Thursday, December 20, 2012

Good Day for Soup!

Each week during Advent I've been bringing soup to the church soup supper before service. The first week was my Italian Tortellini, last week was black bean. This week, I got a bit creative and created a pot of pierogi soup. Now, for those of you with some Eastern European heritage, your ears will perk up and you'll say "huh? pierogi soup? how do you do that?" Others will say "what the heck is a pierogi?"

A pierogi is a dumpling of sorts. The pastry crust is made with sour cream, and it usually is filled with mashed potatoes and cheese, or onions, or sauerkraut. We have a restaurant here in Phoenix -- Pittsburgh Willy's -- that makes homemade pierogi each week. Alas, I forgot to run over there before the holidays, so the frozen Mrs. T's will have to do.

Barb's Pierogi Soup
1 link polish sausage, cut in half then cut into 1/2 inch pieces
one onion, sliced
salt
3 T. butter
2 qt. chicken stock


1 t. caraway seed
one can sauerkraut, drained, rinsed and squeezed
one box Mrs. T's pierogies
1 c. sour cream

In a skillet, saute the sausage in a bit of vegetable oil until browned. Remove from pan and drain on paper towels. Wipe out skillet. Melt 1 T. butter in the skillet and saute the onion, sprinkled with a bit of salt, over low heat until caramelized, about 20 minutes, stirring often. In a large Dutch oven or Crock-Pot, get the chicken stock simmering. Add in the sausage, sauerkraut, caraway seed and onions when they are done. Wipe out the skillet again, and melt 2 T. butter and saute pierogi according to package instructions, about 8 minutes (I also add about 1 T. water, and cover pierogi for about half of that cooking time to steam and brown).  To serve, put 2 pierogi in bowl, ladle soup over, serve with a dollop of sour cream.



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