Symon Sundays: Pierogies

I've been really looking forward to this week's selection for Symon Sudays. Natashya, at Living in the Kitchen with Puppies, selected the pierogies from Live to Cook. Michael Symon's version was for Beef Cheek Pierogies with Mild Mushrooms and Horseradish. Some possible meat substitutions he gave were beef shoulder or pork shoulder, but since we're eating little meat these days, I chose to do two simple vegetarian versions. I made a classic potato and cheese filled one and our unanimous favorite, a Portabella mushroom stuffed one.

This is one time consuming recipe! Even though I skipped the lengthy beef braising step and the days-long Horseradish Creme Fraiche process, it still took me over 3 hours of hands on time to make these. As I was in the final stages, I was convinced they weren't going to come out, and it would be all for nothing. Luckily I was wrong! Mine might have been rather misshapen,but they were soooo good.

You can find the original recipes by visiting Natashya's blog. I followed the basic recipe for making the dough, and forming and cooking (boiling then sauteing) the pierogies. Since half of mine already contained mushrooms, I didn't bother topping mine the seared wild mushrooms. In the place of the horseradish creme fraiche, I mixed up store-bought horseradish cream and light sour cream, which I thinned with a few splashes of half and half. It was a prefect compliment to the portabella pierogies.

If you want to make my vegetarian fillings, here is what I did:

For the potato-cheese version: Peel, cube and steam or boil 2 large baking potatoes until tender, then mash. Saute 1 small diced yellow onion until soft. Combine potatoes, sauteed onions and 1/2 cup of sharp cheddar. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

For the Portabella version: Coarsely chop 3 Portabella mushrooms. Saute mushrooms in a small amount of olive oil, seasoned with 1 tsp fresh thyme and salt and pepper, until , working in batches if necessary to avoid overcrowding.