My mom sometimes makes this sweet kugel recipe as a main course - heaven knows it has enough calories to be a whole meal. She got the recipe from my Great Aunt Lillian, whose photo oversees my kitchen. I find noodle kugel is also a great breakfast, even served cold! It's a great comfort food, reminded me of home. It's also easy and fairly fast to make.
I've added one tweak to it over the years - the cornflakes (or rice flakes) coating the top. I picked up this trick from Norman Mael, our synagogues premier chef. I find it prevents the top noodles from burning, plus gives the kugel a satisfying crunch. The only problem is if you can't serve it straight out of the oven. The corn flakes get soft over time. But it'll still be tasty!
Last time I served this was at our synagogue's pot luck Rosh Hashanah picnic at the Bloomsburg town boat launch. The day reaffirmed the benefits of living in a small town - particularly THIS small town.
Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year celebration. An optional ceremony for it is a Tashlich service, which involves throwing bread into a body of water to symbolically throw away your sins. I thought having the potluck immediately afterward, in the picnic pavilion by the boat launch, would be a grand way to celebrate the holiday.
But I misremembered the number of picnic tables under the pavilion.
I thought there were four. There were only two - not enough for a congregation picnic. I discovered my error the day before, during a morning jog past the pavilion. It was too late to move locations. I didn't have a truck to haul the tables from the synagogue there, and they're tough to maneuver out of the basement anyway.
So Leon went to the town crew's building and told them my dilemma. And by the next morning, those wonderful people used heavy equipment to bring two more tables to the pavilion there. Yay, Bloomsburg!
Ingredients:
1 package of wide egg noodles, cooked al dente according to package directions.
Three eggs
1/2 C sugar
1/2 pound cottage cheese
1/2 pint sour cream (1 Cup)
1/4 pound cream cheese
1 tsp. vanilla
1 small can of crushed pineapple
golden raisins to taste (I use at least a cup)
1.5 C crushed cornflakes (optional)
cinnamon to taste.
1. Butter a 9x13 inch baking pan. Cook noodles al dente, according to the package directions.
2. Beat eggs well. Add 1/4 Cup sugar, the cottage cheese, the sour cream, the cream cheese, the vanilla and the crushed pineapple. Mix.
3. Add the egg mixture to the cooked noodles. Mix. Add the raisins.
4. Crush the corn flakes - I use a rolling pin. Mix with the rest of the sugar and the cinnamon until you like the taste. In a pinch - or if you misread the label - you can also use Special K rice flakes. Spread the corn flakes on top of your kugel.
If you don't use cornflakes, just mix the sugar and cinnamon and spread that over the top of the kugel.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour.
Showing posts with label cottage cheese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cottage cheese. Show all posts
Sunday, October 8, 2017
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Cheese blintzes
This recipe is from Mark Russ Federman's book, Russ and Daughters, the story of a famous appetizing store in New York. Appetizing stores are like delis for fish - especially smoked fish. The idea is that they sell all the foods, under the laws regarding kosher cooking, can't be eaten with dairy.
I learned about this the hard way. My immediate family does not keep kosher. I knew a few basics - that pork was verbotten for kosher folks, for example, and so was shellfish. But it wasn't until we were visiting my much more religious relatives in Scotland that I learned that you can't eat dairy with meat. We were at a restaurant, and I started to order a roastbeef sandwich with cheese when my mother kicked me under the table, then ordered a cheeseless roast beef sandwich for me. I got whacked again when I tried to pour milk in my tea after the meal. She explained afterward.
Apparently it has something to do with a line in the Torah forbidding Jews from cooking a kid in its mother's milk. Why this translates to not eating beef with milk from an unrelated cow on the side is a question that's beyond me.
A couple hints about this recipe: I found it was easier to make the crepes than I imagined, and also a lot of fun. The batter recipe also made a LOT more crepes than it claimed. Be prepared - you will likely run out of filling. Theoretically, this makes 12 to 14 blintzes, enough for six people. I made a half batch and got 20. But then again, I played around to see how thin I could make the crepes.
Can't find farmer's cheese? No problem. Take small-curd cottage cheese, stick it in cheese cloth, and let it hang over a bowl for 7 hours so most of the whey is strained out. I'm told coffee filters work in place of cheese cloth, too. The whey tastes kind of like buttermilk and is a nice snack.
