Bryndza Pierogi (Bryndzové Pirohy)
Ingredients: about 2 potatoes, some 2 cups flour, one egg, salt, bacon, bryndza
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Pirohy (pierogi) are not as common in Slovakia as in, let’s say Poland. There they are stuffed with all kinds of fillings. There are pierogi filled with meat, mashed potatoes, curd cheese, onions, or even sweet jams. But one kind you will surely find on your travels in Slovakia are bryndzové pirohy, pierogi filled with the special Slovak sheep cheese, bryndza. This cheese is also used to make the Slovak national dish, bryndzové halušky.
My family did not use to make pirohy. But lucky for me, a lady named Helka helps out in my dad’s restaurant and she makes amazing pirohy. So I had her show me how they are made. Below is the recipe for the authentic Slovak pierogi. All the cooking was done by eye, so the above ingredients are only my best estimates.
Start by cooking few potatoes (zemiaky). Cook them until they are quite soft and mash them by hand. Add about a cup of flour (múka), one egg (vajce) and about a tablespoon of salt (soľ). Mix everything together by hand. Then add more flour until you get a fairly stiff mixture. Also place a large pot full of salted water onto the stove.
Form the dough into a loaf and place it onto a dusted board. Dust top with flour to prevent the pin from sticking. Roll out to an about 3 millimeters thick pancake.
Then take a drinking glass and cut out circles. Do this by pushing down with the glass and twisting your wrist left and right few times. The dough will come out with the glass. Top each circle with a teaspoon worth of bryndza. If you don’t have bryndza, you can imitate it by mixing feta with sour cream.
Fold the circle over and pinch the seal closed with the tip of your fingers. Then, to make the pirohy look prettier, grab the seal between your fingers and twist about 60 degrees. Do this at few spots.
Place pierogi into the pot of boiling water. I found it really neat that Helka uses the same technique for transporting dumplings as my grandma – by placing them onto the back side of her arm. Right after placing them in water, scoop them up with a wooden spoon to keep them from sticking to the bottom. Pierogi are ready when they float to the top. Scoop them out using a large strainer.
Bryndzové pirohy are topped with škvarky, fried bacon bits. Prepare these by cutting good thick smoked bacon into pieces about inch long and frying them until the white fat part dissolves away. Top pierogi with few spoonfuls of grease and then with the bacon bits. Finally top with sour cream (kyslá smotana).
And there you have them, delicious Slovak homemade bryndzové pirohy. Serve with a glass of žinčica, sour sheep milk which is bit similar to kefir.
Bookmark and Share with others:
Poppy Seed Noodles (Rezance s Makom)
Ingredients: noodles (fettuccine width), ground poppy seeds, sugar, butter
Prep Time: 30 minutes
I grew up eating poppy seed noodles (rezance s makom). These are quite similar to šúlance s makom (poppy seed dough rolls, from šúlať, to roll). Those are frequently eaten on Christmas. See, in Slovak heritage, poppies are a sign of wealth. It’s customary to wish someone to have peňazí ako maku, money like poppies. This is why we eat so many dishes topped with poppy seeds.
Start by cooking noodles (rezance). Home-made noodles work the best, but if you don’t feel like all the trouble, just grab some wide, fettuccine-like pasta. Bring slightly salted water to boil. Cook until done. Noodles (just like any pasta) will float to the top when cooked. But of course, you can just taste one or two. Strain them and rinse off with cold water.
Place noodles in a pot in which you melted some butter (maslo). Stir in a mixture of ground poppy seeds (mak) and sugar (cukor). That’s it. Very easy and very tasty. Enjoy!
Bookmark and Share with others:
Home-Made Noodles (Domáce Rezance)
Ingredients: 1lb of all-purpose flour, 1 egg, dash of salt, water
Prep Time: 30 minutes
My grandma makes the best ever chicken noodle soup. I think her secret is in that she makes her own noodles. In this recipe, I show you how you too can make your own pasta. Turns out, it’s quite easy!
Make the Dough
Start by combing flour (múka), salt (soľ) and the egg (vajce). Add about a small cup’s worth of water (voda). It’s better to start with less water and add more as needed. Knead well in the container and also on a floured surface until you end up with a smooth, silky dough. It should not be watery. Roll into a tube few inches in diameter and cut into three sections.
Then take one of the pieces and place it onto a floured section of your working board. First flatten it with your hand. Then roll it few times with the rolling pin using short back-and-forth motion. Turn the dough over and keep rolling. Repeat. You want both sides to be nicely covered in flour, otherwise the dough will stick either to the board or to the rolling pin. So add flour as needed. Keep rolling, dusting with flour, and flipping over until you have a thin pancake no more than a millimeter thick.
Dry it
Place the dough onto a cloth and set aside for some 5-10 minutes. In the mean time, work on the other pieces. You are letting the dough dry a bit so it becomes easier to cut. Don’t dry it too long otherwise it hardens and becomes too brittle.
Cut Noodles
And now the fun part: cutting noodles. Dust the top surface with flour and slice the circle into rectangular sections about 1.5 inches wide. The width of these rectangles determines the length of your final homemade noodles. Stack few strips on top of each other (the flour you just added will prevent them from sticking) and with a sharp knife, cut the noodles.
Make them pretty wide for poppy seed noodles (rezance s makom), and much thinner for the chicken noodle soup.
Turns out, there is also a gadget that will do the cutting for you – a little mill for noodles (mlynček na rezance). To use this device, you cut the rectangles into smaller pieces. Now the length of the rectangle will determine the length of the resulting pasta. Noodles from this mill look quite similar to the ones my grandma cut by hand but were round in cross-section.
Cooking Noodles
When it comes to cooking noodles for a clear soup, it’s important to cook the noodles separately. Otherwise, the flour will make the soup milky. When pasta is ready (cooking time will depend on the size), strain and place the noodles into another bowl containing cold water.
Let sit for few minutes and then strain again into another container. Add a spoonful of oil to make the noodles even more delicious. You can refrigerate them like this, or use them right away in the chicken noodle soup.
Bookmark and Share with others:
