Pork Chops and Pierogi

Yesterday I made my friend Marion’s Blackened Spice Mix. She first gave me this for Christmas when we still lived in PA. She would not part with the recipe until I moved to CA and ran out. I ran out again in VA and could not find Szechuan pepper anywhere. Our friend Roger worked for the Agriculture Department at the time and he said we were arguing with China about something so we were not allowing them to export their pepper to us. My friend Jane found some in PA. Then I lost the recipe and recently Marion sent it to me again. She thinks this was a Paul Prudhomme recipe that she got out of the Inquirer long ago. So you see it took a village for me to make dinner last night. The recipe calls for it to be used on swordfish, but we have always liked it on pork chops. I use about a tablespoon for 3 chops. The heat is intense so be careful if you are sensitive to heat in food.
Ingredients:
1T coarse salt
5t ground Szechuan pepper
2T ground black pepper
2 t fennel seeds
2 t thyme leaves
1 T sweet Paprika
1T onion powder
1 T garlic powder
2 ½ t. cayenne pepper
Directions:
Put all in a small spice blender and blend until all is finely chopped.

If you’ve been reading, we had sauerkraut left over from New Year’s Day that I froze. I thawed it to make sauerkraut and mushroom filling for Pierogi. Drain and squeeze it dry before filling the dough as follows. I used a Frugal Gourmet recipe from his Immigrant Cookbook.
Ingredients:
2C sour cream
4 ½ C All-purpose flour (I used King Arthur unbleached white whole wheat flour)
2 T melted butter
2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
2 t salt
2 T vegetable oil
Directions:

1. I put all the above in my Kitchen Aid mixer with the bread hook and had dough in minutes.  
2. Divide the dough in half and let rest for 10 minutes.
3. Roll out half the dough and if you do not have a Pocket Gourmet Kitchen Tool , use a water glass to cut all the dough in circles.
4. My kitchen tool then turns over and you place the circle on top, fill and press in half to seal.
5. The recipe says serves 10-12, but I ran out of filling before I ran out of dough. I probably should have made some potato and cheese filling for the remaining, but I already had more than we could eat.
6. Continuing with the village them of this meal I then called my brother-in-law for cooking and freezing advice.
7. He said to cook all you have in batches in boiling salted water at 10 minutes a batch. Drain on towels. Those you are not immediately eating, when dry, place on a cookie sheet and freeze individually before packing in plastic freezer bags. I left mine overnight.
8. The Frugal Gourmet than says to pa-fry in butter after they have boiled. This I doubted, as that is the same directions that they give for Chinese pot stickers and they always stick. (I put water and oil in the pan, by the time the water evaporates they are cooked and it brown nicely.) Vince said to melt a stick of butter and using a brush coat an over proof dish well. Butter the Pierogi individually and then top with the remaining butter. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Well, I did not follow the instructions with all the butter and ours were a little crispy. With the remaining 4 bags of Pierogi, I will maybe use 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

The Pierogi went very well with the pork chops. Jim served a delicious Pinot Noir from the Oregon called Lachini Vineyards, 2007. This was brought to us on Thanksgiving by Heather and her friend. It was a really good wine. If you can find it in your area, try it. From beginning to end, my village of friends and relations helped with our dinner. Although eating alone we felt a connection to all who participated.