I never knew the first thing about Jewish cooking until I was around 18. Then, while living in my first apartment in West Hollywood and going to Canter’s Deli every week, I felt like I learned everything there was to know about it — at least I thought I did being a teenager and all. Little did I know, that I knew — and for the most part — still know absolutely nothing about it. Well, that’s about to change with finding The Shiksa in the Kitchen, a blog about Jewish food and its history by Tori Avey. You’ll undoubtedly be seeing quite a few of her recipes shared here as many of them are gluten-free.
About the matzo ball recipe, Tori has come up with a great one that uses potatoes and almond flour and as she says, is similar to a German potato dumpling. I’m definitely looking forward to trying this on the next cold and rainy night that I’m eating some hot chicken soup — that may actually be tomorrow as we’re expecting a good bit of rain.
“A knaidel (plural knaidelach) is an Ashkenazi Jewish dumpling added to soups or stews. The most common form of knaidel, known as the matzo ball, is made from unleavened matzo meal and served in chicken soup for Passover. Matzo meal contains wheat, making it unsuitable for those on a gluten free diet. I developed this potato knaidel recipe as a delicious and gluten free alternative to matzo balls. It creates a firm yet fluffy dumpling that goes quite nicely in a bowl of piping hot Chicken Soup for Knaidelach (click for recipe).
I came up with this recipe after a LOT of experimentation. I used a German potato dumpling recipe as a starting point, then modified from there to make it flavorful and completely free of gluten. Follow the recipe instructions carefully; making modifications, substitutions, or skipping steps will lead to a pot full of mush, rather than nicely textured knaidelach. It’s worth the effort; these potato dumplings are truly delightful. In fact, some members of my family actually prefer them to matzo balls!…”
