Quick and Easy Weeknight Frittata

Happy new year! As is the tradition on this blog, at the start of every year, I try to revitalize things around here and motivate myself to post more. I am especially motivated this year because recently I have been getting a lot of visitors and wonderful comments, which has inspired me. I love hearing your ideas, and they do motivate me to get into the kitchen, so keep them coming.

This year, I’m going to focus on posting what I most like to cook: simple, easy recipes with a focus on healthy eating and seasonal ingredients. I will try to post at least one favorite recipe a week, plus tips and tricks as I pick them up.

My favorite recipe for this week is the frittata. A frittata is an Italian omelet. It’s flat and usually thicker than a French-style omelet, with a lot more stuff in it. Making a frittata is a good way to use up those odds and ends of vegetables and cheese that might otherwise get thrown away. You can even throw in leftover pasta, if you like.

I make a frittata about once a week. It fulfills all my requirements for a fast weeknight meal. I can usually make it with the ingredients I have on hand, so a trip to the grocery store isn’t required. It cooks in less than 30 minutes. Often, it can be made without meat, as we try to eat a vegetarian meal at least two or three times weekly. And the leftovers keep beautifully. They are good reheated for breakfast the next day or even cold in a sandwich.

I have tried a lot of frittata recipes from a different cookbooks, and I have gradually worked out a technique that produces good results every time.

1. Start with a 10-inch nonstick oven-safe pan (i.e., one with a metal handle, rather than plastic). Pour in a little olive oil and heat the pan over medium. In the meantime, prepare the vegetable filling. Chop up any vegetables you like. For this week’s frittata, I used red onion and spinach. Leftover cooked vegetables are perfectly fine. You could also throw in some cooked meat, if you have any, like bacon or sausage.
2. Once the pan is warm, add the chopped vegetables and let them cook until tender or wilted. For onions and spinach, this only takes about 5 minutes. Firmer vegetables will take longer. Pre-cooked vegetables only have to be warmed through.
3. While the vegetables are cooking, beat 5 eggs with some salt, pepper and 1-2 cloves of garlic, minced. Once the vegetables are ready, spread them out in the pan and pour the eggs over the top. Turn on the broiler. As the eggs are cooking, lift up the edges with a spatula and let the uncooked egg run to the sides of the pan. You want the eggs to be almost set but still a bit liquid on the top. It may be necessary to turn down the heat to keep the bottom from browning too much.
4. When the eggs are almost set, remove the pan from the heat and sprinkle the top with grated cheese. For the frittata this week, I used mozzarella, because that’s what I had. You can do without cheese, but I always add it. It makes the frittata more satisfying, in my opinion.
5. Transfer the pan under the broiler and cook until the top is puffy and the cheese is melting and starting to brown. This should take no more than a few minutes. Take it out, cut it into slices and serve with toast.

Note: You don’t have to broil the frittata during the last step. Rather, you can put it into a 350-degree oven and let it finish more slowly. This works fine, but the frittata doesn’t get as puffy and browned, which I prefer. We call it egg pizza!

Leftovers keep for 3 days or so. Try a frittata sandwich for lunch the next day with slices of cold frittata between crusty bread.

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Adding Flavor to Simple Recipes

Well, it’s clear that I haven’t had a chance to post much here recently, and I haven’t been doing many cooking challenges lately either. Sometimes life gets too hectic. With that in mind, I am returning my focus to simple recipes, and I will post a bunch of them here.

By simple recipes, I mean recipes that have only a handful of ingredients, no more than five total, including salt, pepper and oil. Or quick but complete dinners that you can put together in one pan. These are the kinds of recipes that you will memorize after making them two or three times, so that you can easily whip one up on a weeknight even if you’re dead tired, or you can pull out when you’re not sure what to make with that ingredient you picked up on sale.

These recipes are great to add to your repertoire, but the problem is that they can become boring after a while. That’s why it’s a good idea to have a ready-made arsenal to add pizzazz to any recipe. You can vary the flavors depending on your mood and what you have available.

Here is my list of sure-fire ways to quickly and easily boost the flavor quotient in a simple recipe:

• Garnish it with fresh herbs after cooking.
• Sprinkle in a little citrus juice or vinegar at the end of cooking.
• Add minced chiles or red pepper flakes for heat.
• Substitute heavy cream, sour cream, plain yogurt or melted butter for some of the oil.
• Sprinkle with grated Parmesan or other cheese or with crumbled bacon (you can substitute bacon grease for some of the oil as well).
• Mix in slow-roasted tomatoes, roasted red peppers, pesto or other ready-made ingredients from the pantry.
• Substitute or add similar vegetables.

