Polish “Little Ears” Dumplings (Uszka)

Rinse the mushrooms *, add to a medium pot with bay leaves and allspice berry, add enough water to cover the mushrooms. Cook over low heat, partially covered, for about 30 minutes until tender. Strain and squeeze out the water. Discard the bay leaves and allspice berry.

Heat the butter in a pan over medium heat, add finely chopped onion. Cook for about 8 minutes, until soft and translucent.

Add the cooked and drained mushrooms to the pan and cook for a few more minutes.

Transfer the content of the pan to a food processor bowl, blitz until of almost paste consistency, season with salt and pepper to taste (you can also grind the mushroom filling in a meat grinder).

Roll out the pierogi dough (ýou’ll need 1/2 of my recipe) very thinly, abour 1-2 mm / 1/8 inch thick. Cut into 4 cm / 1.5 inch squares (see photos).

Apply the filling with a teaspoon, or squeeze it from a plastic / pastry bag. Fill a plastic bag with the mushroom filling and cut its corner. Squeeze a little bit of filling onto each square.

Fold over in a triangle shape, press the edges together to seal (if it’s not easy to do, wet the edges all around each square with a bit of water). Wrap the two ends around your finger and press.

Arrange the shaped dumplings on a kitchen towel, lightly sprinkled with flour, cover with a second kitchen towel (so that the dough won’t dry out).

Boil the uszka in salted water, about 15 pieces at a time, for about 1-2 minutes, starting from the moment when they float to the water’s surface. Remove from the water with a slotted spoon. You can stir a small amount of butter, so that they don’t stick to each other (only if you’re serving the uszka right away and not freezing them).

Serve in a bowl of clear vegetarian borscht.

Enjoy!