Cottage Cheese Fun: Stuffed Shells, Dill Rolls, & Chile Egg Puff

How do you end up with six pints of cottage cheese in your fridge? Believe me, it isn’t easy. Here’s the story: I like cottage cheese as a snack, and think of it mainly as a savory food. I like it topped with chopped chives/scallions, a spoonful of salsa, a dash of any one of the numerous spice blends I keep on hand, or a sprinkle of freshly ground pepper. But I don’t care for the cottage cheese and fruit combination – that simply does nothing for me.

A few weeks ago I thought that a nice scoop of cottage cheese sprinkled with a spice blend and served with unsalted pretzels would be a perfect mid-afternoon snack for both me and my husband. So I wrote “cottage cheese” on the kitchen whiteboard where I keep my grocery list. I knew what those simple words meant: Go to Safeway; pick up a pint container of Lucerne No Salt Added 1% Milk Fat Cottage Cheese; pick up another pint container of regular salted cottage cheese; go home and combine the contents of both cartons and repack them.

I find the unsalted cottage cheese unpalatable by itself; it's OK for cooking but not for snacking. But regular cottage cheese is too salty. The solution, for me, is to blend equal parts of both kinds, creating a lower sodium yet tasty product.

But life interfered with my great plans. I wasn’t feeling well for a few days, and my husband did the grocery shopping. He copied the list and went out. Poor guy! He didn’t know all the intricacies involved in buying cottage cheese, so he came home with a quart of the regular stuff. Once I explained the situation, he went out again, this time to Safeway, and came back with four pints of the Lucerne unsalted product. So we ended up with 6 pints of cottage all at once! We combined the salted quart with two of the unsalted pints. And then it was time to start using up all that cottage cheese.

I got some inspiration from the dear folks at the Recipe Exchange forum and decided to make stuffed pasta shells. A few days later, I was feeling well enough to go out grocery shopping for a bit. I picked up some jumbo pasta shells, some fresh baby spinach (in a bag), and a jar of Classico Roasted Garlic pasta sauce. It has the lowest sodium content of all the many prepared pasta sauces sold at my local grocery stores, just 220 mg. sodium per ½ cup.

I really didn’t follow a recipe. I browned some ground pork I had in the freezer and combined it with the Classico sauce; I added an 8 oz. can of unsalted tomato sauce to lower the sodium content even more. I combined one pint of the unsalted cottage cheese with 2-3 cloves of crushed garlic, about 3 tbsp. of chopped basil (frozen during the summer), about ½ the spinach (chopped), one beaten egg, about 3 tbsp. of shredded Parmesan cheese, and a couple of tablespoons of finely ground homemade bread crumbs. I stuffed about 18 shells that had been cooked in unsalted water, lined them up in a Pyrex casserole, and poured the sauce over them. I sprinkled some sliced fresh mushrooms on top, covered them with foil and baked everything at about 375 degrees until the filling was set and hot.

My husband loved the shells, and we ate them all up over the course of two days. A couple of days later, I made them again but with Trader Giotto’s (Trader Joe’s) Organic Marinara Sauce (no salt added & low fat). This second version was meatless. Again, a hit. Two pints of cottage cheese gone.

Recipe Exchange members also suggested making cottage cheese & dill bread or rolls. Since I’m still getting used to my new bread machine, I decided to use a recipe designed specifically for one, Beth Hensperger’s “Cottage Cheese Dill Bread” from The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook. However, instead of making a loaf, I made sandwich rolls. And I used dill seed rather than dill weed. One forum member shared a recipe that included a tablespoon of horseradish; that addition sounded intriguing to me, so I used it. The end result was wonderful. The rolls are soft and tasty. Perfect for sandwiches. And almost another full carton of cottage cheese used up.

Cottage Cheese Dill Bread
Adapted from Beth Hensperger's, The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook
(Printable Recipe)

3 tbsp. olive oil
1 large shallot, chopped (I used ½ of a medium sized sweet onion)

1-1/3 cups NSA cottage cheese
1/3 cup fat-free milk
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
(I added 1 tbsp. prepared horseradish)
3-1/3 cups bread flour
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. gluten
1-1/2 tbsp. dried dill weed (I used 1 tbsp. dill seed)
1-3/4 tsp. salt (I only used 3/4 tsp. salt)
2-1/4 tsp. SAF yeast or 1-3/4 tsp. bread machine yeast (I only used 1 tsp. bread machine yeast)

1. Heat the oil in a small skillet, and sauté the shallot until translucent. Set aside to cool to warm.

2. Place the ingredients in the pan according to the order in the manufacturer’s instructions, adding the shallot with the liquid ingredients (I added the horseradish with the liquids). Set crust on dark and program for Basic cycle; press Start. The dough ball will look very dry at first and take a few minutes to come together. Resist the urge to add more liquid.

3. When the baking cycle ends, immediately remove the bread from the pan and place it on a rack. Let cool to room temperature before slicing. (2-Pound Loaf)

Notes: I used the dough cycle and let the dough knead & rise in the bread machine. I divided it into 12 equal sized dough balls. I placed the dough balls on a jelly roll sheet lined with parchment paper and pressed to flatten each roll. I covered the rolls loosely with plastic wrap and let them rest for about 30 minutes.

I baked the rolls at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes on the middle oven rack, and then placed the pan directly on my oven stone for about another 7 minutes. I wanted to make sure the bottoms were cooked. After taking the baked rolls out of the oven, I immediately transferred them to cooling racks.

