Preparing the Victuals

Today I am preparing my freezer for the coming weeks of winter hardship. I guess I never really got over that Y2K scare, or growing up with so much competition at the dinner table. Now I have a tendency to amass huge stores of food, or I totally FREAK OUT

It's actually not a bad system, because I sometimes get slammed with work and I can still throw a decent dinner together on the fly before rushing off to report a story. So every once-in-a-while I spend an afternoon making perogies and pizza crusts to freeze. I wish I had figured these out in college!

Follow these steps and you too can make 45 Perogies (5-7 meals) and 3-4 pizza crusts for about $8!

For the perogies you need a pack of wonton wrappers ($1.99 at my grocery for 45ish wrappers) and some instant mashed potatoes ($1). It takes two packs to use all the wrappers, but I like filling the extra ones with random things on hand like chocolate chips and cream cheese!

For pizza crusts you need 3 cups of flour, a packet of fast-rising yeast (2 1/4 tsp), a pinch of sugar, and some oil. This is a recipe for grilled crusts, which I make on a pancake griddle.

This is some major multi-tasking so I hope it's not confusing. First I start with the pizza dough. With any yeast you want to get it going in 1 cup of warm water with a pinch of sugar or dash of honey to feed the yeast. Mix the sugar into the water and then pour the yeast on top and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Next you need two cups of water for the potatoes. Boil the water. Don't throw it at people, even if they are asking for it.

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees F while you're boiling the water. When it hits 200 turn the oven off. This makes a nice warm place for the pizza dough to rise. Pour the boiling water into a glass bowl.

Then add the potatoes! It don't work so well the other way around.

Cover the potatoes for 3 minutes or so, and then remove the lid and give them a quick stir so they can cool. By now the yeast mixture should be about ready.

Measure 3 cups of flour into a bowl. By spooning the flour into the cup instead of scooping, you can avoid sifting, or so says a little old Italian lady on PBS.

Add a little salt, mix it into the four, and hollow out a little well in the middle to pour your liquids.

The yeast mixture will get foamy on top because it releases gases when it eats the sugar. Add two tablespoons or so of oil and mix it into the yeast water.

Pour the liquid into your well.

And stir in circles until all of the flour joins the dough in the middle of the bowl.

It will look kind of dry but kneading it will bring it all together.

You have to knead it for five minutes. I always set a timer because I get really tired after two minutes and convince myself it's been five.

You pour the bowl onto the counter and flour your hands and the counter as needed so the dough doesn't stick to everything. Don't over flour! A little bit of sticking is ok. Kneading is basically punching the dough and folding it over on itself. You will get dirty!

Eventually it gets very elastic and smooth.

Really use the heal of your hand to get in there.

Trust me, you want that timer. If you're doing it right, kneading is pretty tough.

Flipping finally... Quickly wipe out the bowl you mixed the dough in, pour 2 Tblsp of oil in the bottom, and move it around the bowl so the sides are coated at least half way up the bowl.

Take your precious dough and put it into the oiled bowl. Turn the dough ball around so all sides of it are coated in oil and the bowl is thoroughly greased. You don't want it drying out or sticking while it's rising.

Cover the bowl with a damp towel and place in the turned off but warm oven.

Set a timer for an hour and a half. Don't forget or you'll be sorry! No, not really, but I always forget when I put it in. I'd be lost without timers.

While your dough is rising you can assemble the perogies. You will need a little bowl of water, a cookie sheet to work on, seran wrap, the potatoes and wonton skins, and since I don't have another cookie sheet, I use a cutting board to hold the perogies I make.

To the couch!

Lay out a couple of the wonton skins, but not too many because they dry out quick!

Put some mashed potatoes on half like so. Don't overfill them! It's also easier to seal them if you try to keep the mashed potatoes far from the edges, and don't overfill them! No need to be a hero.

Now you want to wet the edges of the squares. If I was making them for guests, I might use a spoon and some beaten egg whites, but these are for me so I'm just going to use my fingers.

Press one corner onto the corner diagonally opposite from it.

Then pick it up and use your thumb and forefinger to seal one side first.

Holding the sealed side up and down between your thumb and forefinger, begin sealing the top. Make sure to remove any air bubbles before you seal it completely! This step was the hardest part for me to learn. Be patient and do whatever feels comfortable to you. I pinch between my thumb and forefinger to make sure it's closed and then pinch the outermost edges with my fingertips until I feel the dough squish together under my colossal grip.

When you get a whole tray of them made, cover them well in Seran wrap.

Place the tray flat in the freezer. Leave them on there overnight, and then transfer them to a bag or just wrap them in the seran wrap better so you can get your tray back to use. 

After an hour and a half my dough has definitely doubled in size. Get your pancake griddle out and preheat it to 350-375

Use the hugest awesomest knife you got and cut the dough at least in half! I like thin crust pizza so I cut it into 4 balls.

I learned a little trick for rolling out pizza dough. Instead of flouring your work surface, oil it. Then the dough sticks to the counter but not the rolling pin and doesn't keep contracting back in.

Roll it out between 1/4 and 1/2 inch. Just be careful not to get too thin because you have to pick it up and get it onto your griddle.

Pick it up and move it quick, and don't worry about wrinkles. You'll have about 10 seconds to smooth it out on the griddle before it starts to crisp. Yeah, so really, just get it on there QUICK. It's just pizza, it doesn't have to be perfect.

The dough makes a lovely sizzle from the oil on the counter and the dough. I like to pour a little garlic salt on the top before I flip it. The cook time depends on your thickness, but I expect it will take 5-8 minutes on each side. You can lift up a corner and check how golden brown it is.

After making all 4 crusts and letting them cool a little, I wrap each one in it's own bag. I wish I could think of a better bag to store them in, but I do recook them for about 10 min at 400 after I cover them in sauce and toppings, so I try not to think about it too much.

I throw them all in the freezer and pull them out and top as needed.

Oh my, what's this? My sack of Perogies from last week! We better fry some up then eh?

Butter!

The heat is at med-high. The skillet needs to be coated in oil and butter. Good luck to you non-stickers.

Brown one side and flip them over. Brown the other side too! They cook pretty quick.

Dump a little cold water into the pan (2-3 Tablespoons) and the steam created will ensure they are hot all the way through and unstick them from the pan. After the water cooks off they are done!

The final touch- sour cream, cheese, more butter, bacon, prime rib- you know, whatever you like! 

A presentation for perogies:

 *Put some spaghetti sauce on the bottom of a wide bowl or a plate (If it's cold you may want to warm it, but if it's room temp it will heat up from the warm perogies).  

*Fry some perogies and then place them on top of the sauce so that the bottoms are swimming but they aren't covered. 

*Grate or sprinkle some parmesan cheese, salt and black pepper, oregano, and drizzle olive oil on top. 

 *Place under broiler on high for 2 minutes or until the tops are crispy and carefully remove hot plate. 

*Put a cooler plate underneath, or transfer the whole mess to a new plate, and you're ready for a fine Italian-style meal!