As I post some of my favorite tried-and-true simple recipes, I’ll provide examples of these flavor boosters. But never be afraid to experiment. Cooking is more fun that way!

A Mexican Fiesta

I’m sorry that this update has been so long in coming. I was busy with a project all last week, plus I got a touch of something over the weekend that kept me from blogging and cooking. So I’m taking this past weekend off and playing catch-up. This challenge is actually from one week ago.

The challenge was to make a Mexican meal, but not to fall back on the usual suspects. That means no tacos, burritos, enchiladas, fajitas — basically, nothing wrapped in a tortilla. I immediately decided that I wanted to make several small plates, like a tasting menu. Appetizers are often my favorite dishes in Mexican cooking, anyway, and that would give me a chance to try three or four new dishes.

For help, I turned to Rick Bayless, specifically his cookbooks Authentic Mexican and Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen. You may know Rick Bayless from his stint on Top Chef Masters or from his restaurants in Chicago (which I have yet to visit, although my husband has been several times). I love his cookbooks because they make authentic Mexican cooking accessible to the home cook. He gives lots of helpful advice about ingredients, timing, and varying the recipes, and they usually turn out delicious. I won’t be reprinting any of his recipes here, so I urge you to check out his books for yourself.

Here is the resulting menu:

Jicama sticks with lime and mint.

If you’ve never had jicama before, it’s a very refreshing starter. It’s crisp and cool like a cucumber, but the taste is closer to a very mild radish. Look for jicama in the grocery store; it’s a gigantic, waxy thing that looks like an oversized turnip, but it’s easy to peel and cut up into sticks. Marinate the sticks in a little lime juice and lemon juice, chopped mint leaves and salt. We were crunching on these all week long. This was my toddler’s favorite dish of the night.

Tuna seviche.

Seviche is seafood that is “cooked” by marinating it for several hours in lime juice. I’ve never made seviche at home before, mostly because I was afraid of dealing with the uncooked fish. But we like tuna pretty rare anyway, so that seemed like a good fish to use for my first attempt. This was a very refreshing salad, especially because it’s combined with a fresh, vibrant tomato and avocado salsa. A little chopped serrano chile provides a hint of heat.  My husband and I both enjoyed this one.

Melted queso with chorizo, roasted poblanos and tomatoes, served with corn chips for dipping.

This was my favorite dish of the night. I could probably have eaten it until I burst. I used chihuahua cheese, which has a wonderful mild but cheesy flavor. I melted the cubes of cheese in a metal pie plate to try to retain the heat. To the melted cheese I added roasted poblano pepper, crumbled chorizo, scallions and diced tomato. We just scooped it all up with corn chips. I think this mixture would work very well as a topping for nachos. We had about half left over, and it reheated nicely the next night in the same pie plate.

Baked poblano peppers stuffed with chorizo and potatoes, topped with a tomato-chipotle sauce.

This was an intense, flavorful dish. Sharing one pepper was plenty for my husband and me. I had to modify the original recipe, which called for dried ancho peppers instead of fresh poblanos, so this is closer to a chile relleno. I stuffed it with a mixture of pan-fried chorizo and potatoes and sauced it with a spicy tomato-chipotle sauce. That’s parmesan sprinkled on top. It was hot, but not overwhelmingly so. This was my husband’s favorite dish due to the mouth-popping flavor combination.

And I made a delicious red wine sangria to accompany. I mixed cheap red wine with lemon juice, lime juice, orange juice, and seltzer water over ice, and popped in a sprig of mint leaves. The result was way too drinkable!

My husband said that this was my most successful challenge yet, mainly because I stretched myself and made dishes that I wouldn’t normally cook at home. And because everything came out so deliciously. We stretched our stomachs too, as we ate way more than we should. This would make an awesome menu for a Mexican-themed party, especially held outside on the deck on a warm night.

I’m hoping to tackle the next challenge later this week. The challenge is to make a kid’s favorite dinner at home: chicken nuggets and fries. Since I don’t deep-fry, this will require some creativity. Look for the results next week.

