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Kugel (vegetable pudding) is out of style. It’s not particularly healthy or low-calorie. But it is Jewish, and everyone needs some Jewish comfort food once in a while.
The key to successful potato kugel is keeping the potatoes white. Once those potatoes are grated, you must race to put the kugel in the oven before it starts to turn gray. Master this and you can call yourself a true balabusteh. It’s also important to keep the grated potatoes from becoming mush, and know when the kugel is ready.
Have all ingredients on hand:
The exact proportions aren’t important and an extra potato or egg won’t make a huge difference. Grease a rectangular pan. My mother laid on the oil pretty thick but I have found that unnecessary. You could use baking paper without oil, but you will lose that traditional eastern European flavor. Greased baking paper makes for easy cleanup.
Set the oven to 350° F (180° C). Technically preheating isn’t necessary, but it will keep the potatoes whiter. Some people recommend preheating the greased pan in the oven, but I stopped that the first time I burned myself putting in the batter.
You must use a blender or food processor to make white kugel; a hand grater won’t cut it (no pun intended). I put everything but the potatoes and onion in a large mixing bowl, then add the grated vegetables batch by batch.
If your processor is big enough you can mix it all together. Grate the potatoes and onions first with the steel “S” blade. Add the other ingredients and process briefly until mixed.
Here’s where you need to know your machine. You want to put in enough potatoes and onions to grate as few batches as possible. But if you put in too much, you end up with half mush and half large chunks. If you have never done this before, put one layer of onion and potato quarters in the food processor. Using the on/off or pulse function, start and stop the machine until it quiets down and the chunks stop flying around. Stop right away to avoid making mush. Empty the contents into the mixing bowl with the other ingredients. If you still have big chunks, fish them out and reprocess them. Important note: if the chunks have stopped flying but you can still see them stuck in there (because they are too big or too many), don’t belabor the point. Take out the big pieces and add them to the next batch.
Don’t worry if you mess up; even mushy kugel will be more than edible. Repeat until all the potatoes and onions have been processed and placed in the bowl. Mix it all together very well. And quickly. And take a moment to rinse off the processor and any utensils that touched the raw potato. You’ll thank me later.
If you manage to process it all in one batch, you can add the other ingredients to the grated potatoes and onions and process until just mixed. Use a spatula to empty the mixture from the bowl or processor into the pan, and get it into that oven! When finished, the top, and not just the edges, should be brown and crispy looking. If you are using a glass pan you’ll notice that the sides will also be brown. If you’re not sure you can check the bottom as well by lifting up the kugel from the pan with a spatula. I can’t give you a time because so much depends on the thickness. A really thick one can take up to an hour.
My daughter and I suspected that the kugel we made the other week wasn’t cooked through because it seemed soft, but when we served it it was white, moist, and completely cooked. If the potatoes don’t get cooked, the kugel will turn gray.
Kugel can also be cooked on the stove on low heat in a greased frying pan. This might be more economical when your oven is otherwise empty. To save energ, my mother only turned on the oven when she was able to fill it.
Kugel is great hot but my mother maintained that kugel was meant to be served at room temperature. She kept it on the counter overnight to serve for Shabbat lunch. Of course she didn’t live in the Tel Aviv climate, and I refrigerate mine.
I don’t often freeze it, but I have read that it freezes well when slightly undercooked; you can finish baking it before serving.
Enjoy!
For more recipes and cooking techniques see CookingManager.Com.
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A commenter asked me for an oil-based hamantashen recipe. Any kind of cooky-cutter dough can can work well for hamantashen. This one is from Marcy Goldman’s Jewish Holiday Baking, p. 249. Virtually all of the pareve recipes in this book are oil-based.
Bubbie’s Orange-and-Oil Hamantashen
1 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup orange juice
Zest of 1 orange, minced very fine
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
Approximately 4 cups all-purpose flour*
1 tablespoon cornstarch (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
I’m summarizing the method; Goldman is more detailed.
Blend sugar and oil, mix in juice, zest, vanilla, and eggs. Fold in the dry ingredients to make a soft but firm dough. Cover with a clean tea towel and let rest for 15-20 minutes; you can refrigerate it for 2-3 days but warm it up before rolling.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees (180 C). Line baking sheets with parchments paper.
Work with half the dough (keeping the rest covered) and roll to 1/8 inch thick. Use a top of a tuna or soup can or a cookie cutter to cut out 3-inch circles. Fill with a generous teaspoon of filling, and bring the three sides or flaps together to form a triangle.
Bake until lightly golden (18-25 minutes).
Note: Israeli flour is lighter than American, so two cups flour in the US is about 2-1/4 cups in Israel.
I highly recommend this cookbook both for and experienced bakers.
