So BTT members take turn hosting SGRs - Sunday Group Runs. We'll all meet at someones house, then run, then eat breakfast. Frittatas are great for such a purpose, because you can make it ahead of time and then just shove it in the oven before your guests even arrive (takes awhile to cook) and then once the run is over, time to chow! You can add whatever you want, too. But, there are two main components:
A layer of bread or hash browns. I prefer bread (but if you want to use hash browns, make sure they're THAWED and wring them out in a paper towel). If you use bread, slice the bread up and leave the slices out to dry overnight. I put them in the pan I was making frittata in to do this.
Next, cook your meat/veggie mix. Add whatever you want! You can use ham, sausage (chorizo, breakfast, turkey, etc), proscuitto (that would be awesome, but a pricey frittata!), etc. You could also skip the meat entirely and move right to veggies. Again add whatever - peppers, onions, mushrooms, spinach, etc.
Of course your ingredients will depend on how you cook it...but if you use sausage, cut the casings off. Add to a large saucepan and cook the sausage over medium-high heat, breaking apart with a spatula as it cooks. Once it's lost most of it's pink, start adding veggies. Add in the order of what needs the longest amount of time to cook.
I made mine with chicken sausage, onion and mushrooms. So once the chicken sausage was mostly cooked and crumbled, I added the onion and let cook for a few minutes, then added the mushrooms. When you're hit with the smell of mushrooms, the whole thing is probably done! Here were my measurements:
1 large white onion 16 ounces chicken sausage (Trader Joes had some good ones) 10 ounces quarted portobello mushrooms
Once you've cooked your veggies, transer to a bowl and put the saucepan back on the burner over high heat. Heat a cup of white wine (I used sauvignon blanc) and let steam until it has reduced to 1/2 cup. This will be used in your egg mixture later.
Spread your veggie/meat mix over your bread, and sprinkle with a layer of cheese (I used monterey jack...make sure to use a cheese that melts well, a good option would be cheddar). Then mix your egg mixture:
12 large eggs 3.5 cups low fat or whole milk (skim would be a little too runny) the 1/2 cup reduced white wine 1/4 cup minced parsley Salt and pepper to taste
Just add all ingredients together and whisk. Pour over the frittata. Cover with saran wrap until you're ready to cook it, and when you are sprinkle another layer of cheese over the top. Cook at 325 degrees for around 90 minutes. You'll know when it is done when it isn't too giggly anymore in the middle. Also when it looks something like this:
A variation on a lemon meringue pie! Pretty similar, just made in a tart pan with a layer of sponge cake between the lemon curd and meringue. Since there is less lemon, the curd is a little stronger than what you'd put in a lemon meringue pie.
At a particular point during this tart (after I filled with lemon curd), I dropped the whole thing and had to start over. I learned that some shortcuts could be taken, but this is the ideal procedure for making this delicious tart.
Crust: 2.5 cups all purpose flour 1 tablespoon sugar 1 teaspoon salt 2 sticks unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1 inch pieces. 3 tablespoons ice cold water 1/2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (if you don't add this, just add a little more water)
Place flour, salt and sugar in a food processor and pulse until combined. Add the cold butter and pulse until the butter crumbles are roughly the same size of peas. Add the water and vinegar through the feed tube while pulsing. The dough will still be in pieces (do NOT overprocess) with obvious butter crumbs. Dump your dough out onto a clean surface with plastic wrap readily available. Divide into two mounds (just to make easier to work with) and work quickly to knead each mound once over with the palm of your hands. Quickly gather each mound together so it is the shape of an extra large hockey puck. For this tart, make one round significantly larger than the other (and use the bigger one). Wrap in plastic wrap, and squeeze over the plastic wrap until the dough is a cohesive round. This whole process should take no more than five minutes. The point is to keep the butter as cold as possible, so you work it as little as you can (hands are quite warm). Put each round as it gets wrapped up in the fridge for 20 minutes before you roll them out.
Have all purpose flour ready when you roll out the dough. I usually start rolling with the plastic wrap still on until it it slightly flattened. I then sprinkle some flour on a clean work surface, unwrap my pie dough, flour the top of the now flattened round, and roll out the dough. If you don't have a rolling pin, I've used bottles of olive oil and bottles of wine before. They worked pretty well. Keep moving the dough around, and roll by starting at the center of the dough and rolling outward until the dough is around 1/4 inch thick all around. Using a pastry brush, brush extra flour off of the surface. Get the underside of the crust by draping over your arm, like so:
Fit the rolled out dough into the tart pan. The sides of the tart should be thicker, so ideally the round should be an inch-ish larger around than the pan so you can fold the extra dough in.
