I made kugel last night for the second night of Hanukkah. I don’t celebrate every night of the Festival of Lights—with my not being Jewish it seems excessive, but I do enjoy several Hanukkah specialties and this decadent noodle pudding is among them.
By the way, while I am not Jewish, at one time I very much wanted to be. (This will be a fairly short digression. For me.) My great-grandmother had a Jewish boyfriend, or at least he seemed to think he was (her boyfriend, not Jewish). She was a Protestant widow born in Victorian England, very conventional, so it’s safe to say that no matter how nice he was their relationship was never going to blossom.
Despite that, he gave her gifts occasionally, and one of them was a crystal powder jar with a sterling silver cover. It had a Hebrew symbol on it. Seeing it once, I asked my mom if we had Jewish relatives in our past, and my aunt was quick to respond “NO! We are not Jewish.”
She made it sound like an affliction. That got me thinking . . . I also had a great uncle (in name only) who, when I said how much I liked his patio furniture (metal chairs from the fifties in a variety of cool colors), told me it was a good thing they lasted as long as they had, as the guy he bought them from (a Mr. Epstein if memory serves) “jewed” him on the price.
That was when I started to fantasize about becoming Jewish. I figured annoying my aunt and causing my uncle to have to censor his comments would be totally worth whatever being Jewish involved. Even then I knew some Yiddish, and when I was two days old a doctor essentially rendered me Jewish from the waist down (you don’t need to make a note of that, there will not be a quiz on it later).
Sometime later, Mary Ann Lehman, who was in my sixth grade class and preparing for her Bat Mitzvah, told us that she had to learn Hebrew in order to do so. There was also some mention of not mixing dairy and meat (Hello- Lasagne!), and attending Temple, which I understand is not unlike church but a day earlier so they can sleep in on Sunday (genius!).
It sounded complicated to me, like trying to build something out of an erector set that made use of the generator that came free in the box. Eventually I decided to ditch my Jewish dreams, but despite that I made a very good kugel last night and would like to pass it along.
Some kugels are slightly sweet, some very sweet, but mine had no sugar in it all, making it a dish more versatile in terms of how and when to serve it. If you’d like a sweet kugel, simply add ½ to ¾ cup sugar to the recipe.
The other element that can vary the dish greatly is the baking time—no more than a half hour in the oven and you have a slightly-loose pudding that glides a bit on the plate. This way, it’s very much like an especially-rich and creamy macaroni and cheese. Bake it for 45 minutes to an hour and it is denser, dryer, and richer tasting. If you prefer the looser version be sure not to assemble the pudding more than ha30 minutes before baking it as the noodles begin to absorb the custard and will result in the denser version however short the baking time.
Noodle Kugel
There are many variations on how much of each ingredient is added to kugel, but the majority of them contain virtually the same ingredients. If you wish to make this vaguely health-conscious, you can use an egg substitute such as Egg Beaters (which will not affect the quality of the dish in the least), and use reduced fat versions of cottage cheese, cream cheese, and sour cream. Do not go any further than that, non-fat dairy products contain stabilizers and gelatins that will ruin both the flavor and texture of the dish.
8 ounces wide egg noodles
Salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus additional for greasing the pan
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup sour cream
½ cup milk
1 cup cottage cheese
½ teaspoon salt
Big pinch of cinnamon (you can use more, but I like the way a little bit sort of teases you with each bite)
Optional topping
½ cup bread crumbs made from Challah, Brioche, or white bread
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
Boil the noodles in salted water until not quite tender; drain and toss with the melted butter.
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a baking dish (9×13 or thereabouts) with butter. Combine the topping ingredients if you are using them.
In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until creamy and smooth, then start blending in the remaining ingredients. Stir in the noodles and combine well. Pour into the casserole, sprinkled with the buttered crumbs, and cover with foil. Bake for 30 minutes to 1 hour, depending upon your personal preference. Remove the foil the last ten minutes of baking so the topping can crisp a bit. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.
Serves 8, theoretically
Variation: If you are opting for the sweeter version, I suggest replacing the bread crumbs with crushed graham crackers, sweetened slightly and tossed with an additional tablespoon of butter.
2 Comments
January 2, 2009 at 5:38 am
Just wanted to say I love your blog! The food, the humor . . . very refreshing
January 2, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Thank you very much. A sarcastic food blog is not for everyone, so it’s always good to hear from someone who is a fan of that.