Makes one 8x11-inch tray; serves approx. 8

• 2½ cups (20 oz.) cooked and mashed butternut squash (about 2 medium squashes)

• ⅝ cup potato starch

• ½ cup oil

• ½ cup sugar

• 3 eggs

• 2 tsp. cinnamon

Method

Cut the butternut squash in half lengthwise. Remove the seeds. Place the pieces in a large pot with about 2 inches of water, and cover the pot. Bring this to a boil over a high flame, reduce the flame, and cook them for 30 minutes, until the squash is fork-tender. Remove the squash from the pot and let it cool. Scoop out the meat from the skin, discarding the skins. Mash the squash meat and measure out the amount needed. Sift the potato starch over the mashed squash with a small sifter or tea strainer, so it won’t clump together. Add the oil, sugar, and eggs and mix well. Pour the batter into an 8x11-inch baking pan. Sprinkle the cinnamon over the top of the kugel. Bake for 40–45 minutes at 350 degrees (F), until the center of the kugel tests firm when pierced with a knife.

TIP:

This kugel slices neatest when it is cold. Make it one day in advance. The next day, slice it into neat squares and then it can be served cold or warmed up, covered, for 10 minutes before serving.

TIP:

Any extra squash can easily be frozen and used later in a vegetable soup.

With the colder weather approaching up here, I don’t think I’m capable of resisting posting this.  (Matzo balls will be in their own post). 

I’ve upgraded the clear broth mom used to make when I was a kid with some tweaks of my own.

Chicken Soup

Makes 16 quarts (4 gallons)

• 6-8 chicken thighs, deboned and diced
• 1 lb (500 grams) carrots, peeled and diced (I prefer to use the pound bags of baby carrots; slit it open and toss in the whole bag)
• 3-5 stalks celery, sliced
• 1-2 turnips, peeled and diced
• 1-2 parsnips, peeled and diced
• 3-5 yellow onions, peeled and sliced
• 2-3 leeks, cleaned and sliced (optional)
• 1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
• 1 bunch parsley, left unchopped
• 1 bunch dill, 1 third chopped
• 1 sprig rosemary (optional)
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed (optional)

Instructions

1. Fill the pot with 10 quarts water, begin to bring to boil.  There’s alot of water and food here, so it takes a while.  
2. Put the chicken thigh meat, carrots, celery, turnips, parsnips, onions, leeks, sweet potato, and chopped herbs into the water.
3. Put the chicken bones and unchopped herbs into a cotton mesh bag (often sold as “soup socks”).  Tie shut, toss into pot.
4. Cover, bring to boil, reduce to simmer.
5. Cook for 1-3 hours, stirring occasionally.  Smaller vegetable and meat chunks will allow the soup to cook faster.
6. Remove the soup socks.  
7. Serve.

Freezes well.  If you don’t like having free floating dill, don’t chop any and put it all in the soup socks.  The soup socks allow you to put all of the chicken bones into the soup and get the flavor, while avoiding the risk of someone biting down or choking on a chicken bone.  That being said, the smallest bones are still a risk if they escape the bags, but they tend to fall to the bottom of the pot, meaning that they can be avoided by taking soup from the middle and upper thirds, or simply fished out.  

This is my grandmother’s recipe, handed down to me, originally made at the family bakery in Lodz, Poland before the Shoah.  I take great pleasure in sharing this far and wide.  

Homemade Challah

Ingredients:

• 6 oz. brewers’ yeast (use fresh yeast)
• 1½ cups very warm water (about 110^o F)
• 10 oz. sugar
• 5 eggs (large to extra-large)
• 1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter or margarine, melted
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2½ to 3 pounds of flour (bread flour for best results)

1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water; add the sugar and set aside.  When foam is between a half inch and an inch in thickness the yeast is done proofing.
2. Put eggs, margarine, salt, and yeast mixture (including the foam) in a mixing bowl.
3. If using electric mixer, use dough hook and add flour one cup at a time, making sure that the flour is well incorporated before adding more.  When the dough begins climbing up the hook it is time to take the dough out of the mixer and transfer it to a dough board.  Go to step 5 if you used an electric mixer.
4. Start mixing flour into the yeast mixture one cup at a time, making sure that the flour is well incorporated before adding more.  When the flour becomes too stiff for hand mixing or electric hand mixers, remove dough from bowl and place it on a dough board.
5. Transfer the dough to a well-floured dough board.  Begin kneading the dough and keep on adding more flour and kneading it in until the dough has a smooth, elastic, and not sticky texture.  The more you knead, the better.
6. When you are finished kneading the dough, oil a large bowl and place the dough in it, then smear the dough with oil to keep it from drying out.  Cover with a towel and allow it to rise in a warm place for 1 ½ hours or until doubled in size.
7. After rising, remove the dough.  To make loaves, cut into pieces, roll, braid, or shape as needed and then place in greased pan and allow to rise for a half hour, and then place in preheated oven at 300^oF for one hour or until, when tapped, the loaf makes a hollow sound. 
8. To make cuchin, cut into four or five pieces and roll out the dough thinly and into a rectangle.  Coat with a thin layer of oil and spread filling out on the dough.  For fillings use cinnamon and sugar, crushed up Oreo cookies, stale cake; chocolate, strawberry, etc.  Roll the filling-covered sheet of dough up into a roll and then pinch the ends closed.  Roll the dough tube up into a spiral, tucking both ends up under the spiral.  Bake as per a normal loaf.