Toronto girl seeks food

Passport & Plate - Perogys-Wasy Style

Ukraine | Friday, March 6, 2015 | 5 photos

Ingredients
DOUGH:
- 4 cups flour
- 1 cup of boiled white potatoes
- 1 tsp of salt
- 1 beaten egg
- 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water

FILLING:
- 5 lbs white potatoes
- Cheddar cheese to taste
- Salt to taste

 

How to prepare this recipe
In a mixing pot pour 4 cups of flour. Use level cup or heaping depending on how many perogys you want. In a separate pot mix boiled, mashed white potatoes, salt, egg and lukewarm water. Mix items thoroughly. Pour potato mixture into flour and mix well with a spoon. Then knead with your hands until you get a putty-like mixture. Store in fridge for about 30minutes before making perogys. This amount of dough should make 100 perogys.

Boil rest of white potatoes, add salt to taste, and mash well. Blend cheese into potatoes to taste. Mixture must have a very definite cheese colour to be good! Allow mixture to cool and blend before making perogys.

Roll dough to thinness desired. Cut dough into circles using a glass cup. Try stretching these circles before making the perogy. The thinner the dough, the better the perogy! Use a fork to press edges together.

Cook perogys approx. 10-15 at a time in a large pot of boiling water. They cook quickly. Once in the water from fresh to cooked state they should rise within a couple of minutes. Remove from pot with a slotted spoon and place in a serving dish.

Serve with sour cream, bacon bits and fried onions if desired.

 

The story behind this recipe
While this recipe seems fairly simple, and perhaps not one for an ultimate foodie, The story behind it is near and dear to my heart. This recipe was created by my great grandfather, Wassel Wasylenki at the turn of the century. He and his wife lived in a small town in the Ukraine named Chertkov. Chertkov was a very closeknit community however Wassle was never fond of the perogys served at events and restaurants there. The dough was always too thick and the filling meager. He took it upon himself to create our families recipe. The trick was: enough cheddar cheese and a thin enough dough to leave an orange glow to the eye.

My great grandparents eventually immigrated to Canada, to small town Selby, Saskatchewan. At the time, it held a familiar Ukrainian community. Every year for Ukrainian Christmas Wassel would make his perogys and distribute them throughout the community, making a name for himself. Being quite the philanthropist he would also send money back to Chertkov, and to this day there is a small plaque commemorating him there. My grandfather, Alex, was born in 1920 and quickly grew up to take on his father's ways. As Wassel got older he main cook in the household and perogy maker. Alex eventually got married, giving birth to my father, Don, and my two aunts, Linda and Shirley. As they grew up they too took over the famed recipe. My father has a funny story of him traveling back to Chertkov 15 years ago and the townspeople telling him their perogys were better then Wassels (whom they still remembered). After a taste test... This was NOT the case!

Now living in Toronto, most of my family are very entrenched in the day to day grind, the busy downtown life, and we don't see each other much. Except on January 6th for Ukranian Christmas when myself, my siblings, my cousins, my aunts: Shirley and Linda, and dad sit down together to celebrate, recall out Ukrainian roots, and savour a couple dozen Perogys-Wasy Style with their one of a kind orange glow.