And the results are in....

So first nights Seder is well behind us now.

It seems the old man liked the kugels as much as everyone else. I think he was tricked into the first bite, but the second and third were made on his own. I was speechless for a good minute. I have never seen him willingly eat a dish that he hadn't first tried prior to age 8. Ever. He was probably just trying to get back at me for distributing topless pictures of him on the internet. As I have stated in the past, I have no control over how sexy is perceived on the web.

Everyone did remind me that for all of my bitching about brown food, I did little to augment the color pallet last night.

As an example:

The brisket:



A close up of the fully-cooked kugel:



You be the judge.

Tonight, Cathy is making kale and winning one for the green team.

Here is a picture of my father consuming the kugel and one of him giving an enthusiastic thumbs up to strange-foods. Thanks pop.





Look at that mug!

The full Potato-Kimchi Kugel (as I stated, the root of this recipe is from food & wine)

Ingredients

1. 2 cups vegetable oil
2. 4 large shallots, thinly sliced
3. 5 pounds Russet potatoes, peeled and coarsely shredded (by hand if you're a real man)
   
4. 1 large yellow onion, coarsely grated
5. 1/3 cup potato starch
6. 1 teaspoon kosher salt
7. 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
8. 5 large eggs, beaten
9. 2 large egg yolks, beaten
10. 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
11. 1 cup boiling water
12. 4-5 cups kimchi (I used a fresh-made batch, the older the kimchi, the stronger the flavor, so use your discretion.
13. 2 8/12 x 10 inch baking dishes
    

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 450°. In a medium saucepan, heat 1 cup vegetable oil until shimmering. Add the shallots and cook over high heat, stirring occasionally, until golden and crisp, about 6 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the shallots to a plate. Reserve the shallot oil.
2. Working in batches, squeeze out as much of the liquid as possible from the shredded potatoes and transfer them to a large bowl as you go.
   
3. Take 3 cups of the kimchi and squeeze out any excess liquid. Chopp to peices no larger than 3/4 inch long.
   
4. Add the grated onion, potato starch, salt, black pepper and kimchi to the potato mixture. and stir well. Stir in the whole eggs, egg yolks, olive oil and boiling water, then stir in the fried shallots.
5. Starting with two 8 1/2 x 10 (or so) baking dishes, Add 2 tablespoons of the hot shallot oil to each baking dish. Carefully spread the potato mixture in the sizzling baking dishes.
6. Transfer the potato kugels to the oven and bake them for 20 minutes.
   
7. While the kugels are in the oven, heat up another cup of the oil until shimmering. Add finely chopped kimchi and fry until lightly browned and krispy. Remove from oil with slotted spoon and let cool on a paper towel. Save oil on the side.
   
8. Lower the temperature of the over to 375° and bake the kugels for 40 minutes longer, until golden and crisp on the sides. About 1/3 of the way through this time, pour two tablespoons of the kimchi oil across each kugel.
   
9. Top the fully cooked kugles with browned kimchi.
   
10. Preheat the broiler. Broil the potato kugels as close to the heat as possible for about 2 minutes, until they are browned and crisp on top. Let the potato kugels stand for 20 minutes before cutting into squares and serving. Enjoy.