Caramelised Onion, Paneer and Basil Pierogis - Daring Cooks August 2010
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Caramelised Onion, Paneer and Basil Pierogis - Daring Cooks August 2010

Source: nourishedbyasha.com
Ingredients
Wrapper Dough: Notes: I'd like to have made this entirely with rice flour as I think it's sweetness pairs nicely with the rest of the ingredients but belatedly realised I was running low on it. As it is, I used what I had and my recipe reflects that. Feel free to substitute entirely with rice flour. 3/4 cup all purpose flour 1/4 cup fine rice flour 1 T olive oil 1 T fresh basil, finely chopped zest of half a lemon 1/4 tsp salt 1/3 cup of water (this is approximate, I added water slowly until the dough was just formed) Filling: 1 large yellow onion (if you have vidalia, even better!!) 1 tsp brown sugar 1/2 tsp red chili flakes 1/2 cup fresh paneer (or you can use drained ricotta. Paneer recipe below) salt, pepper and oil as needed
Directions
1
Mix all the dough ingredients to form a supple, tacky dough. Kneed for 3-5 minutes. Cover and refrigerate for atleast 30 minutes.
2
Meanwhile, over low heat, saute the onions in a little oil. As they lose water, add the sugar and chili flakes and season with salt and pepper. Continue to cook until the onions are browned and have reduced to a fourth of the volume. Let the onions cool for about 10 minutes and then fold in the paneer. Leave the cheese a bit chunky.
3
When the dough is ready, roll it out as thin as you can on a lightly floured surface. Using a four inch round cutter, cut circles of dough. Place about a teaspoon of filling in the center of each round, a bit closer to one edge. Wet the edges with water and fold over the dough and crimp the edges to seal.
4
Bring a big pot of water to boil and lightly salt it. Gently ease the prepared pierogis into the water. Do not overcrowd. They are done when they float to the top. Remove and drain lightly. Once all the dumplings have been cooked, lightly saute them in butter to sear the wrapper.
5
Serve with more of the caramelised onions and sauteed mushrooms.
6
3 cups milk (definitely nothing less than 2%)
7
1-2 T lemon juice (key lime and lime have higher acidity, so you'll need less but I find the resulting cheese a bit bitter as well)
8
Over medium heat, bring the milk to a fast boil. As it boils up, lower the heat and quickly add the citric juice. Turn the heat back to medium and whisk the liquid. The cheese will start seperating from the whey. When slightly largish chunks start to form, remove from heat and set aside for 10 minutes to help the coagulation process.
9
Drain the contents through a fine muslin cloth and hang the cheese in the cloth for about atleast 15 minutes (depends on quantity ofcourse) to drain as much water as possible.
10
Typically, you would try squeeze as much water as you can from the paneer but for this particular recipe, I left a bit of moisture to get a creamier consistency.