How to Make a Frittata – The Cook’s Leftover Disposal

Erik — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 18:11:03 +0000

Lindsay and I always make sure to have at least half-dozen eggs in the fridge. As an aside, we make sure to buy good eggs from healthy chickens, usually from Knoll Krest, Flying Pigs Farm, or Grazin’ Angus Acres. More about our eggs in a future post. The primary reason that we make sure to keep eggs on hand is that when we have leftover vegetables that are getting long in the tooth, we often like to make a frittata.

A frittata is a baked omelet. That’s all it is. Because there is no folding involved it’s actually a lot easier than a “normal” French omelet. And you can pretty much dump the kitchen sink into it.

Frittata isn’t a recipe so much as it is a universal technique. It’s the swiss army knife of leftover disposal.

If we have bell peppers that are getting wrinkled and rubbery and are no longer salad-worthy, we use them in a frittata. If we sauté leafy greens and don’t eat all of them, they don’t reheat well, so we use them in frittata. In today’s photos, we had been getting tired of eating leftovers of my roasted vegetables.

Get out a cast iron skillet. If you have more than one cast iron skillet, your choice will depend on how deep the ingredients are that you want to add. In our photos, the roasted vegetables are pretty thick, so we used a smaller pan to get a deeper frittata. If you only have one cast iron skillet, it’ll still be fine. If you don’t have a cast iron skillet, get one.
Start by mixing the eggs as if you were making an omelet or scrambled eggs. We use 4 -6 eggs depending on the amount of “leftovers”. In these pictures we used 5 eggs. Crack the eggs into a bowl, add a little milk (optional), and whisk.
Put the “leftovers” in the cast iron skillet and space them evenly. Pour in the egg mixture and heat the skillet over medium to medium-high heat.
Once you have the heat going, add some (Kosher) salt and freshly ground pepper. If you want to mix in cheese, now is the time to do so.
At this point, you should turn on your broiler. Frittata works best of you have a gas oven with a separate broiler at the bottom, because those literally shoot fire balls straight over the pan. However, it works fine if you simply have an oven that has a “broiler” setting for the main compartment.
Leave the pan alone on the stove top for a few minutes. The next step comes when the edges of the eggs start to brown against the side of the skillet:
If you want to add grated cheese on top of the frittata (as opposed to mixed in), add it now. Remove the skillet from the stove top and put the entire skillet into the broiler / oven. This step is why it is important to use a cast iron skillet. Do not put a non-stick pan in the oven. Set a timer for 3 minutes. Check in on the frittata every minute after that until it is nicely browned but not burned:
Get out a trivet, because you don’t want to scorch your counter. As a bone-headed man, I have damaged many things. Also remember to use a thick oven mitt or pot holder, because the handle of the pan will be hot. Among the many things I have burned is myself.
Let the skillet cool (on the trivet) for a few minutes. This will also give the frittata time to set. Once it is no longer steaming, cut into it with a spatula. If you cut cleanly and straight through, your first slice should come out of the pan quite cleanly.
Frittata can make a great breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Stocked full of leftover vegetables, it’s a healthy option.

If you have leftover frittata (meta-leftovers?), let the pan cool completely, and cut it into individual slices before refrigerating. It reheats well in the microwave.

In order to make our lives easier, Lindsay and I tend to cook in volume so that a meal will stretch a few days. The downside is that repetition eventually gets boring. Frittata makes the old new again. Enjoy!

Roasted Vegetables – Winter Version and Misc. Techniques

Erik — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 03:40:18 +0000

We already covered the how-to’s of roasting vegetables in our techniques section. Since it’s such an easy meal, I made a winter version last week while Lindsay was away. We had some vegetables that we had neglected and needed to use up. I took some pictures to document some of the atypical winter ingredients and cover a few helpful tips.

Ingredients

Roasting potato mix (back left)
Brussels sprouts (back right)
Watermelon radish (front left)
Celeriac / celery root (front and center)
Golden turnip (front right)

Instead of reviewing the steps again, I want to focus instead on a few highlights:

Amount of Vegetables and Notes on Double-Roasting

The root vegetables alone filled the first roasting pan (left = before, right = after…mmm).

Lesson 1: this is way too many vegetables for a single roasting. I had a feeling that this would be the case, but took the plunge anyway. In the end I made two separate batches in two separate roasting pans, root vegetables first and then Brussels sprouts and potatoes.

In the past I have made the mistake of trying to perform a simultaneous double-roast, but I find it to be problematic. Because of the heat coming from the bottom of the pan above, the vegetables in the bottom pan tend to burn. I’m sure it’s possible to pull it off if you keep a close eye on the situation and swap the pans at some point, but that’s too much baby sitting for me. It was easier to just cook them in two phases, and I wouldn’t risk ruining them.

How to Deal with Aging and Sad Brussels Sprouts

A sad sprout.

These were probably the last robust Brussels sprouts of the season. These were beautiful when we bought them, but took to long to cook them. The good news about Brussels sprouts is that they can easily be revived. Wilting and yellowed storage sprouts may be available for a few more weeks, so this tip might come in handy.

Brussels sprouts tend to age layer by layer, so just keep peeling until you get to a healthy looking specimen. With some sprouts it will be only or two layers. With others (such as this one), it’s a bit more wasteful, but it’s better than tossing the whole sprout! Don’t forget to chop of the “stem” at the bottom.

In the end, a sad sack of Brussels sprouts was turned around into a beautiful bunch:

How to Peel a Watermelon Radish

Who can resist buying something that looks this cool? Luckily, it tastes as good as it looks. It has a slight flavor of horseradish, with none of the fire you would normally associate with horseradish. It crisps up nicely when roasted and makes a great teammate with celeriac.

However, as you can tell from the photo above, it has a thick skin. I made quick work of the turnip (below) with a normal peeler, but that just won’t cut it with the watermelon radish.

For the radish I used what I call the “pineapple method.” You need a good, sharp chef’s knife. First, remove the top and bottom so that you have a stable piece of vegetable that is nor rolling around as you work with it. Then, cut at small angles until you cut away all of the tough outer skin and all you have left is the bright red flesh. You will need to flip it upside down at some point and you will have to make a few passes to get it all.

It looks like raw tuna, doesn’t it?

Knife Skills: Quick Cubing (or Dicing)

I realize that when I say a recipe is “quick and easy” that it’s a relative term. I can make pretty quick work of any cubing or dicing that has to be done. I took some pictures of my technique. Two important caveats: 1. this probably isn’t the precise technique that you would learn in a “knife skills” course. 2. Be careful!

Cut the item in half. Always have an even, wide, flat surface on the bottom as the base of your cutting. The stability will allow you to work faster with less risk.
Cut the piece into strips of the desired size, but do so while holding the outside edges to make sure that the pieces stay together in their original shape. Be very careful. If a piece is sticking to the knife as you pull the knife out, apply gentle pressure to keep the piece in place. Your goal is to maintain the pieces as a solid block.
Separate the “strips” into two roughly equal groups and stack each on its widest edge. Again, this is for stability in the name of speed and safety.
Repeat step #2 with each of these two stacks.
Now you can just turn each stack sideways and make the final cross-cuts into cubes. Because you kept the overall shape intact the whole time, this is easier and faster that randomly chasing pieces around the cutting board.

I hope these miscellaneous tips, tricks, and techniques help!

EatLocal365 » golden turnip

How to Make a Frittata – The Cook’s Leftover Disposal

Roasted Vegetables – Winter Version and Misc. Techniques