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Pastrami-Filled Pierogis Recipe

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A soft, potato-dough pierogi filled with chopped pastrami, sauerkraut, pickles, and mustard, then boiled and optionally fried—served warm with a tangy dill-mustard dipping sauce

  • Total Time: 50 minutes
  • Yield: 40 pierogi

Ingredients

For the Dough

  • 2½ cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading, if needed, and dusting
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 3 Tbsp unsalted butter, cubed
  • 1 large egg, lightly beaten
  • ¼ cup sour cream
  • vegetable oil, for shallow-frying

For the Filling

  • 1 cup cooled mashed potatoes
  • 2¼ oz pastrami, chopped into small pieces
  • 3 Tbsp drained sauerkraut
  • ½ cucumber pickle spear, finely chopped
  • 1 tsp prepared English mustard
  • ½ tsp celery salt
  • pinch of sea salt, or to taste

For the Dill and Mustard Sauce

  • 3 Tbsp Dijon mustard
  • 1 Tbsp white wine vinegar
  • ½ cup canola oil
  • 2 Tbsp finely chopped dill
  • ½ tsp sea salt
  • pinch of ground white pepper (optional)

Instructions

  1. Start by making the dough. If you have a food processor, add all the ingredients to it and pulse until the mixture comes together into a sticky dough. If making by hand, add the flour and salt to a bowl. Using your fingertips, gently work the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs, then mix in the egg and sour cream to make a dough.
  2. Knead the dough using your fingertips on a floured work surface for 5 minutes, adding a little more flour if it is too sticky. Seal in plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge for a minimum of 30 minutes until you prepare the filling.
  3. Mix all the ingredients for the filling together in a large bowl and check for seasoning.
  4. Roll out the pierogi dough on a heavily floured work surface until 1/16 inch thick. Using a 3½-inch round cookie cutter, cut out circles from the dough, re-rolling the trimmings to make more circles.
  5. Place a heaped tsp of the filling in the center of each circle. Fold over to make a semicircle, then dampen your fingers with water and seal the edges.
  6. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil, drop in the peirogi, in batches, and boil for 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a dish cloth.
  7. Meanwhile, to make the sauce, mix the mustard and vinegar together in a bowl. Add the oil in a very slow trickle, whisking constantly, until it has all been incorporated, then stir in the remaining ingredients.
  8. Heat 1 Tbsp of oil in a large skillet and fry the pierogi, in batches, for 1 to 2 minutes on each side until golden brown.
  9. Serve the crispy pierogi hot with the sauce on the side for dipping.

Notes

  • This recipe is not kosher. If you want to make it kosher, you can replace the butter with margarine or coconut oil and the sour cream with non-dairy sour cream. You could also leave the pastrami out of the filling.
  • You can omit the last step of frying and just enjoy the pierogi boiled.
  • The pierogi freeze beautifully—just place them on a cookie sheet in a single layer and open freeze them before sealing them in a resealable plastic freezer bag.
  • Author: Emma Spitzer
  • Prep Time: 30 minutes
  • Cook Time: 20 minutes
  • Category: Entree
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: Ashkenazi