This will be what the fitted pan looks like:
Once the dough is fitted into the pan, you're going to want to pre bake it a little before (aka blind baking). However, you have to weigh the dough down so it doesn't puff up. I don't like the traditional pastry weights, so I line the whole thing with parchment paper, and then fill it up with dried beans and rice. You can use these beans and rice several times.
Bake the pie crust for around 20 minutes at 425 degrees. Let it cool while you make your lemon curd. Turn the oven down to 300 degrees.
Lemon Curd: 2 teaspoons lemon zest 14 large egg yolks 3/4 cup sugar 6 tablespoons strained lemon juice 4 tablespoons unsalted butter a pinch of salt
In a medium saucepan, beat the yolks and sugar until well blended. Add lemon juice, butter and salt. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until mixture has thickened (will coat your mixing utensil, but still liquid enough to pour). Discard residue, and pour your curd into your cool pie crust. Put back in the oven for 7-10 minutes (at 300). You'll know it's done when you shake it (lightly) and it doesn't giggle. Again, allow to cool.
At this point you have a few options. You can add cookie crumbles, a layer of sponge cake or just skip this step and just add meringue. I added a layer of sponge cake - which I made a day prior to making the tart. But here is the recipe I used:
Ingredients: 1/3 cup sifted cake flour 2.5 tablespoons cornstarch 4 large eggs 1 large egg yolk 1/2 cup superfine sugar 3/4 teaspoon 1/4 cream of tartar
Butter 2 9 inch round cake pans.
Whisk together the flour and cornstarch in a small bowl.
Separate 2 of the eggs, placing the yolks in one large mixer bowl and the whites in another. To the yolks, add the remaining 2 eggs, the additional yolk and 1/2 cup of the sugar. Using the whisk attachment on a standing mixer, beat the whites on high speed for around 5 minutes until around tripled in volume. Lower the speed and add in the vanilla.
Sift half of the flour mixture over the egg mixture and fold together, gently until combined. Repeat with second half of the flour.
Beat egg whites until foamy with a clean whisk attachment. Add cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form. Beat in remaining sugar and pour into prepared pans. Level with an offset spatula.
Bake for around 7 minutes, or until you can press on the cake and it springs back up. Loosen the sides of the cake with a knife and unmold immediately by inverting onto a wire rack to cool. You'll have to cut in half with a serrated bread knife to make a more appropriate height for the tart.
Once you place the cake onto the tart, you can make your meringue. This is very easy. In a standing mixer with a whisk attachment, beat 4 egg whites until foamy at medium speed. Add 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar, and increase speed to high. Add the sugar gradually, and let beat until stiff peaks form.
You can either pipe the meringue over the tart or just spread it over. I was running low on time (see first paragraph, when I said I DROPPED this tart at one point and had to start over), so I just blobbed it right on and spread.
Bake the completed tart at 500 degrees for 3-5 minutes...watch carefully, the meringue just has to begin to brown. Once the tart cools a little, you can remove the sides of the tart pan (this will make sense if you know what a tart pan is, it's similar to a springform pan, makes it easy to detach the bottom from the sides). Here is a side shot:
So, I make lasagna from time to time, because it is a great make ahead/freezer dish. Good for having people over, because it cooks for so long that it's probably in the oven before your guests even arrive so you're not cooking/cleaning with friends over. I found that this manicotti was very similar to making lasagna, just assembled differently.
There are manicotti noodles that come as a giant tube, but then you have to mess with a pastry bag to fill them. Pass. This way seemed much easier.
Ingredients:
Tomato Sauce: 56 ounces diced tomatoes, in juice 1 lb Italian sausage, casings removed 3 cloves garlic hot red pepper flakes (optional, however much you like - I think I added around a teaspoon) 2 tablespoons chopped basil
Process the diced tomatoes in a food processor to break up the chunks a little. I did this in two batches. Heat just a teeny bit of olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat, add sausage and cook. Break apart the sausage while cooking. When the sausage has browned, add garlic and red pepper flakes. Let cook for a minute or two and then add tomatoes. Let sauce simmer for around 15 minutes.
