Luscious Potato Kugel

I’m feeling a bit loopy between the running back and forth to the shelter (at least I got a great night’s sleep last night thank G-d) and on top of that a tooth extraction and antibiotics. Am I whining a bit ?, yeah, I guess. But we carry on. Despite this small kvetch for sympathy, Passover rolls in like the tide, unstoppable and it’s gonna happen, ready or not. So I really wanna be ready. In an effort to be that person, I have revamped my potato kugel recipe and since it’s from 2018 and not on a par with my newer recipes, I’m totally redoing it.

Me n DH are big, big potato kugel fans (to the point of fiends, actually) and while I’m perfectly happy to buy them, periodically I like to make my own. When I do, it’s a source of joy and happiness for the hubs. Since there’s a limited number of side dish carbs for Passover, this is one of the yummier ones, just sayin’. I admit, part of my motivation was the potatoes were starting to sprout, and I decided to use them all up for this purpose. So if the potatoes look a bit wimpy, you know why. By the by, I particularly like to post the actual photos of slightly sad looking ingredients so that you know that it doesn’t always have to look beautiful to be perfectly good to use. So gather your ingredients – a note, I’m showing you the already chopped 2 onions, just so ya know. Also, there’s no flour/potato starch in the pic cuz, like I said, a little loopy. But it’s in the ingredients. K.

One more note. Whilst you absolutely can grate this all by hand, if you have one, definitely use your food processor/ninja for this purpose. We will be pulsing the ingredients carefully because you don’t want it liquidy, you want shards both of the onions and the potatoes. To this effect, peel your onions first and quarter them. The idea is that the processor shouldn’t over process them and make them slushy because then it’ll be too liquidy. So patience with it, it’s just a tad slower.

So preheat the oven to 400 F/200 C and pulse the onions, on and off till their consistency is like the pic above, shard like. Scoop 95 % of the onions into a bowl, leaving the 5% in for the potatoes you are about to pulse. It keeps them from getting that nasty darkened color. Peel your potatoes (I know there are recipes that don’t but people, yeah, you should if you want it to be really yummy)

and cut into large, more or less the same size chunks. Doing this helps in the pulsing process, preventing over processing.

Now into the same processor where you chopped your onions put your chunks of potatoes (if you have a really small processor, you may have to do this in two batches otherwise you can put the whole lot in there).

Now is the critical moment, pulse it, DO NOT process it with abandon. Pulse, pulse, pulse just till the shards form. Warning! you may be tempted to keep going since you’ll find there are some unprocessed chunks (smaller but not yet shards). Don’t give in to temptation!

Instead, take handfuls of the processed shards of potato and squeeze out in a sink and plunk into the bowl in which waits your chopped onions and flour or potato starch. You will no doubt encounter the unprocessed chunks, pick them out and put aside, we will not waste them. After you finish squeezing out the potatoes. place the bigger potato bits back into the processor and add the eggs and half a cup of the oil and the salt and pepper.

By the by, one of the improvements of this recipe over my former one is the increase in the oil. I tell you now, don’t ask me if you can cut it down. The answer is a resounding NO!! I’ve experimented to the moon and back and in a nutshell, less oil, less juiciness. It’s what makes all the difference between a luscious potato kugel and an eh-ish one. Trust me, please.

A confession. This kugel didn’t have pepper in it since I have those in the family who are hyper sensitive to sharp things such as pepper or cayenne etc. But under normal circumstances, I do put pepper in and it adds to the flavor. Onward. Whiz the eggs and oil together with the remaining bits of potato and pour over the potato – onion mixture.

Scrunch it all up together

Until you have a smooth mixture.

Now take a 9 x 13 inch (23 x 33 cm) pan and place a piece of parchment paper on the bottom and then pour 1/4 cup of oil into it and heat in oven for 5 minutes. Remove from oven carefully place on stable surface and pour the potato mixture carefully into the hot oil. It will sort of rise up all around the mixture.

Pat the top to make sure it’s smooth on top and into the hot oven it goes!

Now be patient cuz it’ll be about an hour and a half, depending on your oven it can be less as well (hour and 15?) the only way to know is by keeping an eye on it. When nice and richly browned, it’s done.

Remove from oven and let cool either on stovetop (with grates) or wire rack if not eating immediately. Btw, I’ve often prepared this a day or so in advance, let cool completely and then it slices beautifully when cold (from the fridge). Another little trick of mine, if you only wish to heat up a part of the kugel at a time (smaller crowd and you wanna serve at 2 – 3 separate meals for example) you can slice it in a wide strip and place in an elongated loaf tin, like a 12 x 4 inches (31 x 10 cm) and you’d get approximately 3 long kugels that way (cut lengthwise down the 9 x 13 inch (23 x 33 cm) pan). I’ve done it successfully many times. The nice thing is the kugel lasts quite well in the fridge for 3-5 days. I know the next question, does it freeze well? Honestly, I prefer not, the texture is just not the same. But it’ll hold up if you prepare it in advance. Lemme tell you, after your first bite (and I cannot help myself, as soon as it’s sufficiently cooled down, I gotta have a bite) you will wonder why you’re buying potato kugel ever again.

Luscious Potato Kugel

8 medium potatoes, peeled

2 medium onions, peeled

3/4 cup (94 grams) flour for during the year, OR 1/2 cup (80 grams) potato starch for Passover

3/4 cup (177 ml) oil, divided – 1/2 cup (118 ml) goes into potato mixture, 1/4 cup (60 ml) goes into pan!

4 eggs

2 teaspoons salt

3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 F/200 C.

Quarter the onions and place into food processor. Pulse patiently (don’t overdo and turn it into slush, we want shards of onion, not too wet) just till shards form. Place into large bowl, into which you also put your flour or potato starch, leaving behind just a little bit of onion in the food processor. This is to prevent the potatoes from discoloring. Cut potatoes into large chunks, fairly evenly so they will process more or less evenly. Here too, you want shards of potato not slush. Pulse slowly. You will see some larger bits of potato and be tempted to keep pulsing them but don’t. It’ll slushify them. Just take handfuls (carefully) out of the processor and squeeze out the extra liquid, picking out the bigger bits and placing on the side. Put the handfuls of potato into bowl with onions and flour/potato starch. Once you’ve gotten all the potato mixture squeezed out and placed in bowl, put remaining potato bits back into processor and add the eggs and the 1/2 cup of oil (remember, the last 1/4 cup (60 ml) goes into the baking pan), salt and pepper. Whiz together in the processor till smooth. Pour egg mixture over potato mixture in bowl and using your hands (I put on gloves) squish it all together till a smooth mixture forms. It might be a tiny drop liquidy, that’s fine. Now take a 9 x 13 inch pan (23 x 33 cm), place a piece of parchment paper on bottom and pour your reserved 1/4 cup (60 ml) of oil right onto the parchment paper. Place in your preheated oven for 5 minutes. Carefully remove pan and place on stable surface. Pour the potato mixture into pan, right into the oil. Place pan uncovered into the oven for about an hour and fifteen minutes to an hour and a half (check after an hour to see how it’s doing. Ovens run hot or cold and you must check to see if it’s browning faster or slower). The top should get nicely browned. Remove from oven and let sit on a grate or wire rack if not serving immediately. If you don’t serve immediately and wish to serve a day later (or even two) let cool completely. Then, if I have a smaller crowd, I slice the kugel lengthwise and place into a long loaf pan and only heat up what I need. You can even slice (when cold) into individual portions in the smaller pans and save the mess of slicing it hot. This reheats brilliantly and keeps 3-5 days in the fridge but I advise against freezing, the texture is not as good.