My mother always used to bake for Purim. We gave mishlochei manot* (MM) to a moderate number of people, most of whom didn’t observe the mitzvah themselves. We baked chocolate swirl cookies, and hamantashen, and thumbkins. We added some dried nuts and fruit on a plate, put the whole thing in a plastic bag, and voila! The recipes came from the Betty Crocker Cooky Book. I used to love to look through the book at the pictures of the painted cookies and the gingerbread house, which including detailed instructions. I have it still; every so often my husband asks why I haven’t thrown it out because it’s falling apart. (I wouldn’t dream of it.) Most of the recipes call for margarine or shortening, which I stopped using (except for frosting on birthday cakes) a few years ago. My mother, on the other hand, went through tubs of Crisco fairly regularly. Who knew then that Crisco was so bad for you?
Here’s an oil-based recipe for hamantashen dough.
When I made aliyah, I was surprised at the contents of the typical MM package. They consisted of assorted mini-chocolate bars, candies, and miniature bottles of wine. Only occasionally a homemade hamantash or brownie found its way in. An article by Kobi Arieli in the Paamonim newsletter lamented this development; he remembers the days when chickpeas and a bottle of malt beer were standard. Arieli also pointed out how elaborate the packaging has become, and how the purpose of MM has shifted from celebrating friendship and observing the mitzvah to impressing your neighbor. And an even more important goal has become receiving equally impressive packages. Naturally you also have to make sure that the MM you send is on the same level as the one you received last year. Arieli notes that other type of gifts also serve the same function. Instead of tokens of generosity, they have become some kind of social marker. Any gift worth less than what is expected is perceived as a social gaffe at best, an insult at worst.
Here’s what happens in our house. Almost all of our friends send us MM through Emunah women. We each get one package with a list of names of the people who sent to us. I help organize the project; we end up arguing about what to put in the package and how much to spend, but we eventually work it out. Our family also delivers about ten of these identical packages on Purim (out of about 300). Emunah takes the profit, which goes to their children’s homes. This leaves me with very few MM obligations; I send to a few neighbors and try to include people who wouldn’t ordinarily receive. I do cook and bake some but I get so little feedback afterward, even when I put in a lot of effort. It seems that most people get way too much stuff even to remember who sent what.
Most of the MM activity in our house revolves around the children, who are allowed to send two MM to each friend. Being that everything is store-bought and virtually identical, our mantra around here is recycle, recycle, recycle. No matter how little I start with, at the end of the day I am left with a huge pile of junk, plates and containers, and cellophane. I pick out the really good candy (for me), wine, fruit, and nuts, separate out the real junk (which goes to my husband’s office), and let the kids split up the rest. Really, everyone should just buy a bag of mini-chocolate bars and some wine to consume themselves instead of spending all that time packing, writing notes and shlepping the MM around the neighborhood. Arieli makes a different suggestion: Buy strips of colored paper, put them in a large pile in a bag to make the most impressive effect, and send them to as many people as you want. They will make people feel important, the true purpose of MM today.
The whole thing has become such a waste of money and material in the Orthodox community. Everyone sends to people who don’t need it and don’t want it. Many organizations now sell certificates that you can give to your neighbors instead of MM–that’s one solution, but even though it’s tzedakah it still obligates the recipient to reciprocate. I don’t need anyone to give tzedakah on my behalf while I’m still alive.
The MMs that I appreciated most were in thanks for doing someone a favor, such as giving a regular ride or hosting potential olim for Shabbat. Whereas in normal circumstances I wouldn’t want a gift for this type of chessed (kindness), this type of MM allows the giver to express appreciation through the mitzvah of MM, without obligating me in the same way; I would be defeating the purpose by sending a package back. I’m not talking about someone I cooked for when she had a baby, rather people who wouldn’t be able to return the favor at a later date.
Our community should be taking the money it spends on MM and giving it to tzedakah, either directly or through Purim cards and MM projects. The mitzvah of mishloach manot should be fulfilled either to thank those who did us a great kindness in the previous year (not teachers, who as part of the community receive huge amounts of MM anyway), or given to our nonobservant neighbors and others who might not be remembered (elderly, converts, singles, new olim). They also might appreciate the extra effort you choose to put into your package. And let’s not forget to extend an invitation to hear the megillah** and to join us at our Purim seudot.***
* Purim packages
**Book of Esther read joyfully in the synagogue
***festive meals on Purim day
Would you accept a free trip to Bora Bora? What if your husband’s company was paying all your expenses for a ten-day trip to a luxury resort in the South Pacific? And what if you were nursing your six-month-old baby, but the resort didn’t allow children? What if your husband had to go, and should you decide you can’t leave the baby you will be stuck at home with all your small children?
