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| So thin...Eat! Eat! |
The "Confertzel Cookbook" should serve as documentation of one Jew-in-China's attempts to make "soul food" using what is available at local Chinese wet markets and corner stores. I intend to keep the recipes fairly low budget and to use methods that most people in China (or with limited resources and kitchen facilities)
could accommodate. If I offend anyone with how heinously I drift from traditional recipes, let me apologize preemptively. Specifically, I apologize to my Jewish grandmother.
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Kasha varnishkas has always been one of my favorite side dishes in the Jewish cookbook. Generally speaking, the noodle-and-buckwheat-groat-based dish is savory in flavor and comforting in nature. Not to mention, the dish takes advantage of my [possibly genetic] love affair with cooked onions. All traditional versions of
kasha varnishkas will implement a heavy dose of
shmaltz (chicken fat)--and when it comes to Jewish comfort food: the more
shmaltz, the better.
This is a good dish for the Confertzel Cookbook because of
kasha varnishkas's simplicity. The preparation is simple, and it demands several compromises to accommodate resource availability in the Chinese market. The compromises open the door to be filled with Chinese flavors.
