I have extolled the virtues of kreplach, a Jewish meat-filled pasta dumpling usually served in soup, on this site several times before. They are, in fact, one of my favorite traditional Jewish foods not only because they are delicious, but also because they remind me of my grandmother, Hortense Paster, who was a marvelous cook. Grandma made kreplach for the High Holidays — usually Rosh Hashanah dinner — and everyone looked forward to them all year.
Here’s another reason I love kreplach: they make me think of my father, who loved them. My dad once went to Ukraine on a business trip and asked at his hotel where he could find traditional Ukrainian cuisine. At the restaurant he went to, the first course was chicken soup with a triangular meat-filled dumpling. The Ukrainians called it something different, but my dad knew a kreple (the singular of kreplach) when he saw one.
One of my aunts told me that kreplach are actually more traditionally served as part of the meal before the Yom Kippur fast and my research confirms that fact. There is something symbolic about how the kreplach’s exterior conceals the filling and the kind of examination of our inner and outer selves that is supposed to happen on Yom Kippur. It’s a little vague.
Every time I write about kreplach, which I like to fill with a combination of chicken meat and chicken livers, my aunts email me to tell me that my grandmother made kreplach with beef chuck that she cooked and ground. So, just so we are clear, my grandmother made beef-filled kreplach. And they were really outstanding. What I am about to share with you is not a family recipe, but rather my own invention.
Now that I am the one to make kreplach, I fill my dumplings with chicken — and I am by far not alone in this — because I tend to serve them as the first course for a meal at which the main course is brisket. I just cannot bring myself to serve a beef-filled dumpling as the first course for more beef. But the danger with chicken-stuffed kreplach is that they might be a bit, shall we say, bland?
I played around with the recipe for my kreplach filling this year and I am really happy with it. I added some different flavors, like ginger and garlic, that I think really go well with the chicken filling. Heretical? Maybe. But delicious and not a bit bland.
I’m not going to lie: making kreplach is a production. I set aside most of a day to do it. It will go a bit quicker if you enlist some help in filling and sealing the squares of dough. It’s a fun activity to do as a family. The upside is, you can absolutely make the kreplach in advance and freeze them. So, if you want to serve kreplach for Kol Nidre, the night before Yom Kippur, you have plenty of time to make them.
I’m going to serve mine on Sunday night for Rosh Hashanah dinner because some traditions you don’t mess around with. My family has been looking forward to these for a year.
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 eggs
- 2-4 TB water
- 2 TB extra-virgin olive oil or a neutral vegetable oil
- 1 cup minced shallot
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1-inch piece of ginger root, peeled and minced
- 5 scallions, sliced
- 2/3 lb chicken livers
- 3 cups cooked chicken, preferably dark meat or a mix of white and dark meat
- 1/4 cup chopped chives
Instructions
- To make the pasta dough, combine the flour and eggs in a food processor and pulse to combine.
- Pour the dough into a medium bowl and begin to knead, adding water as necessary for the dough to stick together.
- Continue kneading the dough until it is smooth and elastic about ten minutes.
- Wrap the dough in plastic and let it relax while you make the filling.
- To make the filling, heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat and sauté the chopped shallot, garlic and ginger until softened, about five minutes. Season well with salt and pepper.
- Add the chicken livers and sauté until browned.
- Add the chicken liver mixture, the cooked chicken and the chives to the food of a food processor and process into a chunky paste.
- To fill the dumplings, divide the pasta dough into four parts. Keep the parts that you are not using covered to prevent them from drying out.
- On a lightly floured board, roll a quarter of the pasta dough out into a 12X12 square. Have the bowl of filling and a small dish of water handy.
- Cut the dough into sixteen 3X3 squares.
- Place a small amount of filling, around ½ to 1 teaspoon, in the center of the square. Dampen two of the sides with water and then fold the square in half diagonally, pinching the edges closed tightly to avoid leakage.
- Join the bottom two points of the triangle and pinch closed. Place the filled kreplach on lined baking sheets while you repeat the procedure with the remaining dough and filling.
- If desire, you can freeze the kreplach at this point by placing the tray in the freezer until the dumplings harden. The frozen dumplings can be placed into a freezer bag for storage.
- To cook the kreplach, bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook for six minutes. Drain well.
- You can now refrigerate the kreplach until you are ready to reheat them in chicken soup prior to serving.
- Serve the kreplach in chicken soup garnished with chopped chives.
