Bon Appetit

 

Julia Child was born 100 years ago this Wednesday and me and a few like-minded friends decided to celebrate. We ate Julia-inspired food, drank wine and watched Julie and Julia...or rather chatted and ate and drank while the movie played in the background. I made quick gravlax served with avocado slices and burrata cheese, figs drizzled with honey, potatoes au gratin with gruyere, braised cucumbers, salad with fresh herbs, and chocolate souffles to finish. Everything turned out nicely, although the souffles did immediately fall upon removal from the oven. I followed the recipe closely and still don't know why they fell, but as Julia would say, "No excuses, no apologies, no explanations." And so we ate rather flat but still delicious chocolate souffles topped with homemade creme fraiche whipped cream - and no one complained.

The most exciting element of the meal - for me at least - was the gravlax. A close cousin to lox and smoked salmon, gravlax is a Nordic dish consisting of salmon cured in salt, sugar and dill. Traditionally whole filets of salmon are rubbed with a salt, sugar and dill mixture and left to cure in the fridge for 5 days or so. This variation is a much quicker version; by slicing the salmon very thinly from the start it cures in just an hour. So for those last minute decisions, homemade gravlax is still a possibility.

The next morning I awoke to a kitchen stocked with leftover gravlax, herbs and market-fresh eggs, so I decided to keep the Julia theme alive a little longer. I made her recipe for "Oeufs in Cocotte" or eggs baked in ramekins, but with my own special twist. Below each egg, sitting in cream, I placed several pieces of the homemade gravlax and some chopped tarragon. The gravlax lent the resulting custard a salty, herby, rich, smoked salmon-ish flavor. This was probably my favorite dish of the weekend.

One Hour Gravlax

prepare salmon at least 1 hour before serving

1 large and very fresh wild-caught salmon filet  (avoid farmed salmon)

finely chopped fresh dill (I also used fresh fennel blossoms and garlic chive flowers)

aquavit

course sea salt

a very sharp, thin knife (I used a boning knife)

Prep a large serving platter or plate by sprinkling lightly with sea salt. 

Check salmon for any bones; remove with tweezers or needle-nosed pliers. Using sharp knife slice salmon thinly across the top, doing your best to achieve thin, even slices. Lay slices on platter. 

Continue until only the salmon skin is left. Sprinkle the sliced salmon pieces with more salt and the chopped herbs. Drizzle very lightly with aquavit. Set aside for an hour. Salmon will begin to "sweat" as it cures.

Serve on bread or crackers with thin slices of avocado and some burrata or fresh mozzarella cheese.

 

Oeufs en Cocotte - with gravlax and tarragon
adapted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child

preheat oven to 375 degrees

For each serving:
unsalted butter
1 small ceramic ramekin
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 oven-proof pan filled with 1-2 inches of simmering water
1 or 2 eggs
gravlax (or lox or smoked salmon)
1 TB fresh chopped tarragon

Butter the ramekins. Add a few tablespoons of cream, a few pieces of gravlax and the tarragon and set the ramekins in the simmering water over moderate heat.

Break the eggs into small bowl. When the cream is hot, carefully pour in the eggs. Pour the remaining cream over the egg and top with a dot of butter.

Place in the middle level of the hot oven and bake for 7 to 10 minutes. The eggs are done when they are just set but still tremble slightly in the ramekins. They will set a little more when the ramekins are removed, so they should not be overcooked.

Season with salt and pepper, and serve.


Bon Appetit!

For lack of tomatoes...

A couple of months ago I threw a BBQ for some friends who had recently been married. I knew burrata cheese (which I have a feeling will be the star of my next post) had to be on the menu, but tomatoes weren't really looking very good yet and I wasn't about to pair the greatest cheese ever with something sub-standard! There happened to be some lovely, local (early) red bell peppers at my organic market and I figured they'd make a nice substitute. Little did I know just how amazing a marriage burrata cheese and roasted red peppers make! The sweet, smooth, depth of the roasted pepper perfectly compliments the creamy, slightly salty mildness of the cheese. Piled on top of crusty bread or good crackers or simply eaten with a fork, this stuff is daaaaaaaaaaaaamnnnn gooooooooooooooooooooooood.



