Mary's Perishke Марії Пиріжки

Mary's Perishke are the reason for smiling faces these days.  From Philadelphia to Fort McMurray friends and family are now enjoying this yummy treat, or at least planning a batch or two.  Little buns filled with cheese are most popular on the prairies, especially as a treat with dilly cream dressing. Tried and true recipe from an experienced hand!

Perishke Dough #1

1 pkg yeast
½ cup lukewarm water
4 Tbsp. sugar
1/3 cup butter (melted)
2 cups scalded and cooled milk
2 tsp. salt
3 eggs well beaten
Approximately 7 ½ cups of flour

Thoroughly dissolve 1 Tbsp. of sugar in lukewarm water and add the yeast. Let stand 15 minutes. Add the remaining 3 Tbsp. sugar, butter, milk, salt and eggs. Beat together. Gradually add enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead well. Cover and let rise till double in bulk, punch down and let rise again. Shape dough into walnut sized balls, flatten balls by hand. Place a little filling into the center. Pinch the edges together. Place on greased pan. Cover and let rise. Brush with egg wash, bake in 325 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes or until nicely browned.

To serve buns, place in a covered baking dish. Saute’ some chopped onion in butter, add dill, and whole cream; salt to taste. Pour over the buns, bake in the oven to warm about 20 minutes.

Perishke Dough #2

½ cup water
1 tsp sugar
2 pkgs. Yeast
1 ½ cups scalded and cooled milk
½ cup butter or shortening
½ cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
3 eggs
6 cups flour

Dissolve sugar in water, add yeast let proof. Add milk, butter, sugar, salt, eggs, and flour. Mix together by hand. Knead well. Cover, let rise in warm place until doubled in size. Punch down and let rise again.
Shape dough into walnut sized balls, flatten balls by hand. Place a little filling into the center. Pinch the edges together. Place on greased pan. Cover and let rise. Brush with egg wash, bake in 325 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes or until nicely browned.

Perishke Filling

2 cups dry cottage cheese or ricotta cheese
2 egg yolks
1 Tbsp chopped fresh dill
½ tsp. salt
Mix together well. Use to fill Perishke. 

Ukrainian Easter Cheese!

On this grey Calgary morning, sipping my coffee, I am thinking of spring! Spring sunshine, spring rains, spring greens.....and catching a glimpse of the baby deer born on Nose Hill park.....ah, spring forward! 

On a trip to France recently, a bunch of friends got together and spent a day with a French chef.  A walking tour of his city, the famous marketplace, and into his chef's kitchen was a short course in the French food experience.   Lucious seasonal fruit, preparing wild game, even a lesson about the proper age to kill a chicken! A deep veneration of nature, the cycles of life, and the unique flavours to appreciate at specific points in the journey really came through in the chef's lessons.  It's all about honoring the food, in every moment of its preparation.  Loving life, loving food, in this chef's eyes, means loving the animal enough to give it a full life before it can give a person the fullness of its sacrifice. 

Alex Miles/amk 2011
Author of Ces Hommes qui Cuisinent

He also gave a lesson in cheese. The wisdom goes like this - and it seems obvious - that the first cheese of the season, made from the first milk of the season, nurtured from the first green grass of springtime, is especially nutritious and healthy for the human organism.  The grasses, having rested over the fall and winter, have accumulated so many nutrients, they are particularly flavourful, and make for particularly flavourful milk, butter, cheese, etc.

In my family home, preparing for Ukrainian Easter involved preparing cheese too, from fresh whole milk.  Why cheese?  Turns out that this important food is a gift of the soil, through the life of animals, through the handiwork of man, offered in the cycle of life, death and renewal which is Easter.  Quoting Clifton Fadiman, cheese is "milk's leap to immortality." This unripened soft cheese is called boodz. Будз

Boodz: будз
3 gallons unpasteurized whole milk
1 cup buttermilk or yogurt
1/4 cheese rennet tablet
Place container with milk in sink filled with hot water.  Warm milk until lukewarm, add buttermilk and mix.  Crush tablet and dissolve in spoon of warm water.  Mix into milk mixture.  Keep container in warm water.  When milk sets, take a wooden spoon and cut through milk twice each way.  Let stand until curds separate from the whey.  Then drain in a cloth bag or strainer lined with cheesecloth.  Place in a container and leave at room temperature overnight.  In the morning, take out of bag and place in a bowl in the fridge.  It can be left out longer for a more sour boodz.

I don't know if they make rennet tablets anymore, but it does come in liquid form and I hear you can use pasteurized milk.

Another Great Ukrainian Cookbook!

Another great Ukrainian Cookbook to tell you about!

amk2012

This is the most recent publication of the Ukrainian Women's Association of Canada, Hanka Romanchych Branch in Saskatoon!  This is the home organization of the Savella Stechishin of Traditional Ukrainian Cookery fame.  And now the ladies have continued in the fine tradition, and published a beautiful, new collection entitled From Baba, With Love.

From Baba,With Love is truly a lovely recipe book.  With full colour pictures, and ethno-cultural background, it is full of newly adapted recipes that use contemporary methods and technologies.

Because I know you will want to get yours quickly, here is the contact information to the only store in Calgary that carries the book! You may want to order several to have as gifts to share the whole year long!!

Contact the lovely ladies at - The Ukrainian Museum of Canada - Calgary Collection -

St. Vladimir’s Ukrainian Orthodox Cultural Centre

404 Meredith Road NE

Calgary, Alberta T2E 5A6

For more Information, phone 403 264 3437.