Cheese and Potato Pyrohy

As the world becomes more commercial and less and less focus on the "baggage of religion" as a Globe and Mail journalist writer commented in a recent article, I still find comfort and connection to Christmases past, with thoughts of my Mom and Grandmother and the true meaning of Christmas.   The Magic of Christmas along with the traditions seem even more important to me these days.

The preparation for this year's Christmas Eve Meal has started using this pyrohy recipe, one I find most manageable with the result of 8 dozen dumplings. 

Check out 12 dishes of Ukrainian dishes  for the Christmas Eve meal as part of the traditional meal that have been passed down to me. 

The filling for this recipe is potato, ricotta cheese and cottage cheese.  I use a small container of cottage cheese and ricotta cheese and had cooked 2 medium sized potatoes.  I find that the ricotta cheese adds great flavor and is the closes in taste to homemade cottage cheese. I use the regular cottage cheese and just drain the liquid in it first.

My son has wanted me to show to my granddaughters how to make the dumplings, so I had saved some dough and filling for them to use. 

The girls loved making the dumplings, as I busied myself taking movie and pictures of them! 

Since some of the filling was popping out in some of the dumplings, if not all of them, frying the dumplings in Olive oil was a good solution.

The girls quickly devoured their master pieces with sour cream!!

Fall Supper 2017 in Calgary

This was my plate from The Fall Supper last weekend.  This was the eighth annual Knights of Columbus fundraiser fall supper.

Fall suppers were popular in Regina and Winnipeg when we lived there, but I don't remember them growing up in the country.  In fact there are web pages listing Fall suppers in Winnipeg and another for Manitoba..  

Instead of the long tables that where used in Regina, the rounds tables were covered in tablecloths and set for10 to a table.  Tickets went quickly and in fact the tickets were over sold by 20 tickets. 

A live band played during the evening!

The long tables were used for the roasters of food with servers for the homemade pyrohy, cabbage rolls and chicken.  One could help themselves to Buns, Peas and Carrots, Meatballs, Caesar salad and Mashed potatoes. 

Homemade Pyrohy tossed in Caramelized Onions and Butter! 

These homemade Cabbage Rolls in tomato sauce were delicious.

The Meatballs were floating in a creamy Dill Mushroom sauce.  I was must anxious to taste these as this was one of my favourite dishes that my Mom used to make. However, the meat had been pulsed through the food processor and the dense meatballs did not soak up the sauce like hand made meatballs.   The eight year old at my table thought they were the best so he gladly took my meatballs. His father however did tell him that his Baba's homemade meatballs, who was sitting at our table, were the best, as he winked at his Mom in law!

Breaded Baked Chicken was also popular! 

This was a great feast and everyone enjoyed the food, the live band and socializing! Not to mention I did win the 50 -50 draw!  

Cabbage Pyrohy for Christmas Eve

Another traditional dish made for Christmas Eve dinner is Sauerkraut pyrohy.  These pyrohy have always been my favorite and especially delicious reheated. 

Using the same recipe dough that I did for the cottage cheese I made 4 dozen of these dumplings.  My Mom always made the shape of these dumpling by pinching the ends together to get a circle shape. The shape is much like the Italian Tortellini shape. 

The sauerkraut is drained and washed. A step my Mom always did as she felt the store bought Sauerkraut was too bitter and salty. 

Drain and squeeze out as much moisture as you can as easier to make the dumplings if the filling is dry.

Soften finely chopped onion in a drizzle of Olive oil and then add the sauerkraut to sauté.

Yes, a lot of pinching that needs to be rechecked before freezing as the dough does relax and the seams need to be checked and resealed tor the dumplings will open when boiling to cook.  Trust me after all this work the last thing you want to see is the filling floating as you cook the dumplings!

These are frozen on a cookie sheet pan.  Cover the pan with saran wrap and each layer.   My Aunt Marion laughing commented that life is so much better with Saran wrap.   Sprinkle a dusting of flour on the base and on each layer of dumplings.  Another time that a shaker with flour is most handy.  When the dumplings are frozen, repack into ziplock bags. 

Pyrohy.. Ukrainian dumpling

While in Northern Manitoba, I made pyrohy for my  brother and used the following recipe
for the dough.  Everyone has their favourite recipe, but I have found that this recipe of 4 ingredients that my Mom used is the best.  Each one of my Aunts has their favourite dough recipe with some variation, using some thing in the recipe to make a soft dough, from sour cream, baking powder, eggs to different temperatures of water.  I have found that I have been most successful using very hot water and by letting the dough rest!  Everyone agrees that the dough must sit to relax!

4 cups of flour
1 3/4 cups of hot water.. I think I used 2 cups!
1/2 tsp of salt
1/4 cup of oil.. in this case it was olive oil

Mix everything together and let rest covered for about 1/2 hour.

This recipe made 90 pyrohy for me, but it depends how thin you roll the dough out.

Divide your dough in half, cover the rest of the dough so it will not dry out.  Sprinkle flour on your working area and roll out the dough.  There are cutters you can use, but a glass will work just as well.

