The Slavic east and the Balkans · Volume 27, Steppe, Forest and the Reclaimed Kitchen
Varenyky
Ukraine
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- Not statedNo source states a time and the atlas has too few comparable dishes to estimate one.
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
A plain dough, roughly 400 to 500g flour to 200 to 300ml hot water and salt, or a softer kefir-and-bicarbonate variant needing 20 to 30 minutes' rest. Rolled thin, cut into circles, filled with a teaspoon of potato and cottage cheese, or sour cherry for a sweet version, sealed by hand and boiled five to seven minutes, traditionally served with melted butter, fried onion or soured cream.
As tradition built it
Boiled 5 to 7 minutes.
Ingredients
For the dough
- 400 to 500 g flour
- 200 to 300 ml hot water
- 1/2 tsp salt
For the filling
- 1 tsp per dumpling potato and cottage cheese, for a savoury filling
- 1 tsp per dumpling sour cherry, for a sweet version
To serve
- to taste melted butter
- to taste fried onion
- to taste soured cream
Method
- Mix the flour, hot water and salt into a dough, or for a softer alternative use a kefir-and-bicarbonate-of-soda dough, needing 20 to 30 minutes' rest before rolling.
- Roll the dough thin and cut it into circles.
- Fill each circle with a teaspoon of potato and cottage cheese, or sour cherry for a sweet version.
- Seal each dumpling by hand.
- Boil five to seven minutes.
- Serve with melted butter, fried onion or soured cream.
What a modern chef changes
A vacuum-rested dough, a smoked-salo filling and a pan-seared finish
Rung 4
Method
- Rest the dough under vacuum for at least an hour rather than a simple bench rest, relaxing the gluten far more evenly so it rolls thinner without tearing.
- Fill half the batch with a potato-and-smoked-salo purée, the salo cold-smoked per rung four before blending, giving a filling with real depth rather than plain mash.
- Finish by pan-searing the boiled dumplings briefly in the salo's own rendered fat for a lightly crisped skin.
- Serve with a quick soured-cherry gastrique built from the sweet filling's own fruit, sharpened with a little of the varenyky cooking water, rather than a plain dusting of sugar.