Roasted Red Peppers

several red bell peppers, whole

Preheat oven anywhere from 400 to 450 degrees F.

Lay peppers in a baking dish/pan. Roast anywhere from 30-45 min (depending on your oven), turning occasionally so all sides brown fairly evenly. Remove from the oven when the skin is well charred and bubbling/loosened from the rest of the pepper. The peppers will be quite soft.





Place peppers in a paper bag (or any other closed vessel, tupperware, a covered bowl, etc.) and roll shut to let them steam. Let peppers sit in bag for at least 10 minutes. Remove one pepper and test; the outer skin should peel away easily from the flesh (if this doesn't happen, leave them in the bag awhile longer). I usually get a bowl of cold water (which also helps cool them enough to handle, if they're still hot) and submerge the pepper, pulling away the skin and seeds. Cut away any firmer parts of the flesh that didn't cook as much or won't separate from the skin. Slice pepper into whatever size pieces you want (I usually leave them in fairly large strips).



Sprinkle with olive oil, coarse sea salt, and balsamic vinegar. Throw on some chopped parsley or basil, if you like. Eat them as they are, use them on pizza, in pasta or salads...these things are LOADED with flavor and make any dish better! I store mine in the fridge - drizzled with olive oil and layered in a covered dish - and use them all week.

Enjoy!

So long and thanks for all the fish...

It was my future-husband's birthday on Saturday, and after spending a week in bed with what I'm dubbing the "Summer plague of '11" he needed some major TLC. Fresh fish immediately sprung to mind for its health benefits and easily-digestible nature. I haven't been buying a lot of fish lately (thanks to the recent report I read on the state of the worlds' oceans) but when I do I make sure it is a) sustainable, b)as local as possible and c) fresh. Luckily I can rely on my butcher/fishmonger to sell me products that came from the most sustainable and local sources possible. That might not mean as much as I'd like it to, but what it DOES mean is that on David's birthday we ate quite possibly the best salmon I've ever tasted.



I knew at first sight that this salmon was going to be a winner; neon-pink and hardly any scent, it was obviously fresh fresh fresh. When it comes right down to it, I really only have two things to say about salmon: buy it fresh and DON'T OVERCOOK IT. I read a blog today where someone explained-away their salmon recipe that involved smothering it in sweet sauce in order to counter the "dense, chewy, not-that-tasty-on-its-own" salmon they were preparing. And then I read 20 people's comments about how great this recipe was and how it made them "finally like salmon." And all I wished is that I could be standing next to these people as they cooked their salmon so that when that salmon turned from translucent to just-opaque I could scream "TAKE IT OFF! IT'S DONE! DOOOOOOOOOON'T FLIP IT OVER, NOOOOOOOOOO"...etc. Because the only reason someone would ever think salmon was "dense, chewy or not-that-tasty-on-its-own" is if they cooked the absolute crap out of it. It also helps to use salmon that was caught within the past 24 hours. Salmon is not a fish I'd recommend to mid-Westerners buying their fish frozen. Go with a white fish, or better yet, something caught in a river or stream or pond that is located ANYWHERE in your general vicinity. It will taste better. Believe me.

The truth is overcooked salmon begins to taste like cat food. And in my opinion, trying to mask cat-food-like-salmon by drowning it in sauce or blasting it with flavored rubs is just as close to sinful as you can get with food. Which is why I practically NEVER order salmon in a restaurant. The real truth is that it just doesn't get any better than wonderfully fresh salmon simply cooked in the oven (or carefully on the grill...and no flipping!) with a little olive oil, lemon and salt and pepper. Cooked this way, and removed from the heat when it's flesh is just barely opaque, the salmon simply speaks for itself. Add whatever you like on the side, but keep it simple. Salmon makes a great summer meal because it pairs beautifully with the simplest, freshest ingredients.


