A few years ago I was a judge at a Kugel Cook-off and even a million calories later I was still in love with the dish. Who isn’t? Of all the iconic Ashkenazi specialties, kugel is the most beloved.
Really. I mean, you don’t hear about brisket cook-offs or gefilte fish cook-offs, do you?
It’s always kugel, a food so popular that someone actually wrote a master’s thesis about it (Avery Robinson, for his M.A. in Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan).
Kugel is more than simple comfort food though, more than a dish that evokes fond memories of the old days with bubbe (Yiddish for grandma). It’s also a simple dish and easy to cook. And it’s extremely versatile.
We’ve always preferred noodle-based kugels, and when my children were young I made one almost every week for Shabbat dinner, more or less the way my mother and grandma had made it: savory, with fried onions and maybe mushrooms. A few years on I realized I could include cooked vegetables too, which made it a little healthier. When I needed a good brunch-y dish I would mix in leftover meat or chicken. Of course, at other times, I made dairy-based noodle kugels filled with cheese. I’ve made noodle kugel with all sorts of seasonings and sometimes with a crispy top. In my first kosher cookbook, Hip Kosher, there’s a recipe for a raisin-curry kugel with a cheddar cheese crust.
I like tweaking a recipe to see what else I can do with it. Now that autumn is here and my thoughts turned to the rich wine-reds, burnished golds and sunset oranges of fallen leaves, my most recent kugel reflects the season. It’s made with skinny noodles, studded with winter squash and dried cranberries, suitable for a side dish to a meat meal. It’s colorful and crispy-topped, and would be a beautiful addition to the Thanksgiving menu.
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