Let’s say you are the only religious Jews scheduled to attend and the kosher food is coming from Israel, so you will be eating out of a box while the other guests are feasting. And say you don’t enjoy drinking yourself into oblivion, hanging out at the beach, or watching erotic dancing. Would you still want to go?
Your husband can’t really help with this decision. “Honey, I think that the baby needs you and it would be best for you to stay home.” Ha. He has to say that he very much wants you to come. Which is almost certainly true.
My husband said that were he faced with this situation, he would tell the company he can’t go. Smart man.
Update: Thanks for all the comments. For the record, no one offered my family such a vacation. My youngest is three years old (but she is still nursing). Apparently I was wrong about the food; there are Israeli caterers who package food that can compete with a resort.
Orthomom linked to this parenting advice column in her “Mommy-Blog Roundup” on Jewess. I didn’t expect to like the answers, but it was the questions that floored me in the end. If this column is indicative, American parents are obsessed about how much their children sleep (admittedly the column grew out of the responses to an interview with a sleep expert). Here’s a sample of a relatively mild question:
Laura: My daughter has never slept through the night. She is twenty-one months and wakes every 2-2½ hrs. I have tried earlier bed time, consistent naps, bedtime routine, cry-it-out method, etc. . . nothing is working. She was diagnosed with silent reflux at two weeks old and it has been a struggle since. She does however fall asleep without a problem for naps and bedtime. The night wakings are taking a terrible toll. I generally end up crying next to her crib at night wishing she would just go back to sleep. The only way we get peace is if I nurse her to sleep, but that lasts only for a couple of hours.
My husband and I are at the end of our rope. I cannot get through the day without a breakdown. I don’t know what else to do?
Readers, this is a no-brainer. All of the “scientific” methods haven’t helped. Only nursing her back to sleep works and “that only lasts for a couple of hours.” I want to tell you a secret. If you nurse your baby when s/he wakes up at night until he is three or even four years old, he will still grow up to be a happy, healthy adult who sleeps through the night. Laura is describing completely normal behavior for a 21-month-old. Let the mother nurse her at night, as mothers have done throughout the centuries. If the mother is willing to have the toddler sleep in bed with her, everyone will get even more rest. Either way the toddler will outgrow this eventually.
If a mother can’t cope with nighttime wakings, I suggest Elizabeth Pantley’s book, The No-Cry Sleep Solution. It’s a breastfeeding-friendly method of gently changing the baby’s sleep routines. Older babies and toddlers can be taught new sleep routines gently.
Here is the “expert’s” reply (emphasis mine):
My guess is that that you’ve tried too many different strategies. You need to stick with one and be consistent. I know how hard that is. We are all softies, and no one likes to hear their baby scream. But I promise you that it would only take a few days before your baby gets the message that you mean business. So, when you’re really ready, you and your husband should first agree on a plan (who is going to get up when she cries, what you’re going to say). Probably the hardest thing will be to stop nursing her during the night, especially when you know it puts her to sleep. But she is going to keep waking up if she knows she’ll have that bonding time with you. Who wouldn’t?! When you go into her room, you need to be as unemotional as you can. Speak in a monotone. Go into her room and say something like, “Everyone is sleeping. The birds are sleeping, daddy is sleeping,” etc. Pat her on the back and walk out. If she continues, give her a few minutes before you go in, and then do the same thing. Remain unemotional and detached. It will be exhausting, but not worse than it is now, and if you are consistent, she will start to get the message.
Are our babies robots? Or dogs that we need to train? No, they are very small people who can’t understand why everyone ignores them once the sun goes down, even when they cry hard enough to throw up (mentioned in a later question). A baby’s cry is intended to be disturbing. If we train ourselves to ignore it, we lose our instinctive rachmanut (compassion). And a baby whose cries are ignored learns that his feelings don’t count for much. Eventually he will give up and go to sleep, but pay a steep price.
I don’t agree that night nursing reinforces night waking. If a baby knows he will bond in the evening and in the morning, he won’t continue to rouse himself up in the middle of the night for the rest of his life to get it. Many working mothers relish the nighttime bonding that makes up for the hours apart. Even active babies and toddlers whose mothers care for them full-time don’t always manage to get enough cuddling during the day. Babies wake for many reasons, including teething, bad dreams, loneliness, fear, hunger, thirst, and other physical discomforts. Some babies wake up when they need to urinate. In extreme cases, a doctor should see the baby to rule out health issues. One mother noticed that when her toddler woke in the night, he passed lots of gas. She suspected a food sensitivity, and he slept through the night after the first day he avoided the offending food.
Who are we to say that our need for a solid eight hours (which we usually don’t get anyway for all kinds of trivial reasons) trumps the baby’s needs? Adults can learn to cope with less sleep and babies need concern and sympathy no matter when they are in distress. Trust your baby; she will tell you when s/he is developmentally ready to fall asleep without your help.
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