COTTAGE CHEESE STICKS

This was among the first recipes I tried from Margit néni’s cookbook. Aside from guessing the amount of dry yeast to replace cake yeast, what attracted me to the recipe was the fact that the few ingredients it required weighed the same.  I had a new imperial scale and I weighed a tub of cottage cheese and adjusted the other ingredients to it. No calculations were required! What I didn’t know at the time was that cottage cheese was not túró. The recipe still worked for some inexplicable reason and cottage cheese sticks remained one of Jim’s favourites. This must have given hope that the young girl he married from Hungary will make good food one day. All I brought with me to the new world were memories of food. I knew nothing about cooking; I was such a novice I looked for a recipe making tea... in a Hungarian cookbook ha! I sent frantic letters home how to make rántás [roux]. All my cookbook would say, “make a good roux...”.

Only love kept us alive during the first few months until one day Ann Eggleton came over and we started having daily chats on the phone. How we did it, I am not quite sure anymore... I didn’t speak English and she spoke no Hungarian. But there we were talking. Ann thought me English and a few tricks in the kitchen. In order to eat I gave up on my Hungarian palate for decades. I ordered a Purity cookbook from the Vancouver Province’s Weekend Magazine. I could use the Purity cookbook without calculations and I didn’t have to hunt for ingredients, everything was available at the Prince Rupert Co-Op. Aside from a few Hungarian dishes, my children grew up with Canadian fare. Many dishes I make now they never tasted and in all fairness would not even like... As time went on I tried a few recipes from Margit néni’s old cookbook and these cottage cheese sticks are among the few I still make to this day.

COTTAGE CHEESE STICKS

1 cup 2% cottage cheese

1-1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup butter

2 tsp instant yeast

2 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg lightly beaten

1-1/2 cups grated cheddar

• Drain the cottage cheese for a good hour.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Preheat the oven to 375F.
• In a large bowl, rub the butter into the flour.
• Add the yeast, sugar and salt and whisk to combine.
• Stir the drained cottage cheese into the flour mixture to form dough.
• Roll the dough on floured surface to 1/2 inch thick.
• Brush the top with the egg wash and spread the grated cheddar on top.
• Cut into 3-4 inch sticks.
• Place the sticks on prepared baking sheet.
• Bake in the preheated oven until golden.