Saturday, November 3, 2007

Saturday

Spinach kugel (recipe in the comments)
Sauteed beets and garlic

Carmel apple with nuts (Whole Foods brand - yes, you *should* try one)
Twix
Hot tea
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This recipe was inspired by a spinach kugel recipe in Enchanted Broccoli Forest, the second of Molly Katzen's cookbooks (after the famed Moosewood Cookbook) and M and I have been cooking it together since our junior year in college. Yes, that's when we started cooking together and we've made it a priority to cook as a team six nights a week (on average) ever since (J does a lot of prep now that T is in the picture, but the tradition stands). Kugel is a traditional Jewish casserole and usually involves noodles or potatoes. It's often sweet. The original spinach kugel recipe was more savory than your standard kugel. We've made the recipe zippy-er and a bit less prep intensive than the original. Somehow we always manage to have beets of some sort with this - I think it's the balance of the dark red and dark green.

Prep Notes
Difficulty: Easy
Chopping: Garlic
Time: 20 minutes to prep, 45 minutes to bake
Make ahead: Kugel is good hot, warm, or cold so you can do the whole thing ahead (or mix the ingrediants ahead and bake last minute).

Reaction
J: "Kugel should never be boring."
M: "Oy, you should have such a good meal!"

5 comments:

J said...

Spinach Kugel – J & M (adapted from Molly Katzen)
Serves 6

Cooking spray
1 lb frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry
4 eggs
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb cottage cheese
1 t salt
¼ t ground nutmeg (fresh ground from a whole nutmeg is best)
Juice from one juicy lemon (2 if they’re dry lemons)
1 cup Italian seasoned panko-style breadcrumbs, divided
Ground pepper
Paprika

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spray an 8 x 11 baking dish with cooking spray.

Beat eggs in a large mixing bowl. Add spinach, garlic, cottage cheese, salt, nutmeg, lemon juice, ¾ cups breadcrumbs, and pepper (to taste, we use about ½ T) and stir well to combine. Transfer to the baking dish and smooth into corners. Top with remaining ¼ cup breadcrumbs and paprika. Cover with aluminum foil.

Bake for 35 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Cut into squares to serve.

Rudi said...

Thanks for sending us the link to this blog, Jess. Maybe we'll soon have 20 dinners!!!

Unknown said...

Just so you guys know, I'm going to make this. I can use lactaid cottage cheese. I'm excited for kugel delight!

J said...

I have done it with Lactaid cottage cheese for my mom. It's lovely. Enjoy!

Denver Girl said...

Where's the egg noodles? Got to have noodles