Yapchik. With a Name Like That It Better Be Good.

And it is! Here’s the story of how I came to do it right.

Yapchik: literal translation: potato kugel with a layer of meat in it.  Not so literal translation: serious Jewish comfort food.

For years the mere thought of Yapchik made me queasy. I might have tasted one that was way too heavy, or maybe it was mostly the thought of all that saturated fat, soaking my nutritious grated potatoes. Anyone who has ever cooked any type of meat, especially if using flanken, knows how much fat comes up once refrigerated. That white, unsightly congealed artery clogger is the last thing I want to eat. If I put meat in my potato kugel, it will inevitably get soaked into the mixture.

Well, last year, my son went to his classmate for Shabbos. He came back raving about the incredible yapchik Mrs. So-and-So prepared. You had to see his big eyes get even bigger when he described it, in extreme detail. Words like “heaven” and “soooooo yummy” were used. I think there was an “awesome” thrown in for special effect too. “Ma, you must call her!!” he yelled, throwing a phone into my hands  “We need to cook this.” Please notice the “we” which really means “you” but is a very creative way for a 9-year-old to get me to believe that I am not in this alone.

So, I relented. I called Mrs. So-and-So and after the usual small talk, asked for her recipe/method and complete yapchik history. I might have called her back 3 times just to make sure I got all the details right. There also might have been a paper and a pencil involved at some point. No, yapchik is not complicated, I just didn’t want to mess it up. I took the task seriously.

Nevertheless, mess it up I did. The meat was hard and rubbery, the potato kugel water-logged. I wasn’t quite sure what went wrong.

Luckily (for who, I’m not quite sure), that week, there was a siyum in cheder and guess what, one uber-dedicated mom sent a homemade yapchik for all the boys to enjoy. Yapchik Lover came home from cheder and once again and wouldn’t stop talking about the feast he had. “Ma, you gotta call Mrs K.!! She’s the Yapchik Queen!!” He was getting really creative with the adjectives. So I called the Yapchik Queen and took more notes. I am a Yiddishe mama after all, how could I deprive my children of some good over-the-top calories, right? (insert sarcasm here).

Well, the yapchik was really tasty but I couldn’t bring myself to eat any. I knew it was not something I wanted my children to eat either. Even my kids agreed that it was too heavy. So we put yapchik, once again, on the back burner.

One sunny Friday morning, out of the blue, as I was getting ready to grate my potatoes, I remembered I had some ready-cooked flanken in my fridge. After removing the fat, I cut the flanken meat into small cubes and added it to the potato kugel mixture. I made a small pan, to try. The result was a great success, and I have perfected the recipe since. My “aha” moment was cooking the meat in advance, removing it from its fatty gravy, and cutting it up. This achieved two things: it helped remove a huge chunk of fat, and it rendered the meat super soft.

Yapchik is the ultimate Pesach food. I always find Pesach Shabbos day a difficult meal without the usual comforting cholent. Not everyone likes potatoes. We all miss the beans and the barley.  Yapchik will fill that void really well. Warm and satisfying, there isn’t anyone that doesn’t love it. And, here is the best part: you can prepare in advance and freeze.

Here’s how I did it:

I basically followed Leah Shapira’s fantastic potato kugel recipe (what a revelation that was! Yellow potatoes? Total game changer, never going back to my Idaho)

I say “basically” because I changed it  drop just so it works for the two pans I like to use (read on to see what and why)

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