There are plenty of things I’d rather not hear at the crack of dawn, and near the top of that list is the stilted voice of my smart speaker saying, “Right now in Brooklyn, it’s 17 degrees. Due to current wind conditions, it feels like 5 degrees.”
As frigid temperatures sweep much of the United States this week, the allure of creamy, carby comfort food has arguably never been stronger. Put another way: It’s potato degrees outside.
Such was my thinking, anyway, when I trudged through the falling snow and whipping winds over the weekend to Veselka, the famed Ukrainian restaurant in the East Village of New York, to satisfy a craving for potato and cheese pierogi (or varenyky, as they’re called in Ukrainian).
You needn’t leave home to do that, though. In fact, don’t. Stay inside and tuck into a potatoey project instead: Making these potato and cheese pierogi, from a recipe that Amelia Nierenberg adapted from Bar Prasowy, a restaurant in Warsaw, is the ideal winter-weather activity, and you end up with two dozen comforting dumplings.
