Mixing Noodle Kugel Ingredients

Sheilah Kaufman: Hi, I am Sheilah Kaufman, Cooking Teacher, Cookbook Author, Food Editor, Culinary Lecturer and today we're learning how to make recipes for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. All of the recipes can be made ahead or frozen. Right now I'm going to show you how to make my friend Eileen's fabulous noodle kugel.

You need an 8 ounce package of the tiny noodles, five large eggs, a pound of regular or low-fat cottage cheese, two cups of regular low-fat sour cream, a cup of milk, a cup of sugar, two sticks of butter or margarine softened to room temperature, an 8 ounces regular or low-fat cream cheese softened to room temperature and cinnamon to taste.

Now I've never been a big pasta lover, I don't like noodley types of foods, I don't like eating thick noodles and this is the first noodle kugel that not only did I ever like but I absolutely loved. The problem was I found that I could never have it around. The first time Eileen invited me over and made it, she gave me half the kugel to take home. The next morning I got up and while I was rummaging in the refrigerator for breakfast there was some noodle kugel, so I cut a piece and nuked it and had it for breakfast. Well, later that morning it was snack time, and I had another piece of noodle kugel and I had a piece for lunch, and I had a piece for snack and I finished it off at dinner. I realized that for some reason this kugel was addictive. So now when I have people over and there is kugel left I wrap it up and they take it home.

Now the secret of the kugel are the fine noodles and the package will be labeled Fine Noodles or Tiny Noodles. As you can see the noodles are only the size of a straight pin. That means this kugel is more custard than pasta, yum yum. I have preheated my oven to 450 and I have greased a little larger than 9x13 Pyrex baking dish, you can use either the smaller or this size.

Now, we're going to go over and boil these noodles just for five minutes and we have to let them cool. Now it can take 20-30 minutes for the noodles to cool. You do not want to rush at this part of the recipe because if you mix the eggs while the noodles are still hot, it will curdle the eggs and the kugel won't come out. We're going to start by beating together five eggs. I only use large eggs.

Now we're going to dump in two sticks of softened at room temperature butter or margarine, 8 ounces of cream cheese. By the way, this can be made low-fat by using low-fat cream cheese, low-fat sour cream, low-fat cottage cheese. I'm just going to break up the cream cheese and the butter a little bit, start getting it beaten in with the eggs. We're going to add a pound of cottage cheese and again you can use low-fat. I never use no-fat, no-fat foods most likely have chemicals in them and I don't care for the taste.

We're also going to add two cups of sour cream, which can be low-fat. It smells good already. Then I am going to add a cup of sugar and the milk. Add the sugar slowly so it all doesn't end up in one spot and finally the milk. Now we're going to take those tiny noodles that we cooked, we cooled, we tossed a little bit with the fork, they're certainly not even warm anymore and we're going to stir them in to our mixture.