You can put any fruit sauce over this, but I actually like it best with fresh fruit instead. The peaches from Drum's Produce on River Hill are especially nice with these.
Ingredients:
Crepes:
2 cups whole milk
4 large eggs
1 1/3 cups flour
Filling:
1 /12 pound farmer's cheese (don't panic! See note above on how to make a reasonable facsimile when you fail to find it at the store.)
1/2 cup plus 2 TBs sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Cooking:
Unsalted butter.
1. Combine crepe ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. Pour batter into a bow and let it rest 30 minutes.
2. While the batter rests, make the filling by combining all its ingredients in the food processor and running it until the mixture is smooth. Incidentally, I think this would also make a dynamite cannoli filling.
3. Melt a little butter in a heavy 8-inch non-stick skillet - or heat the skillet on medium and rub the butter over it. Don't compromise on this one - the skillet MUST be non-stick. A few crepes cooked on a non-stick pan won't kill you.
4. Ladle in just enough batter to coat the bottom of the skillet - tip the skilled to coat it evenly. Let it cook until it's set - it'll only take a minute or two. Then use a plastic spatula (so you don't scratch your pan) to loosen the crepe. Flip it over to cook for a couple seconds on the other side - until it's nice and gold. Then remove to a paper-towel-lined plate. Repeat until you run out of batter.
5. Spoon about 4 TBs of filling down the center of each crepe. Fold over the ends, then roll it up like a burrito. Serve immediately or rewarm in a 250-degree oven. Note - Sam Dion feels strongly the crepes should have even more filling, so much that they come out round.
I learned about this the hard way. My immediate family does not keep kosher. I knew a few basics - that pork was verbotten for kosher folks, for example, and so was shellfish. But it wasn't until we were visiting my much more religious relatives in Scotland that I learned that you can't eat dairy with meat. We were at a restaurant, and I started to order a roastbeef sandwich with cheese when my mother kicked me under the table, then ordered a cheeseless roast beef sandwich for me. I got whacked again when I tried to pour milk in my tea after the meal. She explained afterward.
Apparently it has something to do with a line in the Torah forbidding Jews from cooking a kid in its mother's milk. Why this translates to not eating beef with milk from an unrelated cow on the side is a question that's beyond me.
A couple hints about this recipe: I found it was easier to make the crepes than I imagined, and also a lot of fun. The batter recipe also made a LOT more crepes than it claimed. Be prepared - you will likely run out of filling. Theoretically, this makes 12 to 14 blintzes, enough for six people. I made a half batch and got 20. But then again, I played around to see how thin I could make the crepes.
Can't find farmer's cheese? No problem. Take small-curd cottage cheese, stick it in cheese cloth, and let it hang over a bowl for 7 hours so most of the whey is strained out. I'm told coffee filters work in place of cheese cloth, too. The whey tastes kind of like buttermilk and is a nice snack.
You can put any fruit sauce over this, but I actually like it best with fresh fruit instead. The peaches from Drum's Produce on River Hill are especially nice with these.
Ingredients:
Crepes:
2 cups whole milk
4 large eggs
1 1/3 cups flour
Filling:
1 /12 pound farmer's cheese (don't panic! See note above on how to make a reasonable facsimile when you fail to find it at the store.)
1/2 cup plus 2 TBs sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Cooking:
Unsalted butter.
1. Combine crepe ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. Pour batter into a bow and let it rest 30 minutes.
2. While the batter rests, make the filling by combining all its ingredients in the food processor and running it until the mixture is smooth. Incidentally, I think this would also make a dynamite cannoli filling.
3. Melt a little butter in a heavy 8-inch non-stick skillet - or heat the skillet on medium and rub the butter over it. Don't compromise on this one - the skillet MUST be non-stick. A few crepes cooked on a non-stick pan won't kill you.
4. Ladle in just enough batter to coat the bottom of the skillet - tip the skilled to coat it evenly. Let it cook until it's set - it'll only take a minute or two. Then use a plastic spatula (so you don't scratch your pan) to loosen the crepe. Flip it over to cook for a couple seconds on the other side - until it's nice and gold. Then remove to a paper-towel-lined plate. Repeat until you run out of batter.
5. Spoon about 4 TBs of filling down the center of each crepe. Fold over the ends, then roll it up like a burrito. Serve immediately or rewarm in a 250-degree oven. Note - Sam Dion feels strongly the crepes should have even more filling, so much that they come out round.
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