You get what you pay for. As chefs, we know that. But I feel that cottage cheese gets a bad rap. I was guilty too. It’s that stuff people on diets eat on a bed of lettuce with some fruit, right? I have recently fallen in love with some really high quality cottage cheeses. My current obsession is Kalona Super Natural. It is a 4% fat cottage cheese with a cream top. It’s an organic, non-homogonized, small-batch cottage cheese made without stabilizers. Yes, it’s $4.29 for a 1 pound container. Get over it. If you have no problem paying $16-$25 a pound for “fancy cheese” why not pay the extra $2 for this. And at that price, you can incorporate it into dishes on your menu. We’re doing lots with it including smoking it. I’m interested in trying to torch it like Alex recently did with yogurt http://blog.ideasinfood.com/ideas_in_food/2013/01/char-grilled-yogurt.html So, I’m ready to bring cottage cheese back to the center of the plate. Just lose the green leaf.
