Peas, Pierogi, and Patriots

Two weeks with Miami visitors gave us many opportunities to cook and eat together and celebrate a holiday

Driving from New York City across I-80 we encountered a great farmers market in Stroudsburg. PA.

Al and his family, including his wife Mary Elizabeth, her son Miguel, daughter Larissa, and their 2-year-old Cormac (aka Coco), arrived the same day we returned from the JFK pick-up in NYC. On the way across I-80, we stopped at the Monroe Farmers Market in Stroudsburg and bought some beautiful vegetables, including mushrooms, peas, beets, collards, and Hakurei turnips. Good eating ahead!

Screenshot of a recipe from the What’s Cooking?! iBook that I made with Lilah in 2015.

I knew Mary would like our dinner the first night—Shrimp and Grits. The tops of the turnips and beets went into the pot with collards, bacon, and onion and cooked for an hour until silky. The beets were roasted until soft and then dressed minimally with a splash of golden balsamic, salt, and pepper. They were served over yogurt loaded with pressed garlic and then topped with lots of fresh herbs—thyme, tarragon, chives, and mint.

Greens, grits, and shrimp with a roasted beet salad.

The next day, Larissa and Miguel went to camp for the week, and we went to a Wailers concert at Tussey Mountain. The showers held off for the most part, and everyone had a good time.

At the Wailers concert, between showers.

Other activities the first week included several trips to Boal City, meeting some goats in Belleville, and trying to track down fresh pasta from elusive Bob Ricketts of Fasta Pasta for Hay and Straw.

Fresh peas and mushrooms made a delicious Hay and Straw.

It is an iconic dish I first had in the 70s when my friend Terry Walker’s boyfriend Paul Crouch made it for us. He made the pasta from scratch and rolled it out with a wine bottle (he was trying to woo Terry, but he made a big impression on me.) The green pasta represents the green hay of summer, and the white pasta represents the dried straw. I never obtained fresh fettucini for the dish, but the dried versions I used were quite good. The mushrooms from the market went in the sauce, along with frizzled prosciutto and blanched fresh peas. I had been hungry for the dish for 50 years, and it was perfect, along with some ripe cantaloupe, with and without prosciutto, and the first tomato bruschetta of the season.

While we were meeting goats in Belleville, Rose and Joe were at the preview for the X Games in Ventura and eating oysters.

Al requested that I teach Mary how to make pierogi, and that was a great activity when my brother Geoff and his wife Barbra visited. The recipe is involved, so having many hands makes the work lighter. We used mashed potato and mild cheese for one of the fillings, and a dense Mushroom Duxelles for the other. To complete the Polish theme, I also showed Mary how to make Haluski, sauteed cabbage and onion, generally, but the onions were on the side to make it palatable for my bro, who is onion and garlic averse. Kielbasa and Kraut was the super simple main dish, and the dinner was delicious despite lacking any color whatsoever.

Pierogi party with Barbra Quinn rolling dough and Mary and Larissa stuffing and crimping.

We picnicked at Whipples Dam during the week with a flotilla of watercraft, enjoying the excellent weather. On the 4^th we went to a party at Brendyn Dornich’s house close to the stadium for good fireworks viewing. It was very hot that day, so we cooled off in the afternoon near the reservoir in Shingletown, where Coco enjoyed swinging at Sam and Nina’s. I located some excellent hot dogs for the grill and made an eggplant caviar dish garnished with little goat cheese balls rolled in snipped bergamot flowers and topped with a borage blossom from Nina’s yard.

The 4th of July in State College, PA

The 4^th of July is an excellent day for Jenny Fisher’s Blueberry Kuchen. It’s easy and very good, and it won second place one year in the Jamestown, Colorado pie contest. Miguel and Coco dusted the top with powdered sugar and decorated it with little American flags.

Brendyn Dornich, right, introduces his three friends from Bolivia to Mary and Al while Larissa corrals Coco. This is a bilingual 4th of July party in the Spirit of America.

It was a fine holiday, a wonderful two weeks to connect with our Florida people, and now we can ease into the remainder of summer at the swimming hole.

Blueberry Kuchen

Makes one 9-inch tart

Crust

  1 cup flour

  2 tablespoons granulated sugar

  1/8 teaspoon salt

  ½ cup butter                                                                             

  1-2 tablespoons vinegar

  Sift together flour, sugar, and salt. Cut in butter into pea-sized pieces. Sprinkle with vinegar and mix with your hands to form dough. You can also cut the butter in with a food processor. Press into a 9-inch removable-bottom pan.

Filling

  1 cup granulated sugar

  3 tablespoons flour

  ¼ teaspoon cinnamon

  2 cups fresh blueberries

Topping

1 cup blueberries

a couple of strawberries and powdered sugar for garnish—or little American flags

Preheat oven to 400°F.  Prepare crust.  Mix filling ingredients together and pour into crust. Bake for 50-60 minutes (until bubbly). Remove and sprinkle an additional 1 cup of fresh blueberries onto the kuchen. Cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar and dot with strawberries for color or decorate with American flags.

Pierogi

Makes about 7 dozen pierogi

Dough: 6 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 stick melted unsalted butter

½ cup milk

3 whole eggs

1 cup sour cream

Sift flour and salt into a bowl.  Add melted butter, milk, eggs, and sour cream.  Mix to form a dough that is easy to handle.  Knead on a board for a few minutes.  Divide dough into 6 pieces and roll out one piece at a time on a lightly floured surface. Cut out a small (roughly 2 inches in diameter) circle using a cup or a biscuit cutter.  Place one heaping teaspoon of filling onto the circle.  Dampen the edge of the circle with water and fold over.  Seal with a fork.  Cook pierogi 12 at a time in a large kettle of boiling salted water.  Boil for about five minutes.  After cooling, freeze them to store.

To serve:  Fry with butter and onions until the onions are caramelized and the pierogi start to brown.  Serve with sour cream or Greek yogurt on the side.

Fillings: Mashed Russet potato with grated Colby cheese and Mushroom Duxelles were the ones we used, but here is another recipe for a sauerkraut filling:

Sauerkraut Filling

6 dried mushrooms (Polish ones, if possible)

1 tablespoon butter

1 onion, finely diced

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

One-pound bag of sauerkraut

Hydrate the dried mushrooms by pouring boiling water to cover them.  Allow to stand for 15 minutes.  Melt the butter in a frying pan and sauté the onions until they are slightly caramelized.  Remove the mushrooms from the soaking liquid and chop them finely.  Add to the sautéed onions and season with salt and pepper. Add the sauerkraut and cook to combine the flavors. 

The recipe was adapted from Seasons of Central Pennsylvania’s Marty and Vicky Mazur’s Pierogi, whose recipe was handed down by Marty’s Grandma Odziemiec.