In an April edition of Time Magazine, American food writer and historian Josh Ozersky talks about how awful European Jewish food is his Taste of America column entitled “The Kugel Conundrum.” His thesis: “Nobody is giving Jewish food the Torrisi treatment, raising up to a world-class level and celebrating its flavor profiles.”
More from Ozersky: “….dry and flavorless brisket, cooked in a salty fluid of Campbell’s beef broth and Lipton onion soup mix. I’m talking about tasteless matzoh balls and aggressively bland ‘farmer’s cheese’; pasty, cold chopped liver with inexplicable pieces of hard boiled egg implanted in it; dense lokshon kugels, sweet noodle casseroles as unappetizing as a Christmas fruitcake; and of course, the always terrifying herring in cream sauces, a food so vile in appearance that it could turn a glutton anorexic overnight.”
I would like to stick up for Jewish food, and regional food in general while I’m at it. Not all Scottish people eat haggis, a sheep’s heart, liver and lungs stewed in the sheep’s stomach, and not all Jews eat pickled herring. We have choices about the food we eat, and tastes evolve from generation to generation and sometimes even within the same generation. If your grandmother makes brisket with Lipton onion soup, pop over on a Sunday and surprise her with a batch of homemade onion soup for her brisket. Maybe she’s just accustomed to the dry stuff in the pack, and now that you’ve given her the gift of good soup for her signature dish, she will leave you something substantial in her will.
Or maybe she’ll even give you leftovers for the week.
Jewish food – like all traditional food – just wants a little love and maybe a little update.
And it’s easy to do if you update a standard traditional recipe with ingredients that your ancestors may not have had access to. Walking through the grocery store in 2011 is much different than walking through a grocery store even in 1990. Now there are ingredients that we take for granted that were far out of an urban cook’s grasp a generation ago. It’s surreal and beautiful to have access to things like fresh cilantro, dill, basil, savory, thyme and chives.
So with Mr. Ozersky in mind, I decided to play with fresh ingredients and update a classic. In this case, Pirogens with Sauerkraut. “Pirogens” are known by many other names — varenikas, kreplach, piroshkina, and pierogis — and they are traditionally served with onions, mushrooms or sour cream. The Polish version are often served with sauerkraut, and that’s the recipe I am sharing with you today.
For starters, I decided that a fresh “sauerkraut” – without the fermentation – would be simple and delicious, like a crunchy salad full of tangy flavor. If you have a lot of cabbage you need to preserve, go ahead and try the traditional method, but if you just want a great side for your pirogens, this fresh method is amazing.
What are your thoughts on “The Kugel Conundrum?”
Fresh Red Cabbage and Fennel “Sauerkraut”
- 1 small head of red cabbage
- 1 small fennel bulb
- 1 cup of apple cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoons of kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon of sugar
- 2 teaspoons of caraway seeds
Thinly slice the cabbage and fennel bulb. (Don’t throw away the stalk, freeze it for soup stock.). Place into a large bowl with the vinegar, salt, sugar and caraway seeds.
Pirogens with Fresh Dill
For the filling:
- 4 medium red potatoes
- 1 medium onion, diced
- Salt
- Water
- 4 tablespoons of butter
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup of warmed milk
- Salt and pepper
- 3 tablespoons of fresh dill
Wash and cut potatoes into 1 inch chunks. Place them in a sauce pan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and keep boiling until the potatoes are easily pierced with a fork, approximately 20 minutes. While the potatoes are boiling, add the onion to a small frying pan with butter. Saute until the onion is soft and set aside. Drain the potatoes and return to the pan. Using a potato masher beat the potatoes with the milk, butter, salt, pepper and dill until smooth.
For the dough:
- 3 cups of flour (plus extra to keep work surface dry)
- 1 ¼ cups of water
- 2 eggs (one for egg wash)
- 1 tablespoon of melted butter
- 1 tablespoon of sour cream
- ½ teaspoon of salt
Add all of the ingredients into a large bowl. Knead until you have a firm ball. Place into a well greased bowl, turning the dough to coat. Let rest for 10 minutes.
Take a large pot and fill it ¾ full of water. Bring it to a boil. Make an egg wash with 1 tablespoon of water.
Sprinkle your work surface with a little flour and start rolling out the dough. (You are going to use a lot of flour in this process.) The dough should be approximately 1/8 of an inch thick. You want it to be very thin, but not tear. Using a 3-inch cookie cutter or the mouth of a glass, make rounds in the dough. Working quickly, take the potatoes and mound them in the center of the round. Fold the round over and seal by using the tines of a fork and then brush with egg wash. Drop the pirogen into the boiling water.
To finish:
Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a large frying pan. When the pirogen bubble to the surface of the pot, remove them with a slotted spoon and place them in the frying pan. Fry until golden brown. Serve with sauerkraut. Enjoy!
(Originally appeared in Let My People Grow)