Cheesy Chicken Sandwiches

This week’s challenge was inspired by an article my husband saw in the New York Times Magazine, extolling the virtues of those cheesy, meat-filled sandwiches that taste so good after a night of drinking. Every college seems to have its own specialty, and the grandfather of them all is the Philly cheesesteak. My husband wanted me to create such a sandwich.

To be honest, I am not a fan of these types of sandwiches, as they are usually too greasy and heavy for me. So I tried to come up with a sandwich that pays homage to the cheesesteak and its ilk, but is still something I would like — that is, lighter and more flavorful.

While the resulting sandwich is not a true cheesesteak in any sense, we both still enjoyed the results. It begins with a toasted hoagie roll (my husband says the bun would not be toasted in a real Philly cheesesteak, but I am a Southern girl and didn’t know this; besides, I like a crusty roll). Before toasting, I pulled out much of the doughy insides, leaving a bread shell in which to stuff the filling. This keeps the sandwich from spilling out all over your shirt as you eat it.

Inside the bun, layer sauteed, thinly sliced chicken; sauteed red onion and mushrooms; sliced sweet piquante peppers; and sliced provolone cheese. The whole torpedo is put in a hot oven for a few minutes to warm it through and melt the cheese. Meanwhile, spread on the top bun a homemade chili mayonnaise of my own concoction to add flavor and creaminess. My husband doesn’t like mayonnaise, but that doesn’t seem to apply to homemade, flavored mayos, which don’t taste anything like the jarred variety.

This challenge was a definite hit, and pretty easy to make too. Serve with a pickle and oven fries. Next week: a Mexican menu!

Chili Mayonnaise

I made this mayonnaise with a hand blender, but it can also be made in a blender or food processor or, if you are very industrious, whisked by hand.

Combine in the blender:

• 1 egg
• ¼ cup olive oil
• ½ teaspoon mustard
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Cayenne pepper to taste (about a dash)
• Juice of ½ lemon

Blend until well combined. While the blender is running, slowly pour in ¾ cup vegetable or canola oil. The mayonnaise should emulsify to a thick, yellowish-white consistency as you pour in the oil.

Mix into the finished mayonnaise:

• ¼ cup chili sauce
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• ¼ cup roasted red pepper, minced
• ¼ cup scallions, minced
• additional salt, cayenne and lemon juice to taste

The finished mayonnaise makes 1 cup and will keep in the fridge for about 1 week. In addition to eating it on the chicken sandwiches, I used it as a dressing for salad greens and for chicken salad, and I spread it on turkey sandwiches. Yum! I think it would also be very good as a dipping sauce for fried fish or boiled shrimp.

No-knead Cheese Bread

Cover via Amazon

My baking project for this weekend was no-knead cheese bread from Jim Lahey’s My Bread cookbook. This is basically the no-knead bread recipe with chunks of any firm or semi-firm cheese mixed into the dough. I used asiago cheese.

The no-knead process takes a long time, but most of that time is allowing the dough to rise on the kitchen counter. Not a lot of work is required, which is just the way I like it. For the second rise, you must wrap the dough in a dish towel generously dusted with flour, cornmeal or bran. I learned  this time that it is not a bright idea to use a terrycloth towel. The sticky dough really adheres to all those little threads, and it’s hard to flip it into the preheated dutch oven for baking. It seems obvious now, but not when I pulled the towel out of the pile in the closet. Anyway, it is a good practice to note and learn from one’s mistakes.

Regardless, once the bread got into the oven and started baking, something primal started happening in my kitchen. The odor of the baking bread and melting cheese — words can’t do it justice, but within minutes I was salivating and ready to tear that loaf apart with my bare hands and bury my face in it. I did manage to restrain myself long enough to let the loaf finish baking and cool down, but it was hard, I tell you. What was also hard was getting the loaf out of super-hot dutch oven and onto the wire rack to cool, as the melted cheese had leaked out and acted as an adhesive, but with the help of a spatula and knife, I managed the feat.

Once the bread cooled enough to touch, I cut off a couple of pieces and dug in. This bread is officially one of my favorite breads. It combines the two things I love most in the world. It’s like a grilled cheese sandwich baked into a loaf of bread. Fan-freaking-tastic. Make this as soon as you are able.

Here’s a nice post on Macheesmo that includes the full recipe.

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How to Make a Gratin

For dinner last night, to accompany a simple poached salmon, I made a classic potato gratin. This one turned out a lot better than the gratin I attempted at Thanksgiving, and it didn’t take nearly as long to cook. Here’s what I learned about making a good gratin.

