Polish Pierogi

Christmas is fast approaching and with the shopping, busy school schedule, and prepping for vacation, I am finding myself slightly overwhelmed. This will be my third Christmas away from my family back in Canada and it’s the one holiday I have the hardest time missing. Being in Korea hasn’t been all that difficult for me as far as adjusting to living in a different country and I haven’t had a difficult time with homesickness, but Christmas is my favourite holiday and there are so many things I miss. I miss our annual tree trimming party and helping prepare all the wonderful trays of food, the smell of a real tree filling our living room, the beautiful flower arrangements my dad makes every year, the decorations…so many decorations, my family, and last but not least, our traditional Polish Christmas Eve dinner.

Our family Christmas Tree a few years ago.

Every year on Christmas Eve, my mother’s side of the family used to get together at my Babcia and Dziadzia’s house to celebrate. We would eat a feast of fish and at least four kinds of pierogi that my Babcia spent all day making. When I was younger I didn’t care for fish, so that meant my plate was filled with pierogi. In fact, my cousin and I used to compete to see who could eat the most. I’d like to think I won every year, but who knows. Now that my grandparents have passed away, and the children have grown, the tradition has lost some of its magic. My mom still makes pierogi and my cousin has made some too, but none will ever be as fantastic as my Babcia’s. Every year that I have been away from home that tradition is the one thing I miss the most.

This year, I will be in Korea on Christmas Eve, so the Simmering Seoulmate and I spend one afternoon making some pierogi, so that I can have a little piece of home this Christmas. We made the classic potato and cheese filled ones and saved some of the mashed potato and made some feta and spinach ones, too. Check out the recipe below to see how to make these polish delights! Merry Christmas.

Polish Pierogi

Ingredients

Dough 4 1/2 cups flour 3/4 cup warm milk 3/4 cup warm water 2 egg yolks 3 tbsp melted butter 1 tsp salt

Potato and Cheese Filling 1 onion, finely chopped 1/4 cup butter 6-8 potatoes 1 cup grated cheddar cheese salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Dough: In a large bowl, combine egg yolks, milk, water, and butter mixing well. Stir in flour and salt. Knead for 5 minutes on a lightly floured surface or until ingredients are well combined and the dough is smooth and soft. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rest for 30 minutes.

Filling: Meanwhile, peel and cut potatoes into large pieces. Place potatoes in a large pot of water. Bring to a boil and cook for 15-20 minutes or until soft. Mash potatoes in the pot with a potato masher. Sauté onions in butter over medium heat until they are soft and clear. About 2-3 minutes. Add them to the mashed potatoes. Stir in cheddar cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let filling cool.

Once the dough has had time to rest, working with half the dough at a time roll it on a floured surface to about 3mm thick. Cut circles in the dough using a round cookie cutter (or if you don’t have one, use a cup like I did).  Place a tablespoon of filling in the center of each circle. Fold over creating a half circle and pinch the edges closed. If eating right away, cook pierogi 10 at a time in a large pot of boiling water for about 5 minutes or less. You will know they are ready when they float to the top of the water. Stir a few times to prevent sticking. Serve with sautéed onions and sour cream. If you are freezing them like we did, place in a single layer on a parchment paper liner cookie sheet and freeze overnight. In the morning, move frozen pierogi to a zippered freezer bag. If cooking from frozen, they may need a few extra minutes in the boiling water. Enjoy!

Makes about 6 dozen.

Chicken and Basil Pizza

Yesterday, the Simmering Seoulmate and I were craving a nice homemade pizza. We had some red onion, red peppers and fresh basil left in the refrigerator, so we decided to combine them. The basil was a lucky find from a small grocery store at D-Cube in Sindorim. I’ve added it to pasta dishes and really enjoyed it. Fresh herbs are hard to come by in my area, so I’d hate to see them go to waste. We also found fennel! I can’t wait to make one of our favorite sausage and fennel pasta dishes soon.

I hope you are having a great month and enjoying some cooler weather. This pizza is easy and delicious. Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 ball of pizza dough (I used this recipe from Bobby Flay which makes enough dough for 2 pizzas)
1/4 cup tomato sauce
2 cups shredded pizza cheese
2 chicken breasts cooked and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 red onion cut into thin slices

1 roasted red pepper finely chopped
handful of fresh basil

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 ̊F (200 ̊C). Roll out your dough and place it in your desired pan. Spread tomato sauce over the dough. Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the pizza. Add red onion and roasted red pepper. Spoon the chicken over the pizza. Cook pizza for about 25 minutes. Add the fresh basil leaves after the pizza is removed from the oven.

Makes 1 pizza.

Twice "Baked" Potatoes

         Woooooo weee! Hello! It’s been a busy few weeks. I have been traveling to Hong Kong, catching up with work, and celebrating. The weather here is still hot, but is cool in the morning and at night. I’m looking forward to all things fall, as it’s one of my favourite times of the year.

