Traditional LITHUANIAN National Dish Tutorial -- KUGELIS -- Grated Potato Pudding / Potato Pie

♥ ♥Lithuania's National Dish: Grated Potato Pudding -- Kugelis aka -- grated potato pudding, baked potato pudding, flat potato dish, potato cake, potato pie, thick potato cake. ✿Special thanks goes to a special friend and the recipe source, maskedman46. You can visit him at: http://www.youtube.com/maskedman46✿


~RECIPE~
6 LARGE russet baking potatoes ~or~ 5 pound bag
1 large onion
1 lb. bacon
1 stick butter
8 large eggs
1-2 C. of hot milk or canned evaporated milk
Salt / Pepper

Preheat oven to 450.

Peel potatoes and place in ice water. You may add some citric acid to the water bath to keep the potatoes from turning brown, but I don't. The cold water keeps the potatoes crispy and makes them easier to grate. Set bowl of iced potatoes aside.

Peel and dice one large onion and set aside.

Fry up entire pound of bacon. Keep the bacon grease and melt one stick of butter in it.

Saute the onions in the oils until they are opaque. Do NOT caramelize them. Once done, remove pan from heat and set aside. Do NOT drain.

Crush or Crumble up the fried bacon and add to bacon/butter mixture. Stir and set aside. --(**Note** you can opt. NOT to add bacon to potato mixture and instead sprinkle it on top of dish--I personally liked it better mixed in)

Crack 8 eggs in bowl and lightly whisk. Set aside.

NOW, start grating/shredding the potatoes on the smallest blade on your grater. (A box grater is best). I found it easiest to grate them onto a cookie sheet. **Note: Potatoes will start oxidizing/turning brown. This does NOT affect taste. If you do not like this, you may add some citric acid powder the potatoes.

After grating, strain all liquid from potatoes. You may either squeeze the potatoes with your hands, use cheese cloth, or put in strainer and mash out juice. Just do what works best for you. Discard potato starch juice.

Heat milk in microwave. (or may scald it in saucepan)

Now, it's time to assemble. In large bowl, mix together the grated potatoes, onion/bacon/grease/butter mixture, hot milk, eggs, salt and pepper to taste.

Pour into a generously buttered 13×9x2 -GLASS- rectangle baking dish.

Place in oven and cook at 450 for about 45 min. until browning on bottom and edges starts. Then, turn oven temp. down to 350 and cook for 1-2 additional hours or until nice golden brown and toothpick or knife inserted comes out clean.

Let cool 30 minutes before serving. Top with generous dollop of sour cream or applesauce. May also need to salt your serving as well.

Leftovers: Slice thinly and fry both sides in butter! Yummmmmyyy!
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Special Notes:

✿✿Do NOT -- use a food processor, blender, or preshredded hashbrowns to make this. The texture of the potatoes will NOT be the same.
Kugelis may be served as a main dish or as a side dish. I personally ate it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner...lol.

✿✿Recommendations: There is a NEW Electric Potato Grater out there for the Kugelis makers that will grate 10 lbs. of WHOLE potatoes in minutes!! It's Grandma Ann's Grater and has a heavy-duty cast aluminum body and 1/2hp motor!!! I am providing you with links below to check it out!.

Check out Grandma Ann's Grater - Home of the World's Best Grater!!
**Website: http://www.grandma-anns.com/

**See Grandma Ann's product video: http://www.youtube.com/user/ElectricGrater

--and here too (video of disassembly)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJabXigh6iU&feature=channel_video_title

**To join Grandma Ann on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Grandma-Anns-Grater-Home-of-the-Worlds-Best-Gra...

