Vareniki

Vareniki

Vareniki (varenyky) are the kind of dumplings with different fillings. They are the essential part of Ukrainian cuisine. They are cooked for Christmas, Easter, christening party, birthday party, religious holidays and weekend dinners. In Ukrainian tradition on the second day of wedding celebration the newlywed bride is served vareniki for breakfast. Vareniki is a true family meal that makes all the family gather for dinner. It is one of the top popular meals in Ukraine. Hardly any Ukrainian or Russian writer would miss a colourful description of how vareniki are cooked or eaten in his vision of Ukrainian lifestyle and habits.
Ukrainians are re so much fond of this meal that erected a monument to vareniki. It shows Cossack Mamay (a Ukrainian folklore hero whose fondness for vareniki was narrated by both Taras Shevchenko and Nikolay Gogol) eating vareniki from an earthenware pot, with a huge crescent-shaped varenik behind him. It is located in Cherkasy, Ukraine.

The key feature of well-prepared vareniki is about 1-2 mm thin unleavened dough. The fillings vary from sweet to savoury: cherry or other fruit, cottage cheese, mashed potatoes, cabbage, liver, fish (salmon and pike-perch) and mushrooms.
The name varenik (varenyk), in fact, simply means "boiled thing," from the adjective "varenyy". Sometimes vareniki are not boiled but cooked with steam to make them big and juicy.

A sample recipe:

Ingredients:

Dough.

Preparation:

Like pelmeni, making vareniki consists of 2 steps- making the dough and making the filling. The dough is very simple: combine the flour and salt, mix in the oil, beaten eggs and water and knead the dough until smooth. Cover and let the dough rest for at least 15 minutes.

For vareniki with mashes potatoes take one onion, peel and chop it, saute until translucent in fat or vegetable oil, mix with mashed potatoes, add salt and pepper.
For vareniki with cottage cheese, mince the cottage cheese (curds), add butter, a pinch of salt and mix all the ingredients thoroughly.

Roll out the dough into a very thing layer, cut out round pieces (usually with a cup or glass), grease each piece with beaten egg white, wrap the filling in and stick the edges with fingertips. Put into boiling water and cook till they go up to the surface. Take out with perforated spoon and serve hot.

Vareniki are typically topped with fried salo bits (shkvarky) and onions and accompanied with sour cream. Sweet, fruit-filled vareniki are served with sour cream and sugar. Vareniki can also be prepared in big amounts and preserved in a freezer.

Another variant of this meal is lenivye vareniki (Lazy vareniki). They are a kind of dumplings made by mixing farmer cheese with egg and flour into quick dough. They are very similar to Russian galushki. The dough is formed into a sausage 2 cm thick and then cut diagonally, quickly boiled in salted water and served with sour cream or melted butter. It takes about 15 minutes to cook the meal, which explains its name.

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