          My trip to Hong Kong was absolutely amazing, with a minor setback (more of that later). I would 100% recommend travelling to Hong Kong if you can. The Simmering Seoulmate and I spend a wonderful five days in Hong Kong at the beginning of September. We saw amazing skyscrapers, walked around down by the harbor, sailed on a boat, rode the Peak Tram, visited the Big Buddha, and of course went to Disneyland! I wanted to do a whole post about the delicious dim sum and other Chinese food that we ate in Hong Kong, but unfortunately I came down with food poisoning the night after our big dim sum meal. But, don’t worry, I've still been cooking and have a recipe to share with you today.    

The Simmering Seoulmate and I found these enormous potatoes at our local mart. We have also made a trip to Costco recently and purchased a bunch of staples and a few other treats, like bacon and cheese! One night, he was craving twice baked potatoes so I whipped up a very indulgent version of them below which included both cheese and bacon, yummy!

So technically these are only once baked, because I was feeling lazy, but they were delicious all the same. I made the mistake of cutting the potatoes in half before microwaving them, don’t do that. The tops dried out and were a bit difficult to scoop the potatoes out of the skin.

Ingredients
2 enormous potatoes
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
3 sliced of bacon
3 tbsp milk
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
2 green onions chopped

Directions
Step 1 - Place your potatoes on a dish and stab them with a fork a few times. Microwave them for eternity, because that’s what it felt like waiting for these monsters to cook through. But, really microwave them for about 20 minutes. While the potatoes are being zapped, fry the bacon until crispy and cut up.

Step 2 – Preheat oven to 400ºF or 200 ºC. Scoop the potatoes out of the skin leaving about 1/2 a centimeter still attached and set skins aside. Add the milk, butter, salt, pepper and garlic powder to the potatoes and mash until there are no huge chunks.

Step 3 – Add the mashed potatoes and top with grated cheese, bacon pieces and green onions. Pop into the oven until the cheese is bubbly. About 10 minutes.

You can serve these with sour cream if you like, but we ate them as is. I hope you enjoy these as much as we did! Enjoy!

Makes four huge portions

Mini Beef Sliders

Feeling Blue...
Most days living abroad is great, filled with new places, new food, and new people. I have lived here for almost three full years now. I have seen places, tried food and seen many people come and go. Lately, despite all the loveliness that my experience in Korea has given me, more often than not, living abroad has been tough for me. I think I'm ready to move on from Korea and go back to the amazing support system of friends and family I have at home. However, since I'm still here until March, cooking up yummy favourites from home and writing this blog have helped me feel a tad bit better. 

With that, I'd like to share a delicious recipe for some yummy beef sliders that the Simmering Seoulmate whipped up last week. 

After you mix all of the ingredients together form them into uniformly shaped and sized mini patties.

What they look like all crisped up! Yum!

Delightful cheese!

Ready to eat!

I ate these bad boys with a delightful caesar salad.

Ingredients
400 g ground beef
1 egg
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder

Toppings used:
sliced cheddar cheese red onion
tomato
ketchup
mustard
lettuce

Directions
Put everything into a large bowl and mix well with hands. Form into 8 small patties and place on a plate or tray lined with wax paper. Put the patties into the freezer for about 30 minutes to firm up. Heat a pan over medium low, place four burgers in the pan and make sure they are cooked through, turning once. They won’t take too long because they are thin and small. After they have been cooked add a slice of cheddar to each burger and place on a cookie sheet. Put them under the broiler in an oven for about 2 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Serve on top of mini buns or dinner rolls with all of your favourite toppings. 

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

What do when you've bought a 3.78 liter jug of Franks Red Hot? Buffalo all the things!!! Besides making classic buffalo wings and chicken fingers, the Seoulmate and I decided to make a buffalo chicken pizza. 

After a long day yesterday, which included a baseball game, and dinner and drinks with friends, it was nice to relax today and cook a delightful meal at home. Surprisingly, the Simmering Seoulmate and I work extremely well together in the kitchen. We divide up the tasks and try to clean as we cook, in order to avoid a daunting mess at the end and to have available space to work in our tiny Korean kitchen. 

This pizza was super simple to make and dinner came together quite quickly. We enjoyed our slices with a nice side of broccoli, but I think it might have gone better with a nice crisp salad to balance out the spiciness of the pizza.