Salmon with Chanterelles and Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

2 fresh salmon fillets
2 cups fresh chanterelle mushrooms, sliced
2 cups cherry tomatoes, in season, halved
1 or 2 spring onions, halved and thinly sliced
1 tsp lemon zest
2 TB butter
olive oil
chopped parsley
fennel or dill fronds for garnish
fresh-squeezed lemon, to serve

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Drizzle salmon fillets with olive oil, sprinkle with lemon zest, salt and pepper. (for fun I laid on some beautiful fennel fronds...you could do the same with fresh dill)



Toss cherry tomatoes with olive oil and salt. Roast in oven for about 30 min.



Meanwhile saute mushrooms and onion in butter on medium-low heat until onions are translucent/soft and mushrooms are slightly browned, anywhere from 10-20 minutes.



When tomatoes are slightly caramelized and just beginning to brown, remove from oven.



Toss tomatoes with the mushroom mixture. Add a big pinch of chopped parsley.



Cook salmon in oven for anywhere from 12-20 minutes, depending on your oven. I usually poke a corner of one my fillets to see if the inside is done. If the outer salmon is still translucent, give it a few more minutes. When the salmon is just barely opaque in the center and the outside is slightly firm (could be browned or not, depending on the circumstances) REMOVE FROM HEAT. If you notice a white substance secreting from the salmon, do not be alarmed: this is simply protein (called albumen) cooking out of the salmon and is not only thought to be good for you, but more importantly extremely tasty! I like to think of it as the 'fat.'



Let the salmon rest for a few minutes, drizzle with lemon juice, top with the mushroom/tomato mixture, and enjoy!



- Happy Eating -

A Peck of Pickled Peppers

Summer offers up a huge bounty of beautiful, fresh produce. Fruits and vegetables taste best when picked at the height of their natural season...it's a simple fact. Given today's society's ability to ship anything from anywhere, we don't necessarily cry when summer is over. But imagine if we didn't have the option to simply go buy a mealy tomato or rock-hard/sour peach in the middle of winter. For those of us living in the practically-non-seasonal climate of California I know we would take seasonality a lot more seriously if we were living in, say, Vermont. In Vermont, winter - and I mean REAL winter - likes to stick around for a good 6-7 months of the year. Spring is muddy and fall is brisk, so summer actually means something. And the plants are there to prove it. They push up out of the ground at amazing rates; the combination of intense sun and quick-but-plentiful rain showers make for the perfect setting for speedy growth. Now imagine you're a farmer 100 years ago. You rely on the land for everything. You have to grow enough food to get you through the next winter; if you make a bad crop, you suffer. If you waste anything or fail to store enough of your crop, you're screwed! This idea has fascinated me ever since my first reading of Little House in the Big Woods and the rest of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books. I've always loved reading about living off the land and bringing in the harvest. In Animal Vegetable Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver makes it clear that, come July, the vegetable garden becomes a full-time job; picking loads of food every day and then canning, preserving, stewing, drying, freezing, pureeing, storing and otherwise readying these perishable items for the long year ahead. A lot of work, yes. But the idea that you can provide for yourself...that you don't have to resort to tasteless, out of season produce shipped from 1000's of miles away (wasting precious fossil fuels), picked by laborers slaving away for next to nothing (instead of raising their own food) and who work for huge, corrupt corporations that make a practice of destroying the natural world around them...yeah, avoiding all that is a really nice idea.



As someone trying to eat as seasonally as possible - even though I don't have to - pickling is a very attractive prospect. For one thing, you can pickle almost anything...for another, the acidic nature of pickling means you can ease your mind about the one big fear that goes along with canning: botulism. One of the most deadly - but also rare - bacterias ever, botulism can occur in food that is not canned properly (meaning the food was not processed at a high enough temperature or the acid content of the food was low). If you're canning plain green beans, you should be concerned (and probably use a pressure canner). But if you're pickling green beans, that's a whole different story...you're storing them in brine, baby! Doesn't get more acidic than that.

