Photography by Menachem Goodman

The Backstory

It’s a two-day process. First, she finds the best meat. Then she cooks it low and slow and grinds it. The next step is to render chicken skin to create schmaltz. And lastly, she fries tons of onions. That’s when it’s finally go time. A team of 10 or more people start making the dough, rolling it out, placing the filling, and closing them up. Meanwhile, another person stands over a few pots of boiling water, cooking them and tossing them into the schmaltz. When they’re all done, they’re frozen, divided among many bags, and stored in the freezer for Erev Yom Kippur and Purim.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how my grandmother makes her famous kreplach. I’m proud to say I’m the only one she trusts with making the dough and rolling it out.

This ordeal takes place at the end of the summer. We don’t make a hundred kreplach; it’s more like a thousand. The recipe we use was my great-grandmother’s, and from what I hear, she was an amazing cook. I’ve tried many kreplach, but none are as good as my Bobbi’s.

I love to cook and eat Asian food. I’m not sure if it’s the unique flavors or the high-heat cooking method, but you can always find some Asian-inspired ingredients in my pantry.

Breaking boundaries is what I believe in. So when I saw that a restaurant in NYC makes “matzah ball dumplings,” I was all for trying to recreate it. Taking Jewish comfort foods like matzah balls and chicken soup and marrying them with Asian dumplings was an obvious decision for me. I got to work right away, and the results were everything you can imagine and more. This Purim, break with tradition, and instead of making classic kreplach, make these instead.

To close off this article, I want to apologize to my grandmother. I know I promised that I’ll always make your kreplach recipe, but once you try these, you’ll forgive me. And to all of you old-time Jews, I’m not trying to recreate a classic; I’m team chicken soup with matzah balls all day. But sometimes, when you can’t choose, you must merge the two and create magic.