My grandmother’s consolation meals of selection was a bowl of buttered egg noodles tossed with cottage cheese and bitter cream. Referred to as “lokshen mit kaese” in Yiddish, this carb-fest might be savory or candy, elaborate or plain, not a lot a recipe as a light template with numerous variations.
However Grandma by no means different it. She was hardly a casual cook dinner. In her austere Brooklyn kitchen, she would unfailingly combine tuna salad with candy pickle relish, serve vegetarian borscht with Saltines and all the time seasoned her lokshen mit kaese with cinnamon, raisins and a tiny sprinkle of sugar. It was just a little candy, very creamy, barely tangy from the bitter cream and scented with spice.
My mom was extra adventurous and had her personal concepts in regards to the dish. She appreciated these creamy, cottage cheese-filled egg noodles savory and determined they made an ideal nest for any and all leftovers she might pull from the fridge: a dollop of whitefish salad; a slice of meatloaf; a takeout container of stir-fried rooster and snow peas. The mellow, forgiving noodles welcomed all of it.
I stick near my grandmother’s minimalism in my tackle this pantry-friendly recipe, maintaining it to a handful of elements to extract essentially the most taste. However like my mom, I’m all the time excited to strive one thing new.
The result’s each easy and surprising, at the very least for lokshen mit kaese. The very first thing I did was to nix the cheese and double down on the bitter cream, to create a silky texture with out the bits of curd. Then, to focus on the egg issue of the noodles, I added precise jammy eggs, breaking them aside over the bowl to catch each drip and crumble of yolk.
This was a tremendous, filling bowl of yellow-hued nourishment, nevertheless it nonetheless wished a pop of colour and zip. A handful of chopped scallions and dill gave it verdant freshness, and a squeeze of lemon amped the acidity.
It was excellent, nevertheless it nonetheless appeared incomplete. I remembered the candy chewiness that my grandmother’s raisins gave the dish and realized {that a} textural distinction was what I missed. A sprinkle of poppy seeds lent it the light, crunchy nuttiness that was wanted to carry collectively all the weather. They usually jogged my memory of my mom and grandmother, each of whom cherished a poppy seed bagel — yet one more carb-filled consolation meals that unites us three.