Finally, another forum member shared a recipe for a Chile-Cheese Egg Puff. It used green chilies and cottage cheese. My husband loves green chilies and I still needed to use up some cottage cheese, so I gave it a try. I made some changes, though. First I cut the recipe in half and used a lot less hard cheese than the recipe called for in order to cut sodium content. I used an extra sharp cheddar rather than the milder Jack cheese called for in the recipe. I find that when lowering salt content, it’s important to use products with some zing & flavor impact. I also used less butter. The end result was a wonderful omelet-like casserole. In fact, I’ve made it twice. It’s the type of dish that could be adapted to all kinds of additional vegetables or flavorings. And it used up more cottage cheese. Here’s the halved recipe:

Chile-Cheese Egg Puff
Becky from GardenWeb's Recipe Exchange
(Printable Recipe)


5 eggs
¼ cup flour
½ tsp. baking powder (I used Featherweight sodium free baking powder)
1 cup NSA cottage cheese
4-6 oz. shredded cheese
2 tbsp. melted unsalted butter
1 small (4 oz) can chopped green chilies (rinsed, drained, and pressed dry in paper towels)

Beat eggs until light and lemon-colored. Add flour, baking powder, cheese, and butter, blending smoothly. Stir in chilies. Pour into well-buttered 8 x 8 baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until top is brown and center appears firm. (I ended up baking the casserole for about 40-45 minutes.) Serve hot.

And yet… In spite of all the above, one final (and lonely) partially used pint of cottage cheese still remains.

Turkey Scrapple

According to Wikipedia, "Scrapple is a savory mush of scraps and trimmings combined with cornmeal... The mush is formed into a loaf, and slices of the scrapple are then fried before serving. Scraps of meat left over from butchering... were made into scrapple to avoid waste... Scrapple is typically made of hog offal, such as the head, heart, liver, and other scraps, which are boiled with any bones attached (often the entire head), to make a broth... Scrapple is arguably the first pork food invented in America. The first recipes were created more than two-hundred years ago by Dutch colonists who settled near Philadelphia and Chester County, Pennsylvania in the 17th and 18th centuries."

OK, so that's the history of pork scrapple in the United States. So how did turkey scrapple end up becoming a tradition in this California Greek's household? Well, years ago, before I was married, a friend from church came over to my parents' house for Thanksgiving dinner. Somehow, during the course of the preparation & cleanup, she described how she used the turkey carcass to make scrapple. It sounded really interesting to both me and my mom. My mother decided to give it a try, and we both loved it. I've been making it on my own for over 30 years now. Every roast turkey dinner results in scrapple for breakfast. I like this tasty solution to the turkey carcass quandary a lot better than the usual turkey soup.

After slicing off the turkey meat, I gather up all the bones & skin and dump everything into a huge stock pot covering everything with water. I add a chunked up onion, carrot, and celery stalk. I also add a couple of large pinches of dried rosemary, thyme, & sage. I'll throw in 3-5 whole allspice berries and at least a teaspoon of whole black peppercorns too. Finally, I'll add a bayleaf or two and maybe even a couple of cloves of garlic cut in half. Bring all this to a boil, lower the heat, and let it simmer for hours upon hours.

When the turkey stock is rich and flavorful, I'll strain out the solids and pick through the cooled bones to pull out meaty chunks.  Most of the time I roast a 12-14 pound turkey, so I'll end up with quite of few nice meaty scraps. I'm very careful to not include bones or cartilage in my meat pile. I refrigerate the remaining broth overnight. The next morning I'll remove some of the fat that has congealed on the top.

I follow the basic corn meal mush recipe found on the Albers Yellow Cornmeal box (I usually make two recipes' worth). This gives me the correct proportions of liquid to cornmeal. However, I cook the cornmeal in the turkey broth until the mixture is super thick. Then I add the reserved turkey meat scraps and cook an additional 20 minutes. I also add some sage and thyme to the cornmeal while it's cooking, sometimes finely chopped onion too.

When the scrapple mixture is so thick that I can hardly stir it, I spoon it into Pyrex loaf pans that have been lightly sprayed with Pam. I let the scrapple loaves cool completely, cover them, and refrigerate. To absorb any condensation, I usually put a folded paper towel on top of the loaves before covering.

The next morning, I cut 1/2 inch slices and dredge them in flour (I prefer thick slices). I fry them in a couple of tablespoons of oil over medium-high heat for 5-7 minutes per side. I like them really crispy and really browned. I usually fry up enough for 2-3 slices each, depending on how hungry we are. I think we could probably eat an entire loaf's worth at one sitting, but I try to exert some form of self control. I serve the crispy turkey scrapple slices with a drizzling of either honey or maple syrup. Leftover turkey gravy or cranberry sauce is good too.

Turkey Scrapple
(Printable Recipe)

3-1/2 cups broth, divided
1-1/4 cups Yellow Corn Meal
1 tsp. Sage
1 tsp. Thyme
Optional:
1 tsp. Rosemary
1 tsp. Dried onion



I warm the refrigerated & defatted broth in a dutch oven over low heat. I measure out the amount of broth I'll need for one (or maybe two) recipes of corn meal mush. I set aside whatever broth will not be used. Then I pour about 1-2 cups of warmed broth into a bowl and whisk the corn meal into it. I bring the remaining warm broth to a boil in the dutch oven. I do not salt the broth. At this time, I'll add at least a teaspoon each of rubbed sage and thyme. Add optional rosemary, dried onion, if desired. While stirring constantly, I whisk the cornmeal/broth mixture into the boiling broth. I reduce the heat to low and cook for at least 30 minutes until the mixture is quite thick. Then I add the reserved turkey meat, stir it into the cornmeal mixture well, and cook on low for another 20 minutes.

Pour/scrape mixture into lightly greased loaf pans. Let cool. Cover and refrigerate until solid and cold.