Cooking with My Oma: Potato Kugel

Potato Kugel (or Kugelis as my family calls it) is a type of firm potato pudding that is one of my Oma's signature dishes.  It is warm and comforting and can be served alongside almost any type of meat.  Kugelis is sort of like a giant potato latke, but with a smoother texture and bits of bacon, and just like potato latkes, Kugelis tastes incredible served with sour cream or my Oma's homemade apple sauce.  I have been eating Kugelis all my life, but it was only this week, when I learned how to make Kugelis with my Oma, that I truly understood why.

Kugelis is one of those dishes that makes me very thankful for my fast metabolism.  What you are about to hear may be quite shocking, but trust me, once you have tried Kugelis for yourself, you will forget all about the amount of carbs and fat you are consuming when eating the delicious side dish.  What you should also remember is that this recipe can serve a table of 10 people, plus leftovers.  So when you do the math, it really isn't as bad as it may seem at first.  And if you peeled all 6 pounds of the potatoes with an old fashioned potato peeler (as I did) you must have worked off at least half of what you gained...right?

Tip: The cream of wheat gives this dish a lighter texture without eliminating any flavour.

Note: You can easily cut all the ingredients in half to make a smaller portion.

Ingredients:

about 6 pounds potatoes, peeled

about 1 pound bacon, cut in 1 inch pieces, plus rendered fat

1 large onion, chopped

10 eggs, beaten

2 tbsp flour

2 tbsp cream of wheat

2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp salt

1 tbsp pepper

1 dash cinnamon 

Directions:

1.  Fry bacon and onions until cooked (onions should be transparent).  Set aside along with rendered fat.

2.  Using a food processor with the fine grater or shredder disk attached, push potatoes through the feed tube, one at a time.  Once potatoes are all grated or shredded, attach steel knife into food processor and blend until the potatoes reach a pureed state.  

3.  Transfer pureed potatoes to a large bowl.  Add the reserved bacon, onions, and bacon fat to pureed potatoes, reserving some pieces (about 2 pieces of bacon, chopped) and a few tablespoons fat for later.  

4.  Add the eggs and stir until well combined.  Add the flour, cream of wheat, sugar, salt, pepper, and cinnamon and combine once again.

5.  Preheat the oven to 350º.  Grease a very large casserole or roasting dish with reserved bacon fat.  Pour the potato mixture into the dish and top with reserved pieces of bacon.  Bake for 1 hour.

6.  After 1 hour, reduce heat to 250º and bake for another 3 hours.  Serve on a serving platter with sour cream and apple sauce.