✿✿To see a map and get some quick facts about Lithuania, visit:
http://tinyurl.com/yk6j7d8

✿✿To hear the CORRECT pronunciation of Kugelis, go to:
http://tinyurl.com/y8frdcu


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Extra Tidbits of Info:
I Copied this from a website for you to read: "Hope you check this one out -- for everyone who likes to travel the world in their kitchen! A Taste of Lithuanian Cooking, A Collection of Recipes by Raimonda Braddock, a delightful Lithuanian-American I met at the November 2007 International Festival in Columbus Ohio.
She shares her story in how she came to be here, a bit about Lithuania, and a very nice selection of recipes. Yes, I have made Kugelis and the family loved it so I willl be using her cookbook. I'm not a cookbook collector but glad to have this one with her autograph. It's modestly priced and well done. Email her at raimute1978@yahoo.com and ask about ordering an autographed copy! Happy cooking and travels. Thanks David Cottrell, Executive Chef with discusscooking.com"

~~Hope You Enjoy Your Kugelis!!!!~~

© 2009 Debra Lynn aka Texasmom17

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[zub1964]

Yum ! This looks good.

[TexasMom17]

@zub1964 It IS!!! Bacon...bacon...bacon in it too! LOL. It's one of those ZERO calorie dishes! When I make it...I have it for breakfast, lunch, and supper/dinner. LOL

[Maskedman46]

What I am seeing is we need 2 keep the juice and white starch as it's a thickener and cut the eggs for that amount of potatoes because I am grating 20 pounds in my Lithuanian Electric grater.Yours does look Great but what we lack is amount of potatoes used, yours are tiny while mine are enormous russets.You should try with 10 pounds next time and see consistency to reduce the eggs to maybe 2. My ELECTRIC grater grates 20 pounds in a few minutes, leaving you in the dust to go swimming and jacuzzi

[TexasMom17]

@Maskedman46 Sorry MM....I got NO notification, you'd replied...I found your comment awaiting approval when I approved Arlenes.... It's about time to make this again...lol. I will try your updates to the recipe when I make it again!!! Siiiighhh....teasing me with that fancy grater....have you no shame? LOL

[Ivoryticklermama]

I loce your videos and love to cook too !!

~Joan~ louisiana.

[Maskedman46]

What I am seeing is we need 2 keep the juice and white starch as it's a thickener and cut the eggs for that amount of potatoes because I am grating 20 pounds in my Lithuanian Electric grater.Yours does look Great but what we lack is amount of potatoes used, yours are tiny while mine are enormous russets.You should try with 10 pounds next time and see consistency to reduce the eggs to maybe 2. My ELECTRIC grater grates 20 pounds in a few minutes, leaving you in the dust to go swimming and jacuzzi

[TexasMom17]

@andriusmosta Thank you for telling me how you make yours!! Sorry it took so long to approve your comment...I didn't get a notification you'd replied....

[Jyre13]

@andriusmosta Actually ,Kugelis does have eggs in it. Well to be more clear, my mom puts eggs , because she says it tastes better. So you can put it or not, depends on the flavor u like ;]

[andriusmosta]

Part 2... Put the milk to the bowl with potatoes and onions, mix well. Milk gives a solid white color to potatoes.Then I use some chicken( tighs or drumsticks), I cook the chicken in the pan on a high heat, until its crispy and brown. To the baking pan(for kugelis) I put 1/3 of the potato mixture, put the chicken on top of it and put the rest of the mixture on top of meat, so its covers everything. Cooking time is 1 hour at 200 C(375F). The one that is left is the sauce.:)

[andriusmosta]

@TexasMom17 Well I can tell you the way I do kugelis:)

The ingredients are: 2kg(I'm in Europe so it's kg:)) of potatoes, 2 onions, 0.5l of milk and salt with pepper.

For the sauce: pork belly slices, or smoked belly slices( in this case I don't put any salt to the sauce because smoked belly is very salty itself), 1 onion, and 3 tablespoons of craime fraiche.

So first of all grate the potatoes and onions with the same grater, put it in a bowl(don't strain), then heat the milk until buble.Part 1

[TexasMom17]

@andriusmosta Thank you for your time in viewing. I appreciate your input. As you state, there are many variations. I'm a subscriber to a couple of lithuanian communities that submit recipes and their Kugelis recipes vary slightly to this recipe, but all have eggs and all drain the juice. I've not see your variation, but I will pass your comment onto my friend that shared his with me. Yes, I love the dish...potatoes are one of my favorite staples in the kitchen.