For this pickling round I wanted quick results. I know most methods require at least a few days of fermentation...but I had a BBQ planned for the next day and needed more immediate pickles. Luckily Alice Waters came to the rescue. I used her basic recipe for "fresh-pickled vegetables" as described in The Art of Simple Food and it worked perfectly for this situation.



Fresh-Pickled Veggies
adapted from The Art of Simple Food

1 1/2 cups vinegar (cidar, white wine, distilled white...I used half cidar, half distilled white)
1 3/4 cups water
2 1/2 TB sugar
1 bay leaf
4 thyme sprigs
pinch of dried chile flakes
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
2 garlic cloves, peeled and cut in half (use more if you like)
a big pinch of salt

(keep in mind that these herbs, etc. are just suggestions; you could add whole chilis, dill or other fresh herbs...whatever you like!)



Bring all ingredients to a boil.
Cook each type of vegetable separately in the brine, removing them when they are just cooked (but not soft)...you want them to still have some crunch! Most vegetables shouldn't take more than a few minutes. Taste-test to see when they're done.



I reused the cooking brine for all of my vegetables, but saved the more potent types - like turnips and jalapenos - for the end, lest they over-influence the other, milder veggies. Since the brine had reduced considerably I made a fresh batch for pouring into the jars; just bring it to a boil first!
Place the veggies in mason jars - I also added some more garlic cloves and salt at this point - and pour the boiling brine over the top so that all the veggies are completely submerged. Let cool a little if you want, then seal and refrigerate. They will be ready immediately thanks to the neat trick of cooking them in the brine first.

You can pickle a wide variety of vegetables with this method. You'll want to keep them fairly small: slice large carrots and jalapenos into inch thick pieces, break cauliflower into small florets, cut turnips into wedges, chop fennel into slender pieces, halve small pearl onions...you can use whole green beans, and if you want to make pickled red onions simply slice them thin, place them in a jar and pour the boiling brine over the top.

It's amazing how many uses you can think of for pickled veggies. For my BBQ we heaped them onto grilled flank steak sandwiches with burrata cheese and arugula. My favorite pickles were the fennel and the turnips; the pickling mellowed the fennel and somehow captured the sweetness of the turnip while avoiding their more spicy, bitter notes. The guys loved the pickled jalapenos, which were mellowed out some but still packed a spicy punch. I have since mixed pickled onions with some cilantro, ginger and soy sauce and used as a topping for an Asian soup and I used several kinds of pickles on my scrambled-egg breakfast burrito this morning. I plan on doing more pickling this summer - including the longer version requiring more intense fermentation - and hope to be enjoying my own home-made pickles all winter long.



- Happy Pickling -

Faux-Pesto Pasta and Braised Carrots

Summer is officially here, and eventully you'll be able to see it in the recipes I post; but for now I find myself a little back-logged with a few amazing meals from the past month or so. That includes the pasta and carrots that are the star of today's post; I'm sneaking it in as a last farewell to Spring. Thanks to my weekly farm box, our fridge is always well-stocked with assorted veggies, but lately I'm having a hard time finding the motivation to go to the store for meat alone. On these veggie-heavy but meat-free nights I've found myself relying more and more on poached eggs - atop either a salad or pasta - to make it a real meal. This particular night the farm had provided me with some last-of-the-season kale, spring onions, green garlic, asparagus, and some gorgeous and deliciously sweet young carrots.



