Polish cuisine is very demanding. It requires a lot of time, patience, and a good metabolism. It is also a humble cuisine that mainly uses potatoes, beets, and onions, and hides its best dishes under such misleading names as Ukrainian borscht, Jewish-style carp, or ruskie pierogi.
And it was the example of ruskie pierogi that prompted my grandmother to teach me how to cook in the Polish way – so that my foreign husband could admire the culinary richness of my homeland.
She sent me the recipe.
Dough: flour with salt and hot water.
Filling: cottage cheese, boiled potatoes, and fried onions.
Simple.
I told my foreign husband that dinner would take place on the second day. And that there would be no bratwurst or Spätzle, but real Polish-Russian dumplings.
I started by boiling the potatoes. The first success encouraged me to continue. Frying the onions turned out to be more difficult. They were supposed to become golden. But I had never seen fried gold before. They turned out black and brown. Tricky. Maybe the foreign husband won’t notice.
The cottage cheese was gone, so I added a different kind of cheese. Since he had never eaten ruskie pierogi before, he wouldn’t notice the difference.
Finally, I got to work on the dough. First, I burned myself with the hot water. Then it turned out there was too much water. I had to add another kilo of flour to make it rollable.
Around 5 p.m., I finally started cutting circles out of the dough with a large glass, so I could put a bit of potato, cheese, and a burnt onion in each. I painstakingly sealed the edges together. By 8 p.m., I already had 10 dumplings.
I threw them into a pot of water and waited for them to float to the surface. After 30 minutes of waiting, the water looked like wallpaper paste.
I was about to call my grandmother and complain when I looked up and saw that the recipe said the dumplings should be put into a pot of boiling water.
Through my tears, I noticed a P.S. from my grandmother that was still written in the recipe:
“And here is the number of Mrs. Jadzia. You can order dumplings with home delivery from her.”
I picked up the phone and dialed the number with resignation.