Noodles & Filling: 16 no boil noodles (I used barilla) 3 cups part skim ricotta 4 ounces parmesan 8 ounces shredded mozzarella 2 large eggs, lightly beaten 3/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper 2 tablespoons chopped basil 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Pour 1 inch boiling water into 13 by 9-inch broilersafe baking dish, then add noodles one at a time. Let noodles soak until pliable, about 5 minutes, separating noodles with tip of sharp knife to prevent sticking. Remove noodles from water and place in single layer on clean kitchen towels.
Mix remainder of ingredients, minus half of the parmesan.
Once your noodles aren't soaking anymore, transfer them to a work surface (I covered mine with parchment paper). Put a dollop of filling on each noodle, then spread over bottom 2/3 of noodle. You can see in below picture I had already spread out one...you don't want filling at the top because it would just squirt out.
Starting at the bottom, roll the noodle.
Spread 3/4 cup over the bottom of your dish (same one you used to precook the noodles), then place your rolled manicotti over the sauce.
Spread the remainder of the sauce over the noodles. Wrap in aluminum foil. If you're eating immediately, cook for 40 minutes with the aluminum foil on. After 40 minutes, remove from oven and put the oven on broil. Take off the foil, sprinkle with remaining parmesan, and put back in the oven under the broiler for a few (around 4-6) minutes until cheese has just started to brown.
If you're not eating immediately, keep in fridge or freezer. If you're freezing, transfer to fridge a day before you're planning to eat it. Follow cooking instructions as before, just increase the baking time from 40 to 75 minutes.
Hooray for Cheesy Poofs! I made them up, so I got to name them. Well, I didn't really make them up completely. I was trying to recreate a Trader Joe version that are oh so good. But I decided I could make them better, and I did. Mostly because it is hard to compete with homemade pie crust. These units of measurements are approximations, because of course I wasn't measuring anything when dumping them in.
Crust: 2.5 cups all purpose flour 1 tablespoon sugar 1 teaspoon salt 2 sticks unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1 inch pieces. 3 tablespoons ice cold water 1/2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (if you don't add this, just add a little more water)
Place flour, salt and sugar in a food processor and pulse until combined. Add the cold butter and pulse until the butter crumbles are roughly the same size of peas. Add the water and vinegar through the feed tube while pulsing. The dough will still be in pieces (do NOT overprocess) with obvious butter crumbs. Dump your dough out onto a clean surface with plastic wrap readily available. Divide into two mounds (just to make easier to work with) and work quickly to knead each mound once over with the palm of your hands. Quickly gather each mound together so it is the shape of an extra large hockey puck. Wrap in plastic wrap, and squeeze over the plastic wrap until the dough is a cohesive round. This whole process should take no more than five minutes. The point is to keep the butter as cold as possible, so you work it as little as you can (hands are quite warm). Put each round as it gets wrapped up in the fridge for 20 minutes before you roll them out.
Have all purpose flour ready when you roll out the dough. I usually start rolling with the plastic wrap still on until it it slightly flattened. I then sprinkle some flour on a clean work surface, unwrap my pie dough, flour the top of the now flattened round, and roll out the dough. If you don't have a rolling pin, I've used bottles of olive oil and bottles of wine before. They worked pretty well. Keep moving the dough around, and roll by starting at the center of the dough and rolling outward until the dough is around 1/4 inch thick all around. I only used half the dough for cheesy poofs, as a whole batch would have made a ridiculous amount of poofs. I saved the other half, and this freezes well if you don't use it immediately.
Cut into 2 inch squares (see picture). I have this little gadget for making pie lattice, so I used it. It also gave it a nice edge.
Also, see how the coloring is not totally even? That is what you want. The white blobs are whole chunks of butter, and will result in a deliciously flaky crust. If you don't have this, you over processed the dough. Press each square into a mini muffin cup.
Put the whole tray in the fridge when you're done cutting the dough.
Filling:
In a standing mixer, add: 1 cup of diced pancetta or ham (they have a convenient package at Trader Joes) 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened 1 stick butter, softened 2 eggs 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese 2 tablespoons chopped chive Salt and pepper...I would say to taste, but don't taste the filling. That would be gross. Just add however much you'd like. You know how much salt and pepper you usually like in your food.