Did you know that so-called "baby" carrots sold in stores are actually just regular carrots that have been peeled, shaved into "baby" carrot shapes and then - usually - dipped in a chlorine solution to prevent them from turning white? Carrots naturally turn white after being peeled, and producers avoid this by using a chlorine solution; they claim it's safe, but personally I think it's simpler and safer to just eat REGULAR CARROTS, especially since most of the nutrients lie near the skin layer. Fake baby carrots began as a way to use carrots that were "too twisted and ugly" to sell in stores; this in itself is just crazy to me. What kind of society have we become where we won't accept a perfectly delicious but uniquely-shaped carrot? It's craziness, but it doesn't surprise me. Most people have distanced themselves so entirely from food production that they probably think of carrots as being generated in a factory, like jelly beans and potato chips. Thus we have sterilized cookie-cutter "baby carrots" that always look and taste the same; devoid of character, only blandly sweet, and likely bathed in chlorine. There. I've had my say; now back to the recipe!


so called "baby" carrots

These carrots were heavenly, before and after cooking, and quite a few fell victim to our bellies while still in the raw. I already had linguine, pine nuts, red wine and eggs on hand, so some sort of comforting, broken-down pesto pasta seemed likely; and braising as a means of cooking the carrots and kale seemed totally appropriate. The poached egg and broiled asparagus kept the dish feeling Spring-ish; all in all, this was one of my favorite pasta dishes I've ever made.



Braised Kale:

1 bunch kale, stems removed, leaves chopped into thin 1/2 inch strips
2 large bulbs green garlic or 2-3 cloves regular garlic, finely chopped
2-3 TB's olive oil
3-4 TB's red wine
1/4 wedge of fresh lemon juice

Heat oil over medium heat; add garlic, cook 1 minute, add kale. Add red wine and lemon, season with salt and pepper, turn heat down to medium low and cook for 10-15 min, until softened and red wine cooked away.

Caramelized Onions:

6-8 spring onions (bulb only) or 1 red, yellow or white onion, halved and thinly sliced
2 TB's olive oil
2 TB's butter

Heat oil on medium-low, add butter. Once melted, add onions, continue to cook, stirring every few minutes, for 45 min to an hour. If onions start browning quickly, turn heat down. You can add more butter or oil at any point if too dry, to avoid burning. Onions should be soft, cooked down, and only slightly caramel-colored at the end.

Poached Eggs:

Fill a large pan with about 2-3 inches of water, bring to boil. Place individual eggs in individual small bowls or dishes. When everything else is ready, turn off the heat, slide the eggs gently into the hot - but no longer boiling - water, and let sit/poach for 3 min. Remove eggs with slotted spoon, place on top of pasta.



Faux-Pesto Pasta:

1/2 to 3/4 package of linguine, cooked according to package in salted water right before serving; do not overcook! Pasta should still have a slight bite to it (al-dente).
braised kale: see recipe above
caramelized onions: see recipe above
1/2 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted in frying pan over medium heat (watch them closely or they'll burn!)
2 TB chopped fresh parsley
poached eggs (one for everyone!); see recipe above
freshly grated parmesan

Combine pasta, kale, caramelized onions, pine nuts, grated parmesan and parsley. Add a little olive oil if too dry, season with salt and pepper if necessary.




Braised Carrots:

1 bunch (10-12) young/small carrots (not "baby" carrots), peeled; if your carrots are longer than 6 in, cut in half
2 TB butter
2 TB olive oil
1/2 cup red wine
1/2 TB chopped fresh thyme

Heat oil in medium saucepan over medium heat; add butter. Once butter is melted, add carrots, cook for 10 min, stirring occasionally. Turn head to medium-low, add red wine and more butter or oil if necessary; season with salt and pepper, add thyme. Cook for another 20-30 min, or until carrots are glazed and slightly softened; carrots should be easily bitten through without being mushy. You want them to still have some pep! Serve with pasta.

For the asparagus, follow this recipe. Serve on the side.


**Happy Cooking**

Mother's Day 2010

This year Mother's Day involved some firsts: shucking my first oysters, playing on my mom's Wii-Fit for the first time, and making my first dessert from the Momofuku cookbook. But for dinner I stuck to something I knew; my own version of Momofuku's Asian soup, which I've written about before. This soup is just so dang good, and I must say, it was even better this time 'round. For one thing, I used white (instead of red) miso, which was milder and mixed well with the smoky bacon. And I used shitake mushrooms, which added more of a punch than the oyster mushrooms I had used previously. But really the main difference was the chicken.