A gratin is generally a vegetable dish that is characterized by its browned crust of cheese or cheese mixed with breadcrumbs. Gratins are typically baked in a shallow dish and served in its baking dish. While usually made with vegetables, macaroni and cheese is also a type of gratin. Seafood is often cooked this way, as well.

A gratin requires three ingredients: one or two vegetables; a cooking liquid; and a grated hard cheese. Within those parameters, there really is a lot of leeway. The classic gratin is potatoes, cream and gruyere, but you can get quite creative.

First, the vegetables. As I said, potatoes are classic, and that’s what I used last night, but I also layered in slivered kale and collard greens that melded nicely with the sauce. The most important thing about the vegetables is to slice them thinly so that they will cook quickly. Choose enough vegetables to make two layers — no more than two! — in a shallow gratin or casserole dish. Any more layers than that and the gratin will take too long to cook.

The liquid can be heavy cream for a very rich gratin, but you can also lighten it with substitutions such as half cream and half milk; stock or half stock and half wine; bechamel sauce; or even tomato sauce. You’ll need about 1 cup. Unless you’re using cream, bring the liquid to a simmer beforehand to cut the cooking time.

Finally, the cheese — any hard grating cheese will do. I used Irish cheddar, and it was delicious. The classic choice is gruyere or emmenthal. Parmesan is another good choice. How much cheese you use is up to you. For a more cheesy gratin, you might put ¼-½ cup grated between each layer. For a lighter dish, add just enough cheese on top — combined with breadcrumbs, if you like — to get the browned, chewy crust that makes a gratin a gratin.

Here’s how to assemble the gratin:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and bring 1 cup of cooking liquid to a simmer.
2. Toss the thinly sliced vegetables with olive oil and slivered garlic.
3. Arrange the vegetables in two layers in a gratin dish or shallow casserole dish, seasoning each layer and sprinkling grated cheese between the layers, if you like.
4. Finish with a final layer of cheese, mixed with breadcrumbs, if desired.
5. Pour enough liquid over so that all but the topmost layer is covered. When you press down on the top layer, the liquid should ooze up but not cover the top layer.
6. Bake until the vegetables are tender, the cheese is melted and browned, and the liquid is almost fully absorbed. This takes about 1 hour for potatoes, less for quicker-cooking vegetables.
7. If the top isn’t browned enough, turn on the broiler for a few minutes to finish cooking.
8. Serve in the baking dish.

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Finally a Good Turkey Burger

For those of us, who don’t eat beef or are trying to cut back, a good turkey burger is the holy grail. A burger made from ground turkey seems like a good idea, in theory. In practice, though, it is often quite similar to eating a flavorless hockey puck.

The problem with most turkey burgers is fat, or lack of it. Because turkey is a lean meat, it doesn’t have the fattiness of ground beef to keep it moist when being cooked and to make it flavorful on the bun. I’ve seen a lot of tricks to “fatten up” the turkey burger, but so far no recipe I have tried has lived up to its promise.

Until I tried the Cheddar and Tomato-Packed Turkey Burgers in Lynn Rossetto Kasper’s How to Eat Supper. I have been trying a lot of new recipes out of How to Eat Supper since I got the cookbook for Christmas, and while the results have been fairly uneven so far, there have been a few unmistakeable home runs, recipes that I star several times and will keep making for years. I think this will be one of those recipes, as it is the only turkey burger I have ever made that actually tastes like a burger, that remains moist, juicy and full-flavored after cooking.

There are two secrets. One is incorporating cooked onions and tomatoes into the burger patty itself, which adds moistness and flavor. The other is inserting a few cubes of cheddar cheese into the center of the burger, which adds fat. Not too much cheese — as that would overwhelm the burger and probably make a mess during cooking — but just enough to punch up the delicious factor and make you feel like you’re eating a real burger. Plus, there’s the nice surprise of biting into the burger and encountering a gooey pocket of cheese, rather than just melting a cheese slice on top.

I won’t reprint the recipe here, as they have already done so over at Serious Eats, so just head on over there to get a copy. Or pick up How to Eat Supper. This one’s a keeper.

Cooking notes: I recommend making the patties ahead of time and chilling for an hour or so to help them hold together better while cooking. This is not a burger for grilling. It just won’t survive. Pan-fry it instead in a little oil over medium-high to sear, then turn down the heat to medium and cover to finish cooking through. I froze the leftover patties with no problems.

