A proper noodle kugel should be golden brown. On this my mother, grandmother, and aunts agreed, soft in the center and crisp on the outside. But sweet or savory?
The Yiddish word kugel comes from the German word kugel which means sphere. While the early German puddings were made with flour that would often puff up into a spherical shape; The Ashkenazi Jews in Europe, my ancestors, decided to try something different. They took the idea of baked pudding and began using noodles, potatoes and sometimes vegetables as the primary ingredient.
My grandmother made a noodle dish she served with her roasted chicken. Skinny egg noodles were fried in butter and set on top of Lokshen noodles. Lokshen noodles are wide egg noodles that often tangle when they cook, making them difficult to separate. Considered to be symbolic of Jewish unity, they are traditionally served on Shabbat, the Friday night dinner that marks the start of the Sabbath.
Easy to make, or so it appeared, the temperature for the butter has to be just right or the noodles burn. I know this because I’ve tried to make this dish several times. In the process of making her dish, I came to realize her noodles were an attempt to replicate noodle kugel without the mixing and baking. Even better, in my opinion, is actual noodle kugel.
My mother made her noodle kugel with leftover noodles. She’d mix in egg, cottage cheese, sauteed onions or chives and chopped parsley. I remember eating this as a side dish on chilly nights, with a slice of roast beef or lamb chop. In a kosher household, meat and dairy are never served together. The kugel made with cheese would be the main dish served with bread, vegetables and salad.
In our household, noodles made frequent appearances. Extra cooked noodles from a previous meal might reappear in the breakfast dish my father called “egg foo yung” composed of various leftovers from our previous night’s dinner mixed into scrambled eggs.
I heard my mother talk about her grandmother’s noodles, sliced by hand from rolled out dough. Rapidly she cut them with a sharp knife before throwing them into boiling water. Noodles were added to chicken soup. Noodles were served alongside a brisket smothered with onions, carrots and potatoes
Aunt Rose made her noodle kugel with raisins, milk, egg, cinnamon and a teaspoon of sugar. She served her noodle kugel at Hannukah dinners and at Rosh Hashana when you greet the New Year with something sweet.
Sweet or savory, a homemade noodle kugel made with love is a treat.
INSTANT NOODLES 