Beat with paddle attachment until combined.
Transfer filling to a pastry bag and pipe into each dough cup. I baked at 350 for around 25 minutes. Let cool for a good ten minutes before eating.
So, these were good. Very good. I thought that for the work involved, I would rather just make a pie. Doug disagreed, saying that he can't just pick up a piece of pie and eat it on the couch without utensils. Fair enough. I did like the crust to filling ratio, as I am a huge pie crust fan. I got the idea from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Pie and Pastry Bible, but didn't end up following her recipe. I read through the entire article on turnovers, and noticed she didn't cook the filling for her blueberry version. I thought this was weird, and I far prefer the taste of cooked blueberry filling. So, I went off of on my own. This is what I came up with.
Pie Dough:
I decided to add apple cider vinegar to the dough. I had read that this made the dough easier to roll out. I didn't like the flavor it added when I tasted the raw dough, but couldn't tell the difference after it had been cooked.
2 sticks very cold unsalted butter, cut into one inch pieces. 2 cups all purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 4.5 ounces cold cream cheese, also cut into inch pieces 2 tablespoons ice water 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
Place flour and salt in a food processor and pulse until combined. Add the cold butter and cream cheese and pulse until the butter crumbles are roughly the same size of peas. Add the water and vinegar through the feed tube while pulsing. The dough will still be in pieces (do NOT overprocess) with obvious butter crumbs. Dump your dough out onto a clean surface with plastic wrap readily available. Divide into ten mounds (yes, ten) and work quickly to knead each mound once over with the palm of your hands. Quickly gather each mound together so it is the shape of a small hockey puck. Wrap in plastic wrap, and squeeze over the plastic wrap until the dough is a cohesive round. This whole process should take no more than five minutes. The point is to keep the butter as cold as possible, so you work it as little as you can (hands are quite warm). Put each round as it gets wrapped up in the fridge for 20 minutes before you roll them out.
Have all purpose flour ready when you roll out the dough. I usually start rolling with the plastic wrap still on until it it slightly flattened. I then sprinkle some flour on a clean work surface, unwrap my pie dough, flour the top of the now flattened round, and roll out the dough. If you don't have a rolling pin, I've used bottles of olive oil and bottles of wine before. They worked pretty well. Keep moving the dough around, and roll by starting at the center of the dough and rolling outward. For turnovers, you should roll out 10 six inch rounds that are around 1/4 inch thick. If this were a real pie, you'd only have two large rounds that roll out to be...much bigger. Put all of the rounds back in the fridge while you make your filling.
Toss these all together them dump in a saucepan over medium/low heat and cook until around half of the blueberries are popped.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
Take each dough round out of the fridge one at a time. Spoon around 1/4 cup in the center of each round. Take the bottom of the dough, and pull over the top. Turn over the edges of the dough to seal in the dough. I wish I had taken pictures here, but my hands were pretty dough-y and I didn't want to get my camera all gross. Hopefully this makes sense. Brush the turnover with egg glaze (1 egg diluted with a little water) and if you'd like, sprinkle with some extra sugar. I like to use Sugar in the Raw for that sort of thing because I think the sugar crystals look neat. Transfer the turnover to the lined baking sheet, which you're keeping in the fridge while you work through the rest of the turnovers. Poke holes with a knife in each turnover before you cook so the whole thing doesn't explode. Bake for around 20 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown. They'll look something like this:
Here is a picture from mid snack:
They kind of reminded me of the apple pies at McDonalds.
I'm not sure if they're more suitable for dessert of breakfast. Maybe they're good for both. These were too big for me to eat, so perhaps next time I would made mini turnovers...but rolling out 20 rounds of dough, even little, would be kind of a pain. I'll think about it.
Oh yes, it can be done! Thanks to my Cooking Light book, I succeeded in making a very healthy, flavorful meatloaf. Of course I used ground turkey instead of ground beef! It was also almost gluten free. It could have easily been gluten free, just added a little more almond meal and eliminated the oats.
