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Published: February 3rd 2006
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Perogy Making with Alexis
One of the conditions of my perogy-making lesson was I had to wear the hat and apron. It helps with the perogy making you see, kind of like how those crazy-haired troll dolls help you win at Bingo. While I was back in the unseasonably tropic City of Edmonton over Christmas, I had the good fortune of having a perogy feast at the Hlushak residence. My fondness for the ethnic dish was discovered while working at the Ukrainian Village, and since then I’ve had a lot of perogies of both the store-bought and home-made variety. But in my mind, the best perogies are those made by Alexis Hlushak. I couldn’t say for certain why I think Alexis’ perogies are my favourite; if I had to guess I’d wager that it’s because she uses that special little ingredient we like to call love. At any rate, Alexis was gracious enough to invite me over for a plate of my favourite Ukrainian dumplings (one plate turned into two or three, I believe), and not only did I get my fill of Hlushak perogies, Alexis also gave me a refresher in basic perogy-making (Alexis and I had a perogy-making day a few years back that was a lot of fun).
I must confess though that when I said Alexis invited me over for a perogy feast, what I really meant was Alexis invited me over because I not-so-subtly mentioned that I
Perogy Making with Alexis
Look at that concentration. The Author didn't even loose his perogy-making cool when the Kels made a silly pose for this photo. was interested in brushing up on my perogy making technique. And of course, when one makes perogies, one gets to eat perogies, so it was a winning situation all around. Anyway, the method to my madness (besides loading up on perogies) was I wanted to share the joy that is home made perogies with my friends in Hiroshima. I’m often asked what kinds of foods stand out for me as being “Edmontonian.” Perogies are what come to mind. So with Alexis’ help, I returned to Hiroshima with her time tested methods fresh in my mind. All I needed was an opportunity to put them to use.
Opportunity came when Ben and I decided to host a pot luck at my place last weekend. Without a doubt, my contribution would be perogies. However, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous about how they’d turn out. It would be the first time I’d make perogies on my own without the patient guidance of Alexis. I am a good student though, and Alexis is a good teacher. Consequently, I was really impressed with how well things proceeded initially. My dough looked good and had the right consistency. My
Making Perogies in Hiroshima
This is the result of my first solo perogy-making effort. Note my rookie mistake. Crammed into that tray like that, the perogies all fushed together like those bottles and clay tiles over at the Atomic Bomb Museum. Oh well, I'll know for next time. potato and cottage cheese (I was nearly stunned to find cottage cheese in Japan, a country not noted for its selection of dairy goods) filling smelt and, more importantly, tasted great. And after a few awkward initial perogies, I found my form and was soon pinching perogies with ease. I spent most of the afternoon happily rolling, filling, and pinching perogies, amassing quite a few dozen. Putting the finished but uncooked perogies aside, I then turned my attention to getting the pad ready for company.
Shortly after six, the guests started showing up with their array of tasty fare. Sonia, the reigning Queen of Baking, brought pizza scrolls, which were rolls made with pizza ingredients and kind of looked like cinnamon buns but without the cinnamon and raisins. Ryan brought fresh mikans (Japanese oranges), while Anne and Chad came packing with a delicious Korean Noodle dish. Shannon and Peter brought their infamous bannock. And Ben put in an order with Fresta, the local grocery store, for some sushi rolls. What a guy! Brian did something similar and came with his custom order of salads and takoyaki (octopus balls. No, not that kind. Takoyaki are bits of octopus backed inside dough balls). Wendy, Miyuki, and Chris, meanwhile, made sure our snacking needs were taken care of. As you can appreciate, we were not left wanting for food. Unfortunately, as I was getting my pot luck contribution ready for cooking, I discovered my unfortunate rookie perogy-making mistake: I had stacked the uncooked perogies on top of each other. The individual perogies that I had laboured so hard to make and put so much love into had become one giant conglomerate of dough and mashed potato. This was a very frustrating discovery. However, Sonia consoled me somewhat with a story of how she had made a similar mistake while making ravioli. It’s hard for me to believe that a chef as talented as Sonia could make such a mistake, but whether or not she made the story up to ease my suffering didn’t really matter. It worked all the same. To have someone whose cooking I admire as much as Sonia’s even suggest the possibility that she could make such a mistake made me feel less stupid. Sonia is doubly awesome too, because not only did she empathize with me, she was also instrumental in helping me save some of my perogies. I’d estimate that we managed to get half the batch separated and cooked up. So everyone was able to sample some of my perogies. And to my relief and satisfaction, they were well received. People were even asking if there were more. It was flattering to hear this, but it was also a disappointing reminder of my foolishness: yes, there are more, but they’re currently one big lump on the kitchen counter. Still, thanks to the aforementioned array of food supplied by those in attendance, everyone managed to eat their fill, which was good because you never want to leave a pot luck feeling anything less than needing a pair of trousers with an elastic waist.
As the night of eating and visiting drew to a close and people began thinking about making that long journey home, I was thanked by my departing guests for the enjoyable evening. And I’d have to agree: it was an enjoyable evening. Not bad considering it was not only my first time making perogies solo, it was also my first time hosting a pot luck. However, I am not so presumptuous as to take sole credit for its success. Rather, like any pot luck, the success of this one can be attributed to two factors. One of course was the food. No problem in that regard. We had plenty of it and it was all very delicious. The second factor would be the people. This is a refrain I often use, but only because I believe it to be unquestionably true: I am lucky to know so many wonderful people. And that so many of those people—the ones who are based in Hiroshima, at any rate—were able to pop on down to Funairi on a cold January night was really a blessing. Because the people, just as much as the food, are what make a great pot luck.
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