Trailing Thoughts

Sibani wanted to learn how to make kapusta before they go back to india in a few weeks. We also learned how to make pierogis. Here are my busia’s recipes: NOTE not as accurate as I would like… she does not believe in measurements.
KAPUSTA
Start boiling a pot of water, while this is boiling, wash and shread a head of cabbage. Once this is done, add about 1 tablespoon of salt to the water and then add the cabbage. Boil this for about 5 to 10 minutes until it is soft. Once it is soft, drain cabbage and set aside.
In a large pan, take a choice of butter, margarine, oil, or bacon. Heat choice of grease(if using bacon- take out the bacon pieces before continuing), and put a cut up onion in the pan and lightly brown. Once lightly brown, add a minced clove of garlic, and continue till onions are brown. Remove onions and garlic from the grease in the pan( if you used bacon, you can add the removed onions to the same bowl). In this grease, add approximately 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour and stir. Lightly brown the flour. Once lightly brown, add about 1 and 1/2 to 3/4 cup of water to the pan. Add about 2 big tablespoons of plain white vinegar, about 1/2 teaspoonful of black pepper, about 2 tablespoonsful of sugar. (optional -add a bay leaf for flavor, or a twist – grated apples, etc. ) additionally put the onions ( and bacon if used) back in the pan. Bring to a boil. Once boiled add the cabbage and stir and cook until liquid is reduced. Adjust with sugar, salt, pepper or vinegar if necessary.
Pierogi :
Cheese:
a note on the proper type of cheese… the best is to get dry farmer cheese from the Wallys in chicago but if you do not want to drive to Chicago to get the right cheese, you can get this from Meijer in the cheese area by the deli… according to Busia it looks like a heart, but to me, it was squash shaped- it is about 8.50 a pound.
Andrulis Baltic Style Farmers cheese plain ( www.andrulischeese.com ) – we used a little over 1/2 pound. Cut into squares
Also use 1 to 2 packages of cream cheese ( depending on how “rich” you want the cheese)
Add 1 large egg
About 3 tablespoons of sugar and about 1/2 teaspoonful black pepper.
Mix all together to get a creamy consistency.
Put a little flour on the work surface, wash hands and make about 1/2 tablespoon sized balls ( use the flour to stop it from sticking to your hand) . Set aside.
To make the dough: get 2 bowls.
in large bowl, add about 4 cups of flour and a pinch of salt. In small bowl, add 2 large eggs, 1 cup of milk, 2 tablespoons of oil, mix. Add wet mixture to dry mixture and mix until you form dough ( you might have to add more milk to the dough – add slowly – up to another cup)
To the dough ball, cut in half, sprinkle flour on the work surface and rolling pin, and roll the dough into a flat surface… (not too thin, not too fat). Using a cleaned out can ( larger can sized like from peaches or pinapple) cut circles out of the dough.
Take a circle in your hand, add a cheese ball in the middle and fold into half moons. First pinch the middle edge and the ends and then inbetween. Make sure they are sealed well. ( this recipe should yield about 20 to 30 pierogis)
Boil water and add a pinch of salt. Carefully add the pierogi to the boiling water. They must cook until they float on the top…. About 5 to 10 minutes.
Extra dough? make noodles out of them… boil them and then fry them up.
To serve the pierogi, brown some chopped onions, and then add pierogi and brown the outer edges of the pierogi. Top with a spoon of sour cream and a little ground cinnamon.