Ingredients

2 large chicken breasts
3/4 cup Franks Red Hot sauce
2 tbsp butter
2 cups shredded pizza cheese
1/2 of a red onion finely chopped
Italian seasoning

1 ball of pizza dough

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 ̊ F (200 ̊ C). Cut chicken into 1 inch cubes and cook in a pan over medium high heat with a little olive oil and a dash of salt and pepper.  While the chicken is cooking, prep your pan and add the dough.  Next, create your buffalo sauce. Melt the butter and stir it into the hot sauce. Pour about a 1/4 of the buffalo sauce onto the pizza crust. Sprinkle the cheese over and add red onion. Add all but about 2 tbsp of the remaining buffalo sauce to the chicken, and fold so the chicken so it is nicely coated with sauce. Spoon the chicken over the pizza and drizzle what’s left of the buffalo sauce across the top of your pizza. Cook pizza for about 25 minutes and enjoy! This pizza is quite spicy so make sure you’ve got a nice glass of something to wash it down.

Makes 1 pizza.

Chicken Tacos for Two

This is a super easy lunch that tastes delicious. I made this twice last week, because both my boyfriend and I loved it so much. Beef is pretty expensive here in Korea, so I thought chicken would be a good twist on a regular taco. I enjoy the texture of shredded chicken, but you could make a variation of chicken tacos with chopped chicken if you prefer. See how I made this yummy lunch below.

All the toppings

The yogurt I used in place of sour cream. Couldn't tell the difference!

The seasoned, shredded chicken

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
1 tbsp taco seasoning
1 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp water
5 small flour tortillas
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup lettuce
1/4 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
8 cherry tomatoes
any other taco toppings you would like

Directions
Place chicken in a pot filled with water and boil for about 15 minutes. While chicken is boiling, prepare your taco toppings. I chopped up some lettuce and cherry tomatoes, and grated about a half of a cup of cheddar cheese. I didn't have sour cream, but I found a plain yogurt at my local mart, that had a low sugar content and tasted almost identical to sour cream. Win! After your chicken is cooked through (check the inside with a knife, if it is still pink, boil for another 5-10 minutes), use two forks to shred the chicken. Heat oil in a pan over medium high heat and add shredded chicken. Sprinkle the seasoning over the chicken and add about 3 tbsp of water. Stir. Heat the chicken until it has a good crisp to it. Assemble your tacos and enjoy!

Makes 5 delicious tacos.

White Chicken and Spinach Pizza

I Love Pizza.

Seriously, though who doesn't? One of my former kindergarten students was literally the only person I'd ever met who didn't like pizza and I was both shocked and applauded. To be fair the kid was 6. He'll change his mind. 

Throw chicken, onions, and sooooooo much garlic into a pan and cook.

While that was cooking, I chopped up some delicious fresh spinach.

Then, my lovely go to guy, rolled out the pizza dough, because he's so much better at it.

Now, assemble!

 

Pop in the oven for 10ish minutes and then resist the urge to eat immediately.

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts (chopped into small pieces)
5 cloves of garlic minced
1/2 small onion chopped
sprinkle of salt and pepper
1 cup of fresh spinach chopped
1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese (or more if you love cheese!!)
2 tbsp of olive oil
1 tsp of dried basil
sprinkle of Italian seasoning
sprinkle of cayenne pepper
1 ball of pizza dough (homemade or prepacked)

Preheat oven to 475   ̊F or 220   ̊C. Toss chicken, onions, salt/pepper, and garlic in a pan with a drizzle of olive oil and cook over medium heat. Once chicken is cooked through, remove from the heat and set aside. Roll out your pizza dough and brush the olive oil across the top of your crust. Next, spread your chicken mixture evenly across the top of the pizza. Sprinkle the dried basil on top. After that, spread the chopped spinach over top. Finally, sprinkle your cheese across the top. Place the pizza into the oven about 9 - 11 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown around the edges.

Serve it up with a little parmesan, or hot sauce for extra seasoning.

Makes one pizza.

4 Cheese Baked Spin Dip

I love dips, especially ones involving cheese. I think the following dip might be my favourite kind of dip ever. Almost every time I got to a restaurant and see a spinach dip on the menu, I order it right away. The ooey gooey cheese combined with the salty chips is simply irresistible. I’ve been craving spin dip recently, but it is almost impossible to find in a restaurant in Korea. So without further adieu... enjoy this tasty treat!

Ingredients

-          200g of cream cheese (one container)

-          Large bunch of spinach

-          1 cup grated pepper jack cheese (you can use any cheese of your choice, I just like the spiciness of the    pepper jack)

-          ¼ cup of sour cream

-          ¼ cup of parmesan cheese

-          ¼ red pepper

-          ½ cup of cheddar cheese

-          Pinch of cayenne pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 205°C (400°F). Mix the cream cheese, sour cream, and parmesan cheese together in a large bowl with a wooden spoon until well combined. Wash and drain your spinach and pat dry. Don’t skip drying your spinach, because it will make your dip soggy. YUCK! Chop the spinach up, toss it into the bowl and mix well. Next, add the pepper jack and mix again.

Spoon the mix into a baking dish and top with cheddar cheese and a sprinkling of cayenne pepper. Pop it into the oven for 20 minutes. Let cool down for 5 minutes and serve with tortilla chips.