and set aside.
8) To make the dumplings, prepare a small bowl of flour. Sprinkle a small bit of flour onto a surface and begin rolling out the pieces of dough into a flat circle one by one. Place about 2 tablespoons of filling on each piece of dough. Bring one edge of the circle up to meet the other edge of the circle. Press around the edges to form a half circle. Press the ends upwards into the half circle. Beginning on one end, press and fold the dough around the edges to seal the dumplings. Continue this process with the rest of the dumpling wrappers and filling.
9) Place the pieces of wrapped dumplings on the floured baking sheet until ready to fry.
10) Heat skillet on medium heat. Add two tablespoons of vegetable or canola oil into the pan. Once the oil is hot, add 4 dumplings into the pan and fry for about a minute, until the bottoms are golden brown. Pour about ½ cup of water into the skillet. Use a pot cover to cover the skillet and let the dumplings steam for about 2-3 minutes until the water evaporates. Remove the dumplings to a plate and let the dumplings rest before serving. Continue the process of frying dumplings until all dumplings are fried. Garnish the dumplings with the additional thinly sliced stalk of scallion. Serve with a side of barbecue sauce.
Takeaways: My recipe yields about 14 to 16 dumplings. The first time I made this recipe, I had left over mashed potato filling. This time, I ran out of filling after 14 dumplings. Depending on the size of the potatoes, there may or may not be filling left. I saved the remaining two dough balls to make some scallion pancakes at a later time.