Apple- Sweet Potato Kugel for Passover and All Year

I have not even read this post from My Sweet and Savory, to see what it actually says, but hundreds of people have looked at it, in the past few days, so I decided to share it here and check it out, after the holiday, which starts in a few minutes.  If there are errors, please excuse me.

Here it is: Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Apple-Sweet Potato Kugel - for Passover and the whole year

Apple-Sweet Potato Kugel

This kugel was surprisingly good.  Considering, I put a little bit of this and a little bit of that in a bowl and mixed it up, I did not expect too much.  Then, there were all the mishaps that happened along the way.

Picture this:  You wake up, one morning, and come down to quickly make a cake for that night's dinner.  When you enter the same kitchen, you have been cooking in, for twenty years, every aspect of the room has been altered. 

You open up a cabinet that usually has cereal and find huge pots.  You look into your spice cabinet and find soy sauce and other liquid condiments.  You look at the counters and they appear to be in disguise and they also have a great deal of cooking equipment on them.

OK, you are a good sport and you decide to make some muffins, which are quick and easy.  Muffin pan - where are you.  All you can find are frying pans.  How can you make muffins with nary a muffin tin, in sight?  You look in your paper goods' closet and sure enough, aluminum foil muffin pans.  Yeah, you can bake.'

Back into the kitchen to get a mixing bowl.  You open the cabinet and sure enough, there are mixing bowls but not yours.  There are strange mixing bowls that look slightly familiar.  You are up to the challenge and you use this green bowl that looks about forty years old.  (I think it is even older.  Many years ago, a friend of a friend had some  Passover items, she did not need, and was looking for someone who would make use of them.  That was me.  They were old, when I got them.  They are made beautifully.)

Let's get the ingredients ----- but where.  After about ten minutes of searching, moving items and making a generalized mess, you find all that you need.  You open the drawer where you keep spoons and other baking necessities and yes, there is a spoon to mix the batter but where are your measuring spoons?  Now that you think of it, you can't find a measuring cup, let alone four of them.

Are you getting a picture of what life is like the week before and during Passover?  I love it but it takes getting used to.  By the time, I have it straight, in my head, Passover is over and I have to pack up all my Passover dishes, pots and pans, cookbooks, and all those lovely kitchen items, I have been using for such a short time.

Then, I have to locate all my regular kitchen items and replace them and relearn my kitchen.

That is what it was like making my apple-sweet potato kugel. Then, in the middle, my food processor died.  Normally, there are solutions.  Not as easy on Passover.  My hubby was on his way home from work and was absolutely the best, stopping off and buying me a new food processor.  Thanks to the best husband in the world.

Each year, I buy myself a treat for the holiday.  This year I selected an immersion blender with attachments.  Thankfully, I used that to complete shredding (now chopping) the sweet potatoes and apples.  This year, I ended up with two presents, including the unexpected food processor.

This kugel was softer than most kugels.  It had a wonderful flavor and I can only hope, I can re-create this.

Ingredients:

3 medium sweet potatoes, grated

2 apples, grated

1 cup raisins

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup potato starch

3 eggs, beaten

2 tablespoons walnut oil (any oil will do)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Method:

Preheat oven 350 degrees.

Shred or chop carrots and apples and place in a large bowl.

Add raisins.  (You could add some pecans, as well.)

Add the liquid ingredients, oil and eggs.

Add sugar, potato starch, salt and cinnamon.

Mix all the above until well combined.

Lightly grease a good sized casserole.  I used a round one.  You could use a rectangular one.  Normally, I would do that.  I, simply do not have the same amount of baking pans.  I did buy a generous amount of aluminum foil pans in all shapes and sizes.  I also got plastic plates and cups.  I love my dishes for Passover but with all the company and several large meals, on top of each other, I choose, for regular meals, to cop out and use plastic.

Back to this delicious kugel.  Place baking dish in the oven and bake for 45 to 60 minutes, depending on the shape of the baking pan.

There is a topping, I usually use with sweet potato, carrot, pumpkin or squash kugels.  It is a mix of nuts, sugar, a little margarine or oil, a teaspoon of honey or maple syrup and some potato starch.  I had no time, tonight.  If you want the exact recipe, please let me know.

I am throwing out my other kugel recipes for sweet potatoes and using this one, as often as possible.  I think the apples moderated the taste of the sweet potato to make a winning combination.