I have a standing weekly order with a local dairy farm: three half-gallon bottles of whole fresh milk, three dozen eggs, and one packet (roughly nine ounces) of cheddar cheese. My breakfast appetite has been low lately, and the children have been demanding mainly toast; I looked in the fridge and there were something like eight dozen eggs in there. Nice brown farm eggs, but what are you going to do?
Make quiche and soufflé and egg bake for dinner, that’s what. Now my seven-year-old boy loves soufflé, particularly a tricky and beautiful caramelized-onion-and-sharp-cheddar variety. Too tricky. On a busy day I’m more likely to make this egg bake. Very Betty Crocker. But it goes together in just a few minutes.
- 10 eggs
- 1/2 cup flour
- 2 cups cottage cheese
- 2 four-ounce cans diced green chiles, undrained
- 1 lb shredded Monterey jack cheese, plus a bit more for the top (I like to use pepper jack; last night I added some farm cheddar)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- Pinch of salt
Preheat the oven to 375 deg F. Combine flour, salt, and baking soda. Beat the eggs and whisk in the flour mixture till smooth. Add green chilies with their liquid, cottage cheese and 1 lb shredded cheese; mix well. Pour into buttered 9×13 glass baking dish and top with extra shredded cheese. Bake for 30-35 minutes until set.
Mark likes it with salsa, my three-year-old with ketchup. I ate a piece of it for breakfast straight out of the fridge, but then, I’m kind of weird.
The flour is not essential and can be left out entirely or replaced with something gluten-free; I’ve used soy flour before, and I bet oat flour would work too. You can cut it in half and put it in a square pan if you want. I suppose you could add some meat or vegetables to this, but I’ve never tried, except once when I was out of green chilies and tried to make it with tomatoes and onions. That was awful; it didn’t rise properly. Probably something to do with baking powder chemistry. In any case, as-is it’s a decent standby for when there are too many eggs.
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