Bruschetta with Cheese and Peppers

I made these bruschetta for a light supper last night, and I thought they were scrumptious. The combination of spicy, tangy peppers and flavorful cheese just hit the spot. I might make these again for a party, a snack or lunch.

These bruschetta were inspired by a much more complex recipe that involved three kinds of cheese and getting the food processor out. I simplified the recipe a great deal, omitted some ingredients (like cream cheese, which seemed completely unnecessary), and decreased the amount of prep work required. I didn’t take note of the precise amounts I used, so all measurements in the recipe below are approximate — use your best judgment. Also, I would imagine that this recipe can be doubled or tripled fairly easily.

Bruschetta with Cheese & Peppers

Time to make: ~20 minutes
Yields: 4 lg. bruschetta

• 4 thick slices of sourdough, French or Italian bread
• Olive oil
• Coarse salt
• 1 garlic clove, peeled and halved
• 3-4 hot or sweet marinated peppers — I used Italian hot peppers, which I think added just the right amount of bite; you might also try a combination of peppers or use roasted chiles.
  
• 2 scallions
• 4 oz. cheddar cheese, shredded
• 2 oz. ricotta salata, crumbled — If you don’t have ricotta salata, substitute any similar cheese, such as feta or goat cheese.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lay out the slices of bread on a baking sheet. Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle salt over each slice. Rub each slice with a garlic half. Put the bread in the oven for 10 minutes to crisp and brown at the edges.

Meanwhile, mince the peppers and the scallions. Mix with the cheeses.

When the bread is toasted, mound some cheese mixture on top of each slice. Return to the oven for about 5 minutes, just until the cheese is starting to melt. Serve immediately.

Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Bacon and Fried Egg

Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Bacon and Fried Egg

This sandwich makes my husband lose his senses. I only make it for him once a year, on Father’s Day, which I’m sure you’ll understand once you look at the recipe. It’s not exactly the most healthy of breakfasts, but it is delicious!

The recipe comes from Sara Foster’s Casual Cooking, but the recipe is so simple that you’ll probably memorize it after making it once. There are a lot of steps, though, so make as much ahead as you can, and then assemble and grill the sandwiches right before serving.

Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Bacon and Fried Egg

Time to make: ~30 minutes
Yields: 1 sandwich

• 2 slices bacon
• 1 egg
• 2 slices any kind of bread
• butter
• cheddar cheese, sliced

Fry the bacon until crispy. Drain on paper towels and set aside. Wipe out the pan.

Fry the egg in the same pan as the bacon to desired doneness. It is best to leave the yolk a little runny, as it makes the sandwich that much more delicious.

Heat a flat griddle over medium-high. Butter one side of each piece of bread. Assemble the sandwich with the cheese, egg and bacon, buttered sides out. Place the sandwich on the hot griddle and cook until well browned. Flip carefully and cook the other side. Serve right away.

Notes: If you are making several sandwiches, you will have to lower the heat between sandwiches or they will start to burn before the cheese gets melty.

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Italian-Inspired Tuna Melt

Ah, the tuna melt. Nostalgia on a plate. It brings back vacation lunches and those carefree days of childhood when I could eat all the cheese and mayonnaise I wanted.

I have been having this more “grown-up” version of a tuna melt, inspired by Italian flavors, for lunch this week. While it’s still comfort food, it’s also a little more sophisticated than the tuna melts of our childhoods. And for anyone who thinks that you have to mix tuna fish with mayonnaise, this is a revelation. I prefer to use the more flavorful Italian canned tuna that’s packed in olive oil for this sandwich, but if you don’t have any on hand, mixing a good quality olive oil with the tuna fish should achieve the same result.

Italian-Inspired Tuna Melt

Time to make: ~15 minutes
Yields: 2 sandwiches

• 1 can tuna packed in olive oil or 1 can tuna packed in water + 2-3 tbsp. good-quality olive oil
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 2-3 tbsp. flat-leaf parsley, minced
• Salt and pepper to taste

• 4 slices bread, such as Italian bread, whole-wheat bread, focaccia or English muffins
• 8 oz. mozzarella cheese, sliced thinly

Drain the tuna well. Mix the tuna, olive oil (if needed), lemon juice, parsley, salt and pepper. Mound the tuna on the bread slices. Cover with the slices of cheese. Place under the broiler for a few minutes, until the cheese is melted and starting to brown. Serve open-faced.

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