This time, instead of simply roasting the chicken I combined and truncated two recipes from the Momofuku cookbook; I used (more-or-less) the cooking techniques from their "Chicken and Egg" recipe, and the sauce (the "octo vin" I've highlighted in a previous post) from their recipe for fried chicken. The premise was this; cook chicken legs rather slowly at a low temperature in bacon fat (which gives a slightly smoky flavor) and octo vin sauce until succulent, chill for several hours, then crisp them up by browning deeply over fairly high heat. Basically you're making tender chicken confit and then giving it a darkly crisped skin afterward. The cool thing is you can make the chicken confit and chill it (in its fat!) in the refrigerator for as long as you want, allowing you to get the longest part of the cooking over with well in advance - hours or even days before you need it. Then, when you're ready, you can crisp the chicken up and serve, either in soup, by itself, or over rice like the "Chicken and Egg" recipe from the cookbook.



Chicken a la Momofuku
Adapted from Momofuku cookbook

4 whole chicken legs, thighs and or breasts, w/ skin (bone-in or boneless)
bacon grease (save in jar every time you cook bacon; that way it's not going to waste, plus it's an extremely good flavoring agent and it will last a long time. Or use olive oil, if absolutely necessary)
Octo Vinaigrette
water
1 cup salt
1 cup sugar

Combine the water, sugar and salt in container large enough to hold the chicken. Submerge the chicken in the brine, cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, no more than 6.

Make Octo Vinaigrette.

Remove chicken, discard brine. Heat oven to 200 degrees F. Warm bacon fat in microwave or slowly on stove-top, until liquefied.

Pack chicken into oven-proof dish; pour bacon fat into pan until chicken more-or-less submerged and coated thoroughly. (You could also use olive oil, and then throw on a few strips of bacon to achieve the smokiness) Cook in oven for about 50 minutes, or until tender. Remove pan from oven, cool to room temperature, and chill - in the fat - for as long as needed.

When you're ready for the chicken, heat over the stove or in a low degree oven until the fat has just liquefied. Then heat a skillet over medium high heat; add the chicken, skin-side down, and brown deeply, anywhere from 4 to 8 min. You can also use a bacon press or other heavy device to press them, which aids the browning.

Either serve as is, or carve into large pieces, keeping the skin.

Enjoy!

But what would mother's day be without dessert? Particularly a dessert using something she loves - rhubarb - in a new and interesting way? This recipe is a new take on strawberry shortcake, from the Momofuku cookbook. The shortcakes are almost like cookies, and the sweet-salty balance is quirky and delicious. But my favorite part was their recipe for whipped cream, which uses sour cream and confectioner's (powdered) sugar, giving it a nice tangy-ness. The slightly salty cookies and and tangy whipped cream kept the dish from being too sweet; I could easily have eaten it for breakfast, on one of those indulgent-kind-of mornings.

The rhubarb recipe I used was from the blog Orangette; she roasts her rhubarb with white wine and vanilla bean. I didn't have vanilla bean, and I kind of guessed on the quantity of rhubarb; so I ended up needing to add a lot more sugar than I did initially. Rhubarb can be stubborn in it's sourness. I added honey too, to avoid over doing it on the granulated sugar. But once the rhubarb was just sweet enough and mixed with macerated strawberries, it was scrumptious.





Strawberry-Rhubarb Shortcakes
Adapted from Momofuku cookbook and Orangette

Shortcakes

1 large egg
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 tb salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
12 tb unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
1/4 cup shortening, lard, or additional butter (I used butter)
1/2 cup of confectioner's (powdered) sugar

Crack the egg into large measuring bowl and whisk thoroughly; discard half the egg. Pour in enough cream to make the mixture come to 1/2 a cup. Stir briefly, chill.

Combine flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, salt and baking powder. Add the butter, shortening, lard, etc., mix in until the batter is gravelly, with pea-sized lumps everywhere (no more than 4 minutes).

