Dishes made principally with eggs and cheese.
Recipe from Az Ìnyesmester Szakácskônyve (The Expert’s Cookbook)
Fry bacon and onion. Sprinkle with paprika. If desired, add a little sour cream. Stir in cubed bread rolls, 2 well beaten eggs, and cubed boiled potato.
Bryndzove pirohy
Filling:
Pirohy: Peel the boiled potatoes, grate them and add flour, egg and salt. Make a dough, and roll it out into a thin round shape on a baking-board. Carve out the circles with form or with water glass, put on it cottage cheese filling, fold the dough over, press margins well, and boil in salted bubbling hot water. When they emerge on the surface, boil a little more and take out. Spread with fried bacon and serve with sour cream or yoghurt.
Filling: Mix cottage cheese with boiled, cooled and grated potatoes, add cut dill, egg, and a bit of sour cream. Mix well. The mixture must be quite thick.
Calabacitas con huevo
Heat butter, add zucchini, cover and cook 10 minutes. Drain. Season with salt and pepper. Place in a skillet. Beat eggs with water and combine with cheese. Pour over the zucchini, mix gently, and cook until eggs are set. This can also be done in the oven.
Queso Fundido means melted cheese, and Rajas is a term applied to chiles cut into long strips. They can be roasted or fried or sometimes pickled or preserved in vinegar. The term can apply to different types of chiles, such as Rajas de Chile Jalapeño, which can be very spicy. This recipe, applies to Poblano chiles, a mild, somewhat elongated, dark green chile from the Puebla area of Mexico. Poblanos are used for making Chiles Rellenos or Mexican Stuffed Chiles.
Saute onions in the oil. Add the chiles and fry well. Add the cheese and salt and allow cheese to melt thoroughly.
The chiles and cheese cubes may also be combined and placed in the oven until melted. Top with cream before serving, if desired.
Here is a way to satisfy your blintz craving even when you can’t find the right ingredients (such as in Mexico in the 1970s). This recipe is from Gert Cohen, who used to make this quick and easy treat some mornings for her family and others (me, for example) who were around at that fortuitous time.
Whip up the softened cream cheese. Add 1 t salt and 4 T of the beaten eggs. Mix well. Spread on 12 of the crackers. Top with the other 12 crackers. Beat milk, 1 t salt, and rest of eggs together. Dip crackers in the egg mix, soaking well. Fry cracker blintzes in butter until golden. Serve hot.
Peel and slice potatoes. Add salt. pepper, and a pinch ot nutmeg, Butter a baking dish. Put in 1 layer of potatoes, cover with half the cheese, add another layer of potatoes, and cover with remaining cheese. Pour over this the consomme. and sprinkle with lumps of butter. Place in 375°F oven until done, with the consomme absorbed. Servings: 4
Spread 2 tortillas with beans. Heat sauce. Fry eggs. Place 1 beany tortilla on a plate, top with a fried egg, and repeat. Top with last tortilla. Pour hot sauce over top of the stack and sprinkle peas and grated cheese on top.
Serve immediately
Cut potatoes into large cubes. Saute onions in a little oil till soft and add tomatoes. Melt fat and add flour and a bit of salt. Add tomatoes, onion and cilantro. Cook 3 mins. Add milk and cook until thick. Add grated cheese and cream and stir until melted. Pour over the potatoes and combine gently.
Pierogi, also known as Verenyki
Pierogies are a type of dumpling stuffed with cottage cheese and served with heaps of fried onions and sour cream.
Pierogies evoke in me a mild love/hate response. They were definitely part of our childhood gastronomical experience, and while I didn’t find them terribly exciting (rather greasy with the fried onions, actually), they seemed to provoke fierce enthusiasm in the rest of the family. How could I go against that flow?
So, for you Pierogy lovers everywhere, here is the recipe:
Sift flour and salt into bowl; make a depression in center and drop in egg. Moisten with water to make stiff dough. Knead until smooth. Cover and let stand 30 minutes. Divide dough in half and roll to 1/8″ thick. Cut into 2-1/2 to 3″ circles.
Mash cottage cheese (and mashed potatoes if using) with 2 T sour cream, eggs and salt. Mix well.
Place 1 heaping teaspoonful of cheese on lower half of circle; moisten edge of top half with water and fold. Press edges together.
Drop into a large kettle of boiling water. Cook for 5-7 minutes, counted after water returns to boiling.
Serve with fried onions and sour cream. Some people like to brown the drained pierogies with the fried onions in a pan before serving.
Cut tortillas into strips or in triangles. Heat 1/2″ oil in wide frying pan. Brown and crisp tortillas in batches. Drain on paper towels and set aside.
Sauté onion in a little oil till soft. Add tomatoes, bouillon cube, garlic, chiles and water. Cook until tomatoes are mushy and liquid is slightly reduced. Throw in coriander and adjust salt. Cook 5 minutes. Throw about two thirds of fried tortillas into sauce and toss to coat. Add 1/2 of the grated cheese and toss again.
Let simmer for 2 minutes to soften tortillas slightly and melt cheese. Add the remaining tortillas and toss quickly. Top with remaining cheese and allow to sit for a minute until cheese has melted. Serve immediately.