Near the end of my Mom's cooking career, she wondered why she had routinely cut out circles when 3 inch squares were more efficient and less time consuming! The shape would still be a triangle

My Mom's  filling was very traditional.. in the spring, she only used dry cottage cheese and dill, the rest of the time, she used cottage cheese and potatoes.. The sauerkraut that you buy needs to be washed to reduce the acidity, then squeeze it so it is dry.. you can also fry up the cabbage with some finely chopped onions.

If your filling is too wet, it is difficult to work with.

My brother enjoyed the filling very much in this batch of pyrohy.. He thought they were the best I have made.  I think because of the ricotta cheese which is very light and sweet tasting, thus the ricotta is closer in taste to homemade cottage cheese.  I used a container of creamed cottage cheese, a container of ricotta cheese and 4 medium potatoes.  The potatoes are first boiled and then mashed. 

Now here is a nice twist that one may want to try as a filling, sweet potatoes and cheese. 

The importance of pinching these dumpling securely is necessary so you don't lose your filling in the boiling water.  I usually line up the formed dumplings on a clean tea towel, which may need to be floured, depending on how moist your dough is.   Then I will again check the dumplings by pinching the sides again before placing them to freeze on a cookie sheet

In the above picture,  I freeze the dumplings on a floured saran covered cookie sheet and then repackaged in Ziplock Bags.  The Dumplings can also be cooked at this time, but after making about 7dozen of these babies, Im usually  ready to pack it in..

If pre cooking the dumplings in salted water, you need to have melted butter ready to toss the dumplings so they don't stick.  When cool they can be packaged in Ziplock bags to freeze.

My aunt pre cooks the dumplings before freezing them and then reheats them by boiling them again.

My other aunt, also pre cooks them before freezing but microwaves them to reheat. This she says is does by watching the dumplings very closing.  My other aunt felt that microwaving the pyrohy made them tough!

To test taste your dumplings, you can also just fry the uncooked dumpling in oil.. Much like the Gyoza or Japanese pot stickers!

Canadian Ukrainian Christmas Eve, Sviaty Vechir

Our annual trip to Northern Manitoba was delayed until Jan 5th as temperatures once again had dipped to minus 25 after New Years.  

You know it is cold when the icy cold weather has the appearance of 'Sundogs".  I really enjoyed the spectacular halo effect around the sun.

Sundogs are bright spots of light on either side of the sun caused by ice crystals, which act as tiny prisms bending light from the sun

.

What you are seeing is a reflection of sunlight off the ice crystals in the clouds.  

After opening gifts at my brother's, we left for my Aunt's place in another small rural village. 

When we got there, my aunt and her sister were busy pan frying seasoned Manitoba Pickerel.  

I always learn something new, every time I help out during this preparation for Christmas Eve dinner.
For example, my aunt pre cooks the pyrohy before freezing them.  To prepare them for the meal, she once again heats the frozen pyrohy in boiling water until they are hot again.  Once again they are tossed in butter and served hot.

Nalysnyky Ukrainian crepes were also made before hand with homemade cottage cheese and frozen. They were placed in a roasting pan, drizzled with heavy creme and heated until hot.   According to my aunt, you need to be generous with the heavy creme for this delicacy to be delicious!

Mushrooms in a dill creme sauce.  Fresh dill from the garden had been frozen in the summer for this dish.  Aunty was most disappointed that she did not have wild mushrooms such as honey mushrooms (Pedipanky).

Aunty had two types of Cabbage Rolls, sweet and sour Kraut ones.  Again they were in a roasting pan being heated for the meal.

Each Ukrainian Christmas Eve meal starts with a prayer, carol and Kutcha.  Kutcha is a ritual dish make of wheat berries that have simmered in water all day with poppyseed and lastly sweeten with honey before serving. 

My Aunt in spite of not feeling well and  her legs hurting badly, continued with this feast.  It was most important for her to prepare these labor intensive dishes and host the meal for her family on January the 6th.  

The Prayer, Our Father starts the meal!

This made me reflect how important this meal was to my grandparents who hosted this annually and all their children would come in spite of the harsh winter weather.  My Mom continued to do the same even after my father's death.   There was always such great joy and happiness as we all assembled for the meal in her home.  The meal was always the same, yet full of excitement, expectations and tradition.   Gentle teasing of my Mom when the Kutcha was served that we should toss the wheat to see if it would stick on the ceiling.  The belief being that if it stuck to the ceiling, it was a sign that harvest would be plentiful.

The symbolism of this Holy meal include Kolach( Christmas Bread) that is braided into a ring, with three rings or loaves placed on top of another to symbolize the Holy Trinity.  A Didukh, a sheaf of wheat symbolizes the family ancestors.  Twelve dishes are prepared for this meal which represent the twelve apostles.  In Pre-Christian Pagan times, the twelve dishes represented a full moon that took place during the year.  

 The traditional dishes that were served are all meatless and not necessarily dairy free.  My grandmother did not use dairy in this meal at all, while my Mom did use dairy in her dishes.  Yes, there are those that still maintain this with meatless and dairy less dishes and believe that this is the only correct way.  Having grown up with both traditions, I do prepare dishes with dairy.  I believe that maintaining and sharing the symbolism of this meal with ones' family is more important that worry about whether the meal should also be dairy less.

With great disappointment, mass was cancelled in Keld due to cold weather.  When they checked the temperature of the wooden church in the afternoon of Jan 6th, it was still minus 25.