Pour the cream mixture in slowly, stirring constantly. Do this for as short as possible, until the liquid is barely absorbed; do not overmix. Let the dough rest 10 minutes.

Scoop the batter into balls of 2 tb or so (you should have about 8), line them up on baking sheet, and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 min.


Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Pour the confectioner's sugar into a shallow bowl. Roll each ball in sugar to coat lightly, place on baking sheet. Bake for 9-11 min. The cakes will spread, then rise, and they will have a slightly cracked looking surface. They should be nice and golden in color; overbaked is almost preferable to underbaked with these puppies. If their centers fall when you remove them, bake for another minute or so.

Fruit

Make roasted rhubarb from Orangette's recipe; add sugar or honey if necessary, but keep in mind you'll be adding sugar strawberries as well.



Make macerated strawberries: combine 4 cups hulled and washed strawberries with 1/4 cup sugar (I used a little less sugar and found it adequate).



Whipped Cream

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
pinch of salt

Combine the cream, sour cream, sugar and salt in large bowl and whisk with electric mixer until medium peaks form. (Can be made ahead of time and refrigerated for several hours)

Combine all components, preferably when shortbread is warm out of the oven.



Enjoy!

A Surplus of Eggs

I have a confession to make; until last Sunday, I had never made anything in the quiche/frittata family, at least not on my own. My eggs are normally scrambled, fried, or in an omelet, and I'm really good at making them those ways! I always thought quiches and frittatas sounded like a lot more work. Also, I've certainly consumed my share of dried out or rubbery baked egg dishes, so I haven't necessarily been longing to try my own.



But peering into my refrigerator this past Sunday, it became very apparent that I had a surplus of eggs. Two almost-full cartons, in fact, and there was no way we were getting through all of those by way of scrambled eggs and omelets. I also had various accoutrements that happened to sound very good with eggs; prosciutto, spring onions, green garlic, asparagus, lots of cheese, and even a little milk! After verifying that the standard method is "pour it in a pan and stick it in the oven," I set about preparing the various ingredients. I eyeballed the amounts, used ALL 23 eggs, and after 45 minutes in the oven it was puffed and golden and gorgeous. I still love all my usual egg preparations, but honestly the pride I felt pulling this out of the oven was so much greater...I felt bad-ass!

It held up beautifully as leftovers - good thing, since it took us 3 days to finish it - but I definitely recommend reheating in the oven/toaster oven versus the microwave, which can make it rubbery. My only negative observation was that all the good "stuff" in it rose to the top during cooking, so there was a layer of just egg at the very bottom. This wasn't a big deal, but makes me wonder about proportions...maybe more "stuff" and less egg next time!




Asparagus Frittata

23 eggs (this was a very large frittata; you may want to halve this recipe!)
1/4 cup 2% milk or cream
several cups fontina cheese, grated
1-2 cups prosciutto, sliced into thin strips
1 bunch asparagus, cut on a bias into 1 inch pieces
1-2 cups spring or white onions, chopped
1/2 cup green garlic, chopped
2-3 TB parsley, finely chopped
plenty of grated parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 365 degrees (you can do 350 if your frittata is smaller)

Boil large pot of water. Add asparagus, remove after 2 min. Should be just turning bright green and still rather crisp. Plunge into ice bath/cold water to stop the cooking process.

Heat 2 TB oil over medium heat. Add onions and garlic, cook 5 minutes until softened. Remove. Add prosciutto to pan, cook 5-10 min or until slightly crisp. Remove.



Beat eggs together, season with salt and pepper, add parsley. Add grated cheese, asparagus, onions, garlic and prosciutto.



Grease baking pan with butter. Pour egg mixture into pan, sprinkle with more parsley and grated parmesan cheese.



Bake for 30-45 minutes, depending on size and oven temperature. Frittata should be puffed and golden; middle should be set. Test with toothpick; it should come out clean.



I served mine with avocado and a simple salad of frisee lettuce, red wine vinegar and olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper. Yum!



~Happy Eating~