As my Big Brother posts decline in frequency, an inversely proportionate amount of cooking entries seem to be popping up on my blog. Such is the case with this latest adventure in domesticity in which I endeavored to cook an entire Rosh Hashanah meal all by myself. Why did I take on this mammoth feat? Well, it was Rosh Hashanah this past week, and I am Jewish; so immediately, there’s that whole religious thing. But mostly, I was bored and in the mood for kugel, which for the uninformed is like a noodle pudding thing. Of course, what’s the point of making kugel if you’re not gonna have matzoh ball soup too? And so the whole thing snowballed from there. I invited over my usual gaggle of friends, anointed the evening “New Year, Jew Year,” and let the rollicking good times ensue.
Photos of the culinary journey after the jump…
So on the menu for “New Year, Jew Year” were three items:
• Matzoh Ball Soup (recipe from the back of a can of matzoh meal. Plus a little improv and some tips from mom)
• Noodle Kugel (GOOD recipe from Ina Garten)
• Orange Marmalade Chicken (recipe from that crazy Robin woman on Food Network)
Now let me just preface this post by saying this: with all the food I was whipping up (which in reality was not that much), I was a bit distracted and forgot to fastidiously document every step of the process. That’s why the first picture was snapped relatively late in the kugel-making experience. Nevertheless…
Here’s the kugel stuff all mixed together: boiled egg noodles, raisins, ricotta, half and half, brown sugar, pepper, cinnamon, eggs. You know, light fare.
A successful transfer to my brand new baking dish. Unfortunately, I discovered later that all the raisins tended to migrate towards one end of the dish. If you make this, be sure to evenly distribute those bad boys before going into the oven.
My friend Jash hates when I shoot food close-ups; so this is to annoy him.
I had to put the baking dish in a water bath. I could already sense impending disaster.
Then I had to wrap the whole damn thing in foil. This was getting very complicated. And heavy too, I might add.
Needless to say, upon transfer to the oven, copious amounts of spillage occurred.
While the kugel baked, I got started on my soup broth: chicken stock, celery, carrots, salt, and pepper. Low simmer, natch.
Oh, and some flat leaf parsley.
Behold the mighty soup!
Carrots, in case you didn’t believe me.
Meanwhile, in another pot, I boiled some matzoh balls. Again, I forgot to take pictures of their creation, but I can assure you it wasn’t very exciting.
Not quite the roundest matzoh balls out there, but they’ll do.
After ninety minutes, the kugel emerges, looking browned and tasty.
Before.
After.
A veritable bubbling cauldron of matzoh meal.
Check out my balls.
At last, the matzoh balls find a new home in the simmering broth. I also added some garlic too (probably should have added it about an hour earlier, but that’s okay).
Soup is done and off the heat.
Last but not least: the chicken dish. It’s basically just chicken with a mix of orange marmalade, soy sauce, and liquid smoke smothered on top of it.
Foil lining be damned, this pan would later be the biggest pain in the ass to clean.
Thirty-five minutes later.
My roommate, J-Unit, helps himself to some soup.
The kugel stands ready for consumption. It turned out very, very well.
A proud matzoh ball emerges from the broth.
In the excitement to eat all the food, we all forgot to take pictures; so you’ll just have to imagine what that was like. Nevertheless, it all turned out very well, especially the kugel which was sweet, but not overwhelmingly so  just as Ina had promised (GOOD promise keeping). And as an added perk, I now have dinners for the next few days.