Sunday, September 30, 2012

Potato Kugel #SundaySupper

"ONLY FIVE INGREDIENTS!?!?!?....." 

Yes, that was my first thought when I read about the #SundaySupper challenge this week.  Five ingredients or less.... but salt, pepper, and water don't count as an ingredient.  (gee, thanks!)   As I started to ponder the dishes I could prepare, my mind immediately flashed to kugel. 

For those of you that have enjoyed a good kugel, you know that there are many, many types of kugel.  (generally, kugels are classified into one of two categories-- either sweet or savory)  And for each type of kugel, there are about a thousand variations on that type.  Also, everyone swears that their kugel is "the" kugel recipe, so you can take it with a big grain of kosher salt when I tell you that my potato kugel recipe is "the" potato kugel recipe.




Ingredients
  • 4 large russet potatoes
  • 1 large yellow onion
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 Tbsp flour (can substitute matzah meal during passover)
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil, plus oil for the baking dish
  • 1 tsp Kosher salt and 1/2 tsp black pepper (my "free" ingredients)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Peel the potatoes and grate them using a food processor. (you can grate them by hand, but a food processor is much easier!)  Then, remove the skin from the onion and grate that as well.  Place the potato and onion mixture into a large bowl and allow to rest for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, lightly beat the eggs.  Add the 1/4 cup of vegetable oil to the eggs and mix lightly.  Add the flour, 1 generous tsp of Kosher salt, and 1/2 tsp black pepper to the egg/oil mixture and combine.  The mixture will be lumpy, but don't worry about that. Set the mixture aside.

Take a 13x9 inch glass baking pan and pour enough vegetable oil on the bottom of it to lightly coat the entire bottom of the pan.  This is not just for "greasing" the pan, but this will help to cook and brown the outside of the kugel.  Place that pan in the pre-heated oven to heat up the oil.

Now, return back to the large bowl of potatoes and onion, and drain the liquid out from the bowl.  Press on the potatoes and onions to try and squeeze and drain as much of the water out of the mixture that you can.  (This is very important otherwise you'll have an extremely soggy kugel! No one likes a soggy kugel.)  When you've drained out as much water as you can, pour the egg mixture into the large potato/onion bowl and mix until combined.

Remove the pre-heated, oiled pan out from the oven and CAREFULLY spoon the potato mixture into the hot pan.  This is the most "dangerous" part of the process because the hot oil can splatter and burn if you're not careful.  Also, you'll want to make sure that your potato mixture is not "cold" because you don't want your hot, glass pan to crack.  I've never had this happen, but I'm very cautious with how I perform this step.

Put the kugel back in to the oven and increase the temperature to 400 degrees.  Cook for 1 hour or until the top of the kugel is golden brown. 


Make sure to check out the rest of the #SundaySupper recipes.  They all feature 5 or Less ingredients!  For a bunch of Foodies, this is quite an accomplishment. 


Breakfast, Starters, Butters and Jams:

Main Dishes:

Desserts:

Beverages:

Please be sure you join us on Twitter throughout the day during #SundaySupper. We’ll be meeting up at 6:00 pm (Central) for our weekly #SundaySupper live chat where we’ll talk about our favorite 5 Ingredient Recipes! All you have to do is follow the #SundaySupper hashtag, or you can follow us through TweetChat! We’d also love to feature your recipes on our #SundaySupper Pinterest board and share them with all of our followers.  See you then!

                             

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Apple Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting #SundaySupper

Welcome to the #SundaySupper Autumn Apple Event!  For me, this is also the time of year where we eat apples because it's Rosh Hashanah, so I was really excited to see an event where we could showcase our favorite apple recipe.

I love making "apple everything" in the fall.  Apple cakes, apple pies, apple tarts, baked apples, apples with cheese, curry and apples, dipping apple in honey-- you name it! 

What I'm probably best known for is the Apple Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting recipe that I received from a coworker of mine, Kristin.  She made it for a baking competition at work, and after one taste, I ran to her and exclaimed that I needed (yes, NEEDED) the recipe!  It was so moist and full of marvelous, chunky apple pieces that I knew it would be perfect for our Rosh Hashanah celebrations.  The cream cheese portion of the recipe has also become the "gold standard" of cream cheese frosting recipes for me. 



Ingredients
  • 2 eggs
  • 3/4 cup oil
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 4 cups of coarsely chopped, peeled apples (red delicious work best- 1 large apple = about 1 cup)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Peel and chop the apples. Set aside. (do not worry if they turn slightly brown, however work quickly at this point)  Beat eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla until well combined.  Add in the flour, salt,  baking soda, and cinnamon.  Fold in the apples.  The batter will be extremely thick at this point!  Spread the batter in a 9x13 inch pan.  Bake 45-60 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.  Depending on the moisture content of the apples, the cooking time may vary.  I find that it usually takes closer to the 60 minutes for my cakes.  Once the cake is fully cooled, spread on the cream cheese frosting.

Frosting Ingredients

  • 8 oz softened cream cheese
  • 3 Tbsp softened butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Frosting Directions

On medium speed, mix the softened cream cheese and butters until combined.  Add the vanilla mix for another minute.  Add the powdered sugar and continue mixing until fully combined. 



If you're interested in other Apple Recipes, make sure to check out the Sunday Supper crew's menu this week.  It looks so great, I don't even know where to start!

Soups, Salads, Starters and Breads
Main Meals
Sides
Desserts

Beverages


Please be sure you join us on Twitter throughout the day during #SundaySupper. We’ll be meeting up at 6:00 pm (Central) for our weekly #SundaySupper live chat where we’ll talk about our favorite apple recipes! All you have to do is follow the #SundaySupper hashtag, or you can follow us through TweetChat! We’d also love to feature your apple recipes on our #SundaySupper Pinterest board and share them with all of our followers!