Kreplach are Jewish dumplings that exist at the precise intersection of culinary obligation and culinary pleasure — you make them because your grandmother made them, and then you discover that your grandmother's technique was actually correct. Lisa Storch, whose Catch a Healthy Habit in Fairfield operates on an all-organic gluten-free philosophy, applied that same rigor to a dish that predates organic certification by several centuries.
Storch's kreplach dough is built for gluten-free flour blends, which don't develop the same network as wheat flour and require xanthan gum in precise proportion — 1/4 teaspoon per cup of flour — to create the stretch that lets you roll thin without cracking. The filling is a braised beef composition that is cooled completely before filling, because warm filling steams the dough from the inside and produces a gummy seal. She seals with a water-only edge and presses with a fork, not a crimper, which creates more surface area for the seal to hold.
A Sedona institution cooking kreplach in Connecticut is already a story worth following. Bobby's version of the dish had no such story, and tasted like it.