Ingredients: 1-2 chipotle chilies in adobe sauce (chop the chilies) 1 teaspoon of the adobe sauce from the can 1/2 cup chopped red onion 1/2 cup chopped cilantro 1/4 regular oats 1/4 cup almond meal (OK, the recipe called for breadcrumbs, but I prefer almond meal...healthier!) 1/4 cup tomato sauce (not marinara...just plain tomato sauce...find among the canned veggies) 2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon cumin 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 1/4 teaspoon dried basil 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 2 large eggs 2 pounds ground beef or turkey
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together all of the ingredients, and transfer to a 9x5 inch loaf pan (coated with cooking spray if the pan isn't nonstick). Bake for 30 minutes, then add the following sauce:
1/4 cup tomato sauce (same kind as above) 1 tablespoon ketchup 1 teaspoon ketchup
Just pour it over the top. Put the loaf back in the oven for another 30-40 minutes (a meat thermometer will read 160 degrees). Let stand for around 10 minutes before cutting into it.
This was really good, and pleased Doug because it was hearty and me because it was healthy and low carb. I served it with mashed sweet potatoes (it didn't taste good with the sweet potatoes, just had them on the side).
I first learned about a Coq Au Vin on Top Chef a few seasons ago. They had given the chef who made it - Casey - a hard time because she used chicken as opposed to the traditional rooster. Turns out, most modern versions are made with chicken because rooster isn't commercially raised (something that didn't matter in the olden days). I never had an intention of cooking a rooster, but I was reading my Cooks Illustrated Magazine and came across an article about a modern Coq Au Vin. Way back when, it was braised for a long time because a tough bird with lots of connective tissue such as a rooster needed it to be edible. Now, it is just tasty. Using two pots speeds up the process a lot faster. This is not an easy weeknight meal, I have only made it twice but would only consider making on a weekend. Also because it makes great leftovers. A medium bodied fruity wine is the best for this dish - avoid the really oaky stuff. The first time I made it, I followed the recipe exactly. The second time, I cut out some of the heavy stuff...like a lot of the butter and some bacon. I didn't miss it.
Ingredients: 1 bottle red wine (see note above) 2 cups low sodium chicken broth 10 springs fresh parsley 2 springs thyme 1 bay leaf 4 ounces thick cut bacon (I only used two...I don't want too much fat) 3 pounds boneless chicken breasts or thighs 1 large white onion, chopped 8 ounces cremini mushrooms, chopped 2 cloves garlic, pressed 1 tablespoon tomato paste 2 tablespoons flour ( I used almond flour) 5 tablespoons unsalted butter (I didn't end up using nearly this much) minced parsley, to garnish
Bring wine, broth, parsley sprigs, thyme, and bay leaf to simmer in large saucepan over medium-high heat. My pot:
Cook until reduced to 3 cups, about 25 minutes. Discard herbs.
Meanwhile, cook bacon in large Dutch oven over medium heat until browned, 7 to 8 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper-towel-lined plate. The recipe calls for keeping the fat to cook the veggies in, but I chose to just use olive oil to be a little healthier.
Lightly season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat reserved bacon fat in Dutch oven over medium-high heat until just smoking (again, I just used a little olive oil). Add half of chicken in single layer and cook until lightly browned, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to plate and repeat with remaining chicken. Here is my chicken cooking:
Melt 3 tablespoons butter in now-empty Dutch oven over medium-high heat (yet again, I used just a little olive oil). Add onion and mushrooms and cook for around 5 to 8 minutes. Reduce heat to medium, add garlic, and cook for another 30 seconds. Add tomato paste and flour and let cook for another minute, stirring constantly.
Add reduced wine mixture and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Return chicken, any accumulated juices, and reserved bacon to pot; increase heat to high and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover pot, and simmer until chicken is tender, about 25 minutes, stirring halfway through cooking time.
Using slotted spoon, transfer chicken to large bowl; tent with foil to keep warm. Increase heat to medium-high and simmer sauce until thick and glossy and measures 3 cups, about 5 minutes. Off heat, stir in remaining 2 tablespoons butter (I skipped this). Season to taste with salt. Return chicken to pot and top with minced parsley. Serve immediately. I served with cous cous, but you could also serve with mashed potatoes or egg noodles. The first time I made it I served it with mashed potatoes and it was a little too heavy for me. Cous cous was perfect.
I didn't take a picture of my plate (I might have been too hungry to remember to take one), but here is the last step. It taster better than it looks, I promise! Nice and rich.
