Recipe: Purple Polish Savory Cabbage Pierogi

Purple Polish Savory Cabbage Pierogi

Happy & Healthy Cooking,

Fun-Da-Mentals Kitchen Skills

• chop :

  to cut something into small, rough pieces using a blade.

• sauté :

  to cook or brown food in a pan containing a small quantity of butter, oil, or other fat.

• shape :

  to form food into a specific shape by hand or with a cutting tool—examples are cutting cookie dough into shapes with cookie cutters, forming bread dough into a roll or crescent shape, and rolling ground meat into a meatball.

• squeeze :

  to firmly press or twist a food with fingers, hands, or a device to remove its liquid, like shredded potatoes, frozen and thawed spinach, or tofu.

What are Pierogi?

• "Pierogi" (pih-ROH-ghee) are delicate dumplings that use unleavened dough (a dough made without yeast, such as flatbread). They were initially thought to be food for peasants, but the dumplings became popular and spread throughout all the social classes, including nobles. 
• Pierogi are stuffed with endless fillings such as mashed potatoes, farmer's cheese, sauerkraut, cabbage, mushrooms, spinach, ground beef, and even healthy grains or legumes such as millet, buckwheat, or lentil. Since you are only limited by your imagination when it comes to pierogi fillings, you can find varieties from sweet to salty to spicy.
• Pierogi is Poland's national dish and is enjoyed year-round by all ages. Pierogi have been made in Poland since the 13th century, with some suggesting that the original form came from China through Italy during the Marco Polo expeditions. 
• It would be naive to think pierogi are not distant cousins of the world's other dumpling varieties, from Chinese dumplings to Italian "agnolotti" and "ravioli."
• In earlier times, pierogi were prepared for holidays such as Christmas, Easter, and weddings. Each holiday had its own designated pierogi ingredients. Most Polish families still enjoy the traditional cabbage, sauerkraut, and mushroom pierogi on Christmas Eve as part of their "Wigilia Dinner." You might enjoy our SFC recipe, Purple Polish Savory Cabbage Pierogi.

Let's Learn About Poland!

• Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It shares a border with Belarus, the Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine. It also borders the Baltic Sea.
• The capital and largest city is Warsaw, and the official language is Polish. The government is a unitary parliamentary republic with a president, prime minister, and parliament. It has 16 administrative provinces called "voivodeships." The Polish flag is designed with two horizontal stripes of white and red, which are officially Poland's national colors.
• Poland is part of the European Union but uses the "złoty" as its currency, not the euro.
• The country's land area is 120,733 square miles, slightly smaller than the US State of New Mexico, and its population is over 38 million. 
• Poland's central and northern region is part of the Central European Plain, which is flat, but the southern area has hills and mountains. Mountain ranges in the south include the Sudetes and the Carpathians. In addition, it has 440 miles of shoreline along the Baltic Sea.
• Its climate is generally temperate, with wet, cold winters and mild summers. 
• Poland has 23 national parks. Two of these are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
• Poland produces agricultural products such as potatoes, fruits, vegetables, wheat, poultry, eggs, pork, and dairy. It is also involved in the manufacturing sector, producing iron, steel, coal, chemicals, and machinery.
• Poland's national symbol is the white-tailed eagle. Every year on November 11, the Polish people celebrate their 1918 independence from the German, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian Empires.
• One of Poland's most famous scientists was Nicolaus Copernicus. He was a 16th-century astronomer and mathematician who was the first to say that the Sun was at the center of our solar system (what they thought was the universe at that time) rather than the Earth. 
• In the early 20th century, the Polish scientist Maria Skłodowska-Curie, who lived and worked in France, was the first person and only woman to win two Nobel Prizes, the first in physics and the second in chemistry.
• Mariusz Pudzianowski, from Poland, won the World's Strongest Man championships five times, more than any other competitor in the event's history.
• The wisent (European bison) and the white stork are considered national animals of Poland.
• "Pierogi" (filled dumpling), "kielbasa" (meat sausage), "bigos" (meat stew with sauerkraut), and "babka" (sweet braided bread) are well-known Polish dishes. The "bagel" came from Jewish communities in Poland and was mentioned in written material from 1610 in Kraków. These foods and many others came with Jewish immigrants to the United States.

What's It Like to Be a Kid in Poland?

• Polish children attend school from October through June, with a summer break from July through September. The English language is a compulsory subject in school. 
• Kids may play "dwa ognie" (d'vah ohg-nee-ay), a game of dodgeball, "berek" (BEHR-eck), a game of tag, or "chowanego" (hoh-VAN-ay-go), or hide and seek. They also may participate in various sports, like football (soccer), volleyball, track and field, swimming, or karate.
• In Poland, a child's Name Day may be celebrated in addition to their birthday. 

• Kids may enjoy going with their families to the Copernicus Science Centre in Warsaw with its hundreds of exhibits, theaters, and planetarium. They may also go hiking or skiing together in the mountains or visit a water park, amusement park, or dinosaur park!

• For a quick meal or snack, Polish kids may eat chicken or tomato soup, Polish pancakes or potato pancakes, or "pierogi" (filled dumplings). For a sweet snack or dessert, kids may enjoy "paczki," a filled yeast doughnut, "sernik," a cheesecake, and "makowiec," a sweet poppy seed roll cake.