Perfectly pink pierogi

Inspired by the Barbie movie I made these for my guest cookery slot on Ireland AM. It was their Oscars’ special and they wanted a movie-inspired dish! If you know me, you know I love dumplings so I wanted to share my love with Barbie.

The dumpling dough is pink from beetroot puree, with a pink filling of potato, feta, dill, wild garlic and beetroot and served with, you guessed it, a beetroot and sour cream sauce. A drizzle of brown butter, some crunchy hazelnuts and a sharp chilli sauce to serve.

Serves 4 as a starter or light meal. Makes 24 dumplings

For the beetroot puree:

100g boiled or pre-cooked beetroot
100ml water

For the dumpling wrappers:

200g ‘00’ pasta flour or plain flour
2 egg yolks
70ml beetroot puree
1 tablespoon olive oil

For the filling:

150g floury potato, cooked (either boiled or baked) and roughly mashed
100g boiled or pre-cooked beetroot, roughly grated
2 spring onions, finely chopped (or a handful of wild garlic)
150g feta, crumbled
15g dill, leaves picked and finely chopped, some set aside to garnish
Salt and pepper, to taste

To serve:

60g butter
150ml sour cream
50g boiled or pre-cooked beetroot
½ small clove garlic, finely grated
30g roasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped
Sprigs of dill, reserved from earlier

1.    To make the beetroot puree, to colour the dumpling dough, put the beetroot and water in a food processor or high-speed blender and blend until smooth. Pass through a fine mesh sieve to remove any larger bits bits of beetroot.

2.    To make the dumpling wrapper dough, put the flour into a large mixing bowl. Use a fork to stir the flour and break up any lumps. Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the egg yolks and beetroot puree. Use the fork to mix the egg into the water and then start to bring the flour into the wet mixture in the centre. Keep incorporating the flour until you have a shaggy dough. Then use your hands to bring everything together. If it feels very dry, add a splash more of the beetroot water, but you don’t want it too wet.

3.    Turn the dough out onto the work surface and knead for 5 minutes until you have a reasonably smooth dough, add the oil and knead for a minute more. Wrap in clingfilm or a beeswax wrapper and set aside to rest for 30 minutes.

4.    To make the filling combine the mashed potatoes, grated beetroot, scallions, feta and dill and mix well. Season with salt and pepper and then taste and add more seasoning as required.

5.    Dust a tray generously with flour and have a damp tea towel ready to cover the dumplings as you make them. Divide the rested dumpling wrapper dough into three even pieces. Re-wrap two of the pieces and just work with one piece at a time to avoid the dough drying out. Roll the piece into a 10cm sausage and then divide into 8 even-sized pieces. Each piece should weigh about 13g.

6.    Very lightly dust your work surface with flour. Take one piece and use your palm to flatten it out into a rough circle on the work surface. Then use a small rolling pin to roll it out into a thin circle 9-10cm in diameter. Try to make the edges of the circle a bit thinner than the centre.

7.    Hold the rolled-out wrapper in your hand and take one heaped teaspoon of the filling and place it in the centre of the wrapper. Fold the wrapper in half around the filling and press the edges together firmly to seal, trying to remove any air pockets. You will have a half-moon shaped dumpling. Then use a fork to press down firmly on the sealed edge of the dumpling to make a tight seal and to add a patterned edge to the dumpling. Or use an alternative dumpling folding technique such as a rope edge. If the dough isn’t sticking together use a dab of water on your finger to dampen the dough before sealing.

8.    Put the dumpling on the floured tray, cover with the damp tea towel and repeat with the rest of the dough.*

9.    To make the brown butter put the butter in a small saucepan over a medium to low heat. Once the butter is melted watch it, swirling the pan occasionally, until the butter turns chestnut brown. Take the pan off the heat immediately to stop the butter burning.

10. To make the beetroot sour cream put the sour cream, cooked beetroot and grated garlic in a food processor or high-speed blender and blend until smooth. Pass through a sieve to remove any remaining bits of beetroot, if desired.

11. Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Once boiling season generously with salt and gently add the dumplings. Stir carefully at the beginning to stop the dumplings sticking to the bottom of the pan. Cook the dumplings for 4-5 minutes trying not to let the pan boil too vigorously as they are more likely to burst. They are ready when they float to the surface. If you are cooking the dumplings from frozen add 2 minutes to the cooking time. Remove the dumplings from the pan with a slotted spoon.

12. Put a dollop of beetroot sour cream in the bottom of a pasta bowl. Arrange 5 or 6 dumplings on top. Pour over a tablespoon brown butter and then sprinkle over the chopped hazelnuts and dill sprigs. Serve immediately.

* The dumplings can be prepared up to this point and tray frozen. Once firmly frozen put in bags or boxes in the freezer until you want to cook them.