Vegetarian Kishke

When I was a kid, I loved kishke. Then one day I made the mistake of asking my mom what it was. HA.. For those of you who don’t know, kishke is a stuffed section of cow intestines, I thought it was kind of chewy!

The stuffing is made of bread crumbs or flour, onion, carrots, celery & spices. Well, I have not eaten kishke since then…unless I can find it without any casing.

I remember the kishke was always cooked in the bottom of a roaster with a chicken beside it so that it took on the wonderful flavour of the chicken. Then we would pour the juice from the pan on top of the kishke… it really was good. My mom used the same filling that goes into the intestine for the kishke as the stuffing for her turkey (this I ate!)

 Then, the other day I was at my friend’s house, Anna Shapiro, she teaches me so much about food & life & she wanted me to taste something.. I always want to taste everything she has cooked or baked. It was a vegetarian kishke & it was delicious ..as is everything this woman makes. I have several of her recipes to share on this blog, so you can look forward to that!  This recipe was written on a piece of paper so I am unsure of its origin.

Here is the recipe

Vegetarian Kishke

Ingredients

3 big carrots, peeled

4 stalks celery

1 med onion

1 tsp paprika

1 – 2 tsp salt *** I like 2 tsp salt

Pepper, just a dash

Dried sage, a pinch

3/4 cup oil

paprika *** you sprinkle this on later … see method #10

1 1/2 cups flour or bread crumbs ***for Passover use matzo meal, I tried it and it works just as well

Method

Preheat oven to 350f

1. The recipe says the carrots should be grated, the celery & onion to be finely chopped. I used my food processor to mince the carrots, celery & onion together , but be careful not to overprocess. Mrs Sharpiro grates the carrots by hand, finely chops the celery & grates 1/2 the onion & finely chops the other half
2. Put the prepared vegetables into a bowl & add the spices
3. Add the oil, mix well
4. Add the flour & combine throughly
5. Get 3 pieces of aluminim foil out & spray each piece with non-stick cooking spray ***but if you forget thats ok ….I forgot & it came off the foil perfectly
6. Divide the kishke mixture into 3 portions
7. Place one portion of mixture onto each piece of foil. Using the foil to help you… form the mixture into a log about 1/2 or 1 inch wide.
8. Place the ‘logs’ into a big enough baking pan with high sides…like a pyrex or a big alluminam roaster pan. Do not have the logs touch each other. Place 1/2 cup of water in the bottom of the baking pan. This keeps the bottom from getting too hard while the rest of the kishke is soft.
9. Bake for 50 minutes  ***The water will evaporate, this is ok, it was just to give the kishke a start…as Mrs. Shapiro tells me!
10. After 50 minutes, open up the foil, sprinkle some paprika on the top of each roll & continue cooking for another 10 minutes to allow the tops to brown & dry up a bit
11. Eat with anything!! Alone as I did with the leftovers…with meat…with chicken…with turkey…  This is savory & delicious…I bet it would be good as a side with some tofu too!!!

Enjoy!