Another day, another kickball dinner, another kugel.
When I told my mother I made her potato kugel she said, "Did you make it right?"
"What do you mean?" I stalled.
"Did you make it in a muffin tin?"
"Of course I did!" I sighed in relief. She forgot to ask the other question. According to my mom, when making her potato kugel, one must always cook it in a muffin tin, not an ordinary casserole dish. And one must grate the potatoes by hand.
Grating five potatoes by hand doesn't sound so bad. But then there's that onion you have to grate, too. The crying! And you have to grate so fast. The potatoes start to turn pink, then brown, then black. Faster, faster, my mother goads.
So, if my mom isn't looking over your shoulder, go ahead. Use a food processor.
Potato Kugel
4-6 medium potatoes
1 medium onion
1 tablespoon non-dairy margarine, melted
3 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast (or another tablespoon flour)
1/2 cup silken tofu
salt
Preheat the oven to 400 F. Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray (or oil thoroughly). Chop the onion and process in a food processor (or grate by hand). Add the tofu to the processor and process until combined. Add 1 tablespoon melted margarine. Set aside.
Working quickly, peel and roughly chop the potatoes. Process in the food processor. If you must do this in batches, cover the pureed potatoes with plastic wrap and refrigerate to keep from turning brown.
Mix together the potato, onion-tofu mixture, flour, nutritional yeast, and salt to taste. Fill the oiled muffin tin with the batter. The kugel doesn't rise much, so you can fill the cups nearly to the top. Bake for 1 hour or until the tops are browned.
1 medium onion
1 tablespoon non-dairy margarine, melted
3 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast (or another tablespoon flour)
1/2 cup silken tofu
salt
Preheat the oven to 400 F. Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray (or oil thoroughly). Chop the onion and process in a food processor (or grate by hand). Add the tofu to the processor and process until combined. Add 1 tablespoon melted margarine. Set aside.
Working quickly, peel and roughly chop the potatoes. Process in the food processor. If you must do this in batches, cover the pureed potatoes with plastic wrap and refrigerate to keep from turning brown.
Mix together the potato, onion-tofu mixture, flour, nutritional yeast, and salt to taste. Fill the oiled muffin tin with the batter. The kugel doesn't rise much, so you can fill the cups nearly to the top. Bake for 1 hour or until the tops are browned.
EDIT. If you want to make these for Passover, sub matzah cake flour (ideally) or matzah meal for the flour.
6 comments:
I'm totally going to try this. They look great - the muffin tin idea is so clever!
Thank you for the recipe. I made it for Thanksgiving (using potato starch as one friend is gluten-free) and my friends loved it. It reminded everyone of latkes. It's definitely a winner (my mother approved of it!) and I plan on making it for passover instead of a big kugel.
Oh good! I always thought kugel was a good Thanksgiving food.
Perhaps this is 'wrong' but should Mom ever be looking over your shoulder it seems obvious to grate the onion first and to add a tablespoonful of lemon juice to the grated potatoes to stop the oxidation. Or would your Mom plotz?
Will definitely try this some other time, but for Ashkenazi Jews, tofu is made with legumes (soy), and not kosher for Passover. :-(
Everyone has a tradition. I'm Ashkenazi and my family's minhag has always been to eat kitniyot. But certainly if you're cooking for someone else at Passover, it's a good idea to see what their tradition does and doesn't allow.
Post a Comment