Potato, Carrot & Onion Kugel

Potato, Carrot & Onion Kugel

by Dominic Franks from DomInTheKitchen.com @DomInTheKitchen

A potato kugel is traditional European Jewish dish originally served during festivals. It’s a very simple dish, similar to a rosti, that usually consists of grated potato and onion but I wanted to add a few more ingredients to make it more of a meal, so I used some carrots but to be honest, any root veg would work, parsnips would be particularly nice.

My mum makes her version of kugel and serves it in slices, in place of roast potatoes with a Sunday roast.  I’m serving it here as a breakfast or brunch dish as it’s really excellent alongside a soft poached egg.

Kitchen tools that could be useful:

This the kugel is seasoned with finely chopped fresh herbs and garlic so the the Tealby Freshly Cut Herb Keeper Pot and the Ashden Acacia Mezzaluna Chopping Board both came in really handy.

Prep:  10 mins
Cooking time:  35mins
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 4

Ingredients:

for the kugel

• 5 medium potatoes
• 2 large onions
• 2 large carrots - roughly grated
• 2 eggs - beaten
• 2 tablespoons flour
• salt and pepper
• a large handful of fresh rosemary
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil

for the poached eggs

• 2 eggs per person
• water
• salt

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190C and butter your baking tin, I'm using an oblong swiss-roll tin but any metal pan will do, a quiche or tarte tin is good.  Earthenware will work too but there's something about the metal tin that makes it more roasty.

2. Cut the potatoes and carrots into large chunks and par-boil till just beginning to yield, drain and place in the fridge for one hour. I usually do mine the night before.

3. Once the potatoes and carrots are cold, coarsely grate them and add them with the rest if the ingredients to a large bowl and mix together well

4. Tip into your roasting tray and roast in the oven till golden and crisp around the edges, roughly 40 mins.

5. To make the poached eggs I prefer to use my large shallow cast-iron casserole dish. There's something about the cast-iron that holds the heat and cooks them evenly.  Fill the pan with water and heat it till it's rapidly boiling, then turn down the heat until it is just steaming.  Once it's steadily hot with no bubbles, lower the eggs into the hot water and leave them alone at this exact heat.  They should take about 5 minutes to become perfect with soft yolks but feel free to go until you like them.

Tip:  

You can grate all the vegetables the day before you want to make it.  The kugel freezes really well, simply cut it into portions and wrap in cling film.