Mehl Kugel

When I was a teenager I spent Simchat Torah with cousins in Boro Park. At my ultra modern Yeshiva High School that was the cool thing to do and not for the most elevated reasons.

In between socializing on the Avenue (13th) I ate Yom Tov meals with my cousins. They were Holocaust survivors, Yiddish speakers and staunch Orthodox Jews who lived outside the orbit of American culture my peer group inhabited.

They spoke Yiddish, wore black and white (guys) or long skirts and blouses buttoned to the very top button (girls) and they were oblivious to television, the movies and rock n roll.

Even their food seemed as if had been prepared in Europe and not in New York City.

Even now almost four decades later I can still remember the spicey savory taste of cousin Clara’s chulent kugel really a ball of savory matzo meal placed directly in the chulent. I’ve never encountered it anywhere else.

At a recent family wedding I tried to pry the recipe out of Clary but all she could say was to use a little bit of this and a little bit of that . Quite miraculously just as I was preparing this post Clary’s daughter Layi phoned to invite me to her son’s engagement . Of course, I pried Layi for the recipe. Here is how to make this scrumptious and very easy delicacy.

¼ cup oil

½ cup water

2/3 cup matzo meal

Salt and pepper to taste

Knead together unti the dough feels oily and soft but adheres together as a ball or log. Drop directly into the boiling hot chulent. Eat 12 hours later. You don’t need to place the kugel in wax paper. It will survive intact. Amazing.