PEROGIES and ADVENTURE

Both cooking and eating should be exciting.  

If a restaurant offers something  I have never tasted, that is what I choose.   Years or even decades later I still savour the memories . . .  smoked eel at Simpsons-on-the-Strand (London), kidneys at Chez Moi  (London), ris de veau (Paris), cherry vareniki at Amadeus in Lviv, salo wrapped around raw garlic at the Grand (Lviv).   

The brevity of the recipe for Vareniki with PoppySeeds in Ukrainian Cuisine intrigued me.  How could this possibly work?

1 ½ cups poppy-seeds,      ½ cup sugar

Cover poppy-seeds with hot water and soak for 15 min.  Put on heat and let it reach a boil (but do not boil).  Drain and mash.  Stir in sugar.  Fill vareniki.  

     

Mash?   I tried grinding with a food processor.  

 Next, Bryan tried a marble rolling-pin; that was good for laughs.   

Bryan said, “These perogies should be like crunching insects.” 

So Bryan got to do the taste test.  First bite:  “Surprisingly good,” he said.   

Next bite, “Very good!”  . . .    Later, he even went back to the bowl for a cold one.  

* These perogies also were very nice when served for breakfast along with bacon and scrambled eggs.