Roadhouse Potato Pierogi Platter with Michigan Mushrooms
Polish comfort food with a fungi-focused twist!
Looking for a remarkably delicious, warming, and wonderful bit of comfort food, one that will help you confront the newly cooler temps around town? Swing by the Roadhouse in the next couple of weeks and order up some of the remarkably good potato pierogi that are on the menu!
The autumn rendition of this traditional Polish dish is covered with sauteed Michigan mushrooms and the requisite side of sour cream. The dish is finished in the pan with a good bit of that delicious Vermont Creamery Cultured Butter that we’re all (rightly) raving about. The crowning detail is the beyond-terrific Chicken-Fried Mushroom that sits atop the bowl. It’s a big, beautiful, Maitake mushroom from Michigan’s “thumb”—for those of you who aren’t familiar, that’s the part of the state that sticks out to the east on the Michigan “mitten.” As the name suggests, we prepare the mushroom just like our fried chicken. It’s got that same delicious, softly spicy crunch. The plentiful ridges on Maitake make them especially good for deep frying. These marvelous mushrooms are on the menu without the pierogi, too—as an entrée and a sandwich. If you ask, we can sometimes make them as a side with another entrée, too. They are, by far, one of my favorite things on the menu!
To prepare the platter, we lightly pan-cook the pierogi in butter so the dough on the outside gets to a beautiful golden brown. The browning creates the perfect foil for the soft, creamy potato filling. You get the creaminess of the potato filling, the lightly caramelized dough of the pierogi themselves, the earthiness of the sautéed mushrooms, the smoothness of the sour cream, and then the spicy crunch of the Chicken-Fried Mushroom on top!
Pierogi are, of course, a big part of the culinary tradition of Polish immigrants who came to the U.S. most prominently in the 19th and 20th centuries. Polish settlers started arriving in the North American colonies far sooner, some as early as the late 16th century. Two of the early immigrants, Casimir Pulaski and Tadeusz Kościuszko, led Revolutionary War armies. Michigan has the third-largest Polish population in the U.S. (after Illinois and New York), so it’s only fitting that we fit this terrific platter onto the specials list. The pierogi we serve at the Roadhouse are handcrafted by a third-generation family business in Hamtramck, the center of Polish life in Michigan. In Polish, pierogi refers to just what it is—a stuffed dumpling. A bit of trivia: The word pierogi is linguistically connected to the Ukrainian pyrizhky and the Russian pirozhki, and it’s plural—one would be a pierog. The linguistic root in Old Slavic is piru, which means “feast,” and that’s exactly how I think of this platter. Many groups of visitors have been ordering a plate of pierogi to share as an appetizer.
This pierogi dish is terrific for lunch or dinner. Additionally, it’s a great meatless meal—ideal for vegetarians. We can make a vegan version for you by using olive oil to cook the pierogi and sautée the mushrooms. Comforting, delicious, and a taste of Polish-American tradition!
