Sweet Potato Kugel

This is a Jewish dish that I discovered (and tweaked) this past November. It's a delicious and healthy meal that I personally enjoy eating cold in the days afterwards. I suggest being liberal with the cinnamon. Enjoy!

SWEET POTATO KUGEL

5 lbs. sweet potatoes (about 8 cups)

2 apples (I use cameo apples, but any crisp apple is good)

6 eggs

1 cup raisins (You could also use dates. Just chop them and skip soaking.)

½ cup orange juice (or the juice of one orange)

½ cup walnuts, crushed to small pieces

½ cup pecan halves

1 ½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon powdered ginger

¾ teaspoon nutmeg

½ teaspoon cloves

butter for greasing (I've used Pam before and it works just fine)

1) Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9x12 cake pan with butter.

2) In a small bowl, soak the raisins in orange juice, adding water so the raisins are covered. (You can speed up the plumping by microwaving for 30-45 seconds.)

3) Peel the sweet potatoes. Using a grater blade on a food processor or a box grater, grate them. Put the grated sweet potatoes in a large mixing bowl.

4) Beat the eggs (The fluffier they are, the fluffier your kugel). Mix into sweet potatoes.

5) Grate the apples, add to the sweet tater & egg mixture.

6) Stir in the salt and spices.

7) Add the raisins and soaking liquids. Stir.

8) Pour/scoop mixture into your cake pan, smoothing flat.

9) Sprinkle with pecans and walnuts, pressing them a little into the kugel.

10) Bake 45 minutes or so, until the edges are a little browned and the top gets golden. Let it cool a bit, then cut into 24 pieces, but know that everyone will probably want more than one.

Calculations

TOTAL: 3936 calories, 111g fat, 93.1g fiber, $10.59

PER SERVING (TOTAL/24): 164 calories, 4.6g fat, 3.9g fiber, $0.44

PER (LARGER) SERVING (TOTAL/12): 328 calories, 9.3g fat, 7.8g fiber, $0.88

Prune tzimmes (meat and potato stew with prunes)

This recipe comes from Claudia Roden's The Book of Jewish Food: an Odissey from Samarkand to Vilna to the Present Day which I'd recommend to anyone who wants not only a Jewish cookbook but also a sort of cultural and culinary encyclopedia.
I've tweaked the recipe slightly, though, both for quantities and ingredients. It makes a great, filling, colourful winter dish. I was a bit concerned about sugar in meat, but I promise you that, especially with the addition of red wine, it's not all sweet, just pleasantly sweet 'n'sour. You need time to make it but the preparation's very straightforward.

Ingredients for 4 people:
1 kg beef meat. Pick something like brisket or flank. It has to be tender and with a little bit of fat.
3 tablespoons oil
1 and a half large onions, coarsely chopped.
salt and pepper
1 teaspoon cinnamon
a good pinch of nutmeg
2 deciliters of red wine
1 kg new potatoes
4 large carrots
500 g prunes
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cube stock
1 teaspoon ginger

In a heavy pan over medium heat, turn the meat in the oil to brown all over. Then remove it and fry the onions gently till soft. Return the meat to the pan and cover with water. Add stock cube. Season with salt and pepper, add the cinamon, nutmeg and ginger and simmer for one and a half hours.
Add the potatoes, carrots, prunes, sugar and wine and more water to cover and simmer 1h longer. You may want to have plenty of black pepper to balance the sweethness. There should be a lot of liquid. Serve hot.