Chef Andrea Murdoch, an Andean Native from Venezuela with Polish family, created this purple potato pierogi with sweet corn relish recipe that includes all her loves ~ ancestral and family roots + purple potatoes. As an avid potato lover (she even has a purple potato tattooed on her arm!), she elevates indigenous cuisine in the most beautiful and delicious of ways. As she describes ~ ancient meets modern. She truly tells a story through food. We were so lucky to have her share this special recipe with us.

Couple tips to keep in mind here to make truly elevate this dish: (1) make the pastry dough the night before, and (2) toast and then grind the cumin seeds yourself. You’ll thank us later when your tastebuds realize you’ve truly got game ha :)

Noteworthy ~ we used imperfect purple potatoes for this dish. Imperfect usually means their outward appearance is a little skinned or not a bright outside color. This has no bearing on the insides, health or taste of a potato. Here you can see the beautiful, purple flesh of these spuds. Purchasing and consuming imperfect produce truly reduces food waste and allows your local farms to have a better shot at continuing to thrive and grow food for our country.

Yields 12 dumplings

INGREDIENTS

Potato Mixture ~

1/2 lb purple potatoes (purple fingerlings work too!)
1/4 cup white onion
1 tbs high-heat oil (we love Colorado Mills Sunflower Oil)
1/2 cup queso fresco, crumbled
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, as desired

Pierogi Pastry ~

1 oz butter, salted
7 oz all-purpose flour
3-4 oz water

Roasted Corn Relish ~

5 oz corn (frozen will work)
8 oz cherry tomatoes, halved
3 oz red onion, diced
2 tbs lime juice (fresh is always better)
3 tbs high-heat oil
sea salt, to taste
chili powder, to taste
ground cumin, to taste (grounding yourself tastes amazing, just saying)

INSTRUCTIONS

*The night before, make sure sure to prep the pastry dough. Combine all 3 ingredients and mix until a slightly wet dough forms. Wrap in plastic and allow it to sit overnight.

Steam or boil your washed purple potatoes until fork tender, about 25 minutes for boiling.

While the potatoes cook, small dice the onion and grate the cheese. Warm 1 tbs of your high-heat oil in a small sauté pan and cook the onions until softened.

Strain the potatoes (if boiled). Adding ice cubes or having the potatoes sit in a water bath for 5 minutes really helps to cool them down quickly (plus sooo great for resistant starch health benefits). Run the potatoes through a food mill or potato ricer. Anything that will rice the potatoes. We’ve even used small-holed sieves. For those without any of these tools, it’s totally fine to let the potatoes cool for about 15 minutes, and then roughly chop them into small pieces.

Mix the potatoes, cooked onions and cheese in a medium mixing bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Allow the mixture to cool down to room temp or even cooler.

Dust a clean counter with flour and roll out your pierogi dough to 1/8” thick. Using the top of a glass (roughly 3”) or a round straight pastry cutter, cut out dough circles. Fill each dough circle with roughly 1 tbs of cooled potato filling. Brush the edges of the dough with water, and seal by folding the dough in half and pinching the edges shut. Place dumplings to the side with a damp paper towel over them.

Heat 3 tbs of your chosen high-heat oil over high heat in a large sauté pan. Add the corn and brown. Quickly add the halved cheery tomatoes to blister along with the diced red onion, chili powder and cumin. Once the skin starts to peel away from the tomatoes, add the lime juice and sauté until evaporated.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt generously. Place the pierogi dumplings in the water and cook for about 2 minutes or until the dumplings float to the top. Remove each of them with a slotted spoon and place on a towel-lined plate.

Heat 2 tbs of high-heat oil or butter over medium heat and sauté the pierogis until browned on each side.

Serve pierogis over warm corn relish and enjoy!

~ this recipe was created by Andrea Murdoch of Four Directions Cuisine for Strohauer Farms. Four Directions Cuisine is a woman-owned catering business operating on four main pillars: sourcing Indigenously, sourcing locally, community advocacy and education.

Andrea is always supporting our local community in a variety of empowering ways, and we can’t thank her enough for all she continues to do. She’s truly a special woman.