Poutine passé? Bring on the loaded perogy
They’re made with potatoes, not of potatoes.
Rather than stick-straight, they’re shaped into curvy, half moons.
And just like North America’s beloved french fry, the perogy is a culinary tabula rasa, a tasty blank slate just waiting to soak up flavour.
“It’s a nice canvas,” says chef and restaurateur Bryan Burke, of this traditional Eastern European dish.
“There’s so much you can do with it.”
Especially since this semicircular parcel of dough and filling won’t turn to mush or go limp and get soggy under, say, a heap of pulled pork and goat cheese or sautéed shitakis and white truffle oil.
Could this dumpling be the new poutine?
Burke and Adam Dolley, co-owners of Loaded Pierogi at 91⁄ Church St.,
2 hear customers making the comparison to Canada’s unofficially official food all the time when confronted by the menu at this 21⁄ 2- month-old eat in/take-out restaurant.
Burke and Dolley offer a panoply of toppings such as sweet and sour marinated skirt steak, wild mushrooms and wasabi cream (Thai Ginger Steak, $15), and crispy confit duck with caramelized onions and sautéed cherry tomatoes (Donald Duck, $15).
Even caramelized apples make an appearance in a dessert perogy filled with sweet cheese and topped with caramel sauce. You can also customize your own. Hidden at the foot of Church St. and nestled beside parent restaurant Hank’s, Loaded Pierogi is Burke and Dolley’s side project — when Burke’s burger joint, which occupied the same space, got lost in Toronto’s expansive sea of patties and buns, the men searched for a new angle.
They found it in the perogy, a dish they both loved but couldn’t agree on how to top.
Their differences lead to that “aha” moment, when the chef duo realized they could sling anything over this sturdy food.
Each day, customers gobble down more than 2,400 of their homemade perogies.
(As demand grew, Burke and Dolley outsourced the dumpling making to a local, family-run business.)
“It’s a nice canvas. There’s so much you can do with it.”
BRYAN BURKE CHEF AND RESTAURATEUR
Customers choose whether to eat them boiled or deep fried.
Burke, chef de cuisine at Hank’s, recommends going crispy if the toppings are creamy, and boiled if the toppings have bite because, he says, it’s all about “texture.”
This day, he whips them up both ways — one batch is buried under a heap of tart, purple sauerkraut, meaty, crispy, double smoked lardons, sour cream and green onions (Bacon, Sauerkraut & “Oh Yeah” Bacon, $12).
The other, inspired by a dish at Hank’s, hides under deep-fried brussels sprouts, sun-dried tomatoes and ranch dressing (the Cabbage Patch Kid, $10).
The perogy itself is a triumph of dough and potato-onion filling; tender and silky, hardy but light.
It holds its own under the toppings, but absorbs all the high-flavour goodness.
This is pure comfort food. And, unlike that ubiquitous fry dish, the perogy gets better the longer it sits, Burke says. “The cheese just gets gooier.” Got an idea for Sourced? Email mhenry@thestar.ca