Kreplach

Long ago in a faraway land, I, youngblackpetero lived. Once a year on the Jewish New Year my parents would invite hoards of people over for the first day lunch. Preparations began weeks in advance. Blackmothero would spend hours in the kitchen bothering the maids while they put together a wonderful feast for those simple folk of my faraway town lucky enough to be invited. The highlight of the day was when Blackfathero would strut around proud as a peacock, offering and re-offering the fried kreplach. These delicious morsels, a simple blob of mince wrapped in a thin pastry, fried golden brown, were legendary in our family. Michael Radomsky was reported to hold the world record of 124 (or was that 421) in one sitting. No matter how many Joycie fried, they would vanish long before the server could make it back to the kitchen. Traditional kreplach, a small dumpling filled with ground meat, are usually boiled and served in soup. Somewhere, somehow my family decided to fry these and serve them as finger food. They were just the delicious sort of things childhoods are blessed with.

Fast forward a few decades. Blackfathero is unfortunately not with us any more and during these holidays his presence is especially missed. But, my Houston family, ever the believers in tradition, still follow the path set out all those years ago in the old country. There are some changes. The first day lunch has become the evening meal on the night of the New Year. This now belongs to my sister, blacksistero. She worked very hard this week and even made a spongecake (from scratch), so that we could have the traditional brandy and spongecake toast that Blackfathero loved so much. Blackmothero, a little slower but twice as stressed, spent hours in the kitchen. Together they made chicken soup (vegetarian - not even a chicken could tell), brisket, real chopped liver (disgusting) and of course, fried kreplach. These days they use won ton leaves rather than spending hours rolling dough into thin leaves. Instead of real ground meat they used a vegetarian alternative (very nice of them). They are still fried golden brown.

When I arrived at Blacksistero's tonight, I was able to steal a few kreppies before anyone noticed. I ate quite a few more. The whole meal was great and as warm as ever. I miss being away over the holidays and this was a rare treat. Now perhaps the memory of those kreplach we had back in the old days has become idealized over the years. Maybe they really were not so good. But, to be brutally honest, to my taste, the new version is definitely 80%.

Addendum:I hang my head in shame at my sloppy reporting. I have been corrected and must apologize. Blackmothero rolls the dough for the kreplach by hand. She NEVER uses won ton leaves, that would simply be sacrilege. Clearly the fall in quality of the kreplach is solely due to my changing tastes. I beg forgiveness, and admit the 80% is me.