Vas is das?
Kugel is another one of those long-cooking Sabbath dishes from the Jewish kitchen, combined with eggs and in some cases caramel, and overcooked. Kugel is more often dark brown in colour, compressed and squished in texture. At first glance kugel is wholly unappetising, to say the least, but anything can be a nice surprise and kugel is one.
Hailing from Germany and Eastern Europe, kugel is made of either lokshen (Yiddish for egg noodles) or potato. Kugel can be either a sweet or savoury dish depending on what ingredients you add to the mixing bowl. Many sweet versions of kugel will include raisins in their ingredient list.
In Jerusalem, folk fresn (Yiddish for feed) mostly on the Jerusalem kugel which became popular amongst the Jewish community in Jerusalem during the 1700s. The Jerusalem kugel is unique amongst kugels in that it can be eaten both as a sweet after the meal and as a savoury addition to a main meal.
Kugel yerushalmi (from Jerusalem) combines caramel, cracked black pepper and salt, becoming a very versatile and tasty addition to any dinner table.
This is is another example of poor people’s food that has become popular in more recent times. You can’t really repackage kugel or even give it a better look, but you can give it a try.
Kugel Yerushalmi
This is the recipe my mother in law used to serve up for Sabbath lunch.
Ingredients:
- Lokshen (noodles) ½ kg of very thin, fine egg noodles
- Eggs x 4
- White sugar x 1 cup
- Ground cinnamon x 1 teaspoon
- Salt x ½ teaspoon
- Few good twists from the pepper mill
Caramel
- Canola oil x ? cup
- White sugar x ? cup
Method:
Cook the noodles for 5 minutes in salted boiling water. Sieve and wash well, and return to well-oiled pot after all water has been sieved from the noodles. This pot must have a tight-fitting lid and be good for the oven.
In a separate pot add the sugar and oil, cook until dark brown or caramelised. Pour immediately into the pot with the noodles and mix in well, let cool a little, lightly beat then add the eggs, sugar, cinnamon, salt and a few twists of pepper. Mix well. Close lid tightly and place in an oven preheated to 180°C for one hour, drop to 100°C and bake all night, eat around mid-morning or lunch.
Kugel yerushalmi is great with tehina, hummus or just by itself.
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