ZUCCHINI FRITTATA

Posted in Breakfast & Brunch, Small Dishes, Vegetarian-friendly, Veggies by sallybr

I might be on a roll concerning special gadgets. Case in point, I have a pan that is designed to make Tarte Tatin (!!!), but today I am incredibly proud to show you how to use it to make a nice frittata. Do you need that pan? No. But are you going to be the coolest cook in town if you use it? YES, YOU ARE.

ZUCCHINI FRITTATA
(from The Bewitching Kitchen)

2 Tbsp. olive oil or unsalted butter
2 shallots, minced
2 medium zucchini, sliced and each slice quartered
4 large eggs
1/4 cup whole milk
4-6 pieces of fresh mozzarella
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Herbes de Provence
¼ tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Place rack in middle of oven; heat oven to 350°. Heat 2 Tbsp. olive oil or unsalted butter in an oven-proof skillet. Add the shallots and zucchini, sauté, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk the large eggs in a medium bowl with the milk, salt, pepper and spices mix.

Pour egg mixture into the skillet. Add the pieces of mozzarella. Cook, stirring occasionally, just until edges pull away from sides of pan, about 5 minutes. Transfer skillet to oven and bake until set, 10–15 minutes. Serve immediately or at room temperature within an hour or so.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: You can flip the frittata off the pan and serve it with the brown side up, or cut it straight in the pan, anything works. It turned out creamy, light and fluffy. The pan makes it a breeze to invert and flip the frittata onto a serving plate. We will be enjoying this type of meal in many variations on a regular basis… Mushrooms, red bell peppers, maybe even some smoked salmon in the mix.

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17Apr2025

INCREDIBLY SIMPLE PROSCIUTTO BAKED EGGS

Posted in Breakfast & Brunch, Incredibly simple, Pizzas & Small Dishes by sallybr

This recipe was inspired by a version from Mark Bittman published back in 2022. I really like the modifications I included, and hope you will also. In typical Sally’s fashion, I got so hooked on it that it was my lunch several days in a row. Yeah, that’s the way I roll. Sometimes.

BAKED EGGS WITH PROSCIUTTO AND TOMATO
(inspired by Mark Bittman)

serves two

2 low-carb tortillas (or any other flour tortilla you like)
olive oil spray
2 slices beefsteak tomato
2 slices of prosciutto di Parma
2 eggs
Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
drizzle of heavy cream (optional)
salt (very little)

Heat oven to 375F.

Cut the tortilla to fit snuggly and the bottom of your dish. Spray the dish with olive oil, add the tortilla, spray the top lightly with oil.

Place a slice of tomato on top, a slice of prosciutto, break the egg over it. Add cheese, and if you want, a little drizzle of cream. Salt lightly, the prosciutto will be very salty.

Bake for 15 minutes, or until egg yolk cooked to your liking. If egg white is not fully cooked, run under the broiler. You can also start the baking covering the dish with aluminum foil to help steam the egg white and cook it properly.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: To me, this is almost a perfect lunch. You can kick it up a notch using a slice of sourdough bread instead of tortilla, but I like to keep it light. Beefsteak tomato is underrated, in my opinion. I love it and in this preparation it is really the best kind to use. It stands to baking and contributes moisture and flavor. You can use ham instead of prosciutto, although I rather stick with the latter. The only tricky part is baking long enough to cook the egg white without overcooking the yolk, but play with it and you’ll find what works best in your oven.

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TWO YEARS AGO: Crispy Asparagus Salad with Toasted Bread Crumbs

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27Oct2024

MUERTOS RANCHEROS

Posted in Poultry by sallybr

The moment I stumbled on this amazing blog – Ghoulatheart.com – I knew I had to make something from it right away. The recipe for Muertos Rancheros called my name really loud, as I had the right pan for it and the timing could not be more perfect: the week before Halloween! I made a tomato-free version, so if you want a more authentic version, check her blog post.

MUERTOS RANCHEROS
(inspired by Ghoulatheart.com)

Mock tomato sauce:
1 jar of roasted red bell pepper (12 ounce)
8 ounces mushrooms
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
salt to taste

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 shallot, finely minced
1 celery stalk, diced
1 pound ground turkey
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1 can black beans
cilantro leaves to taste
chicken stock to adjust consistency

jumbo eggs, whites and yolks separated
olive oil spray

garnish (optional)
flour tortillas cut in ghost shapes
olive oil spray

Heat oven to 350F.

Cut flour tortilla in ghosts shapes of varied sizes. Spray olive oil on both sides and bake until golden. Reserve for garnish.

Make the bell pepper sauce by running all ingredients in a food processor until super smooth. Reserve.

Heat the olive oil on a large skillet, add the celery and shallots, season lightly with salt. Sautee until fragrant. Add the ground turkey, salt, chili, cumin, and cook until the turkey is almost cooked through. Add 1 cup of the red bell pepper sauce, cook gently in low heat for 10 minutes, with the lid on. Add the black beans, cilantro, and a little chicken stock to loosen the sauce and make it a good environment to place the eggs over. Cover the pan and keep it at a simmer.

Make the eggs. Spray the skull pan with olive oil, add the egg white of the JUMBO egg, season lightly with salt. Cook in the oven for 4 minutes. Remove the pan, add the egg yolks, one per cavity. Put back in the oven and cook for 3 to 4 minutes more. Remove the pan from the oven, go over the edges of the eggs with a plastic knife or spatula to make sure it is loose enough to slip off the pan. Place a parchment paper and a baking sheet on top of the pan (careful, it is HOT), invert it. Eggs should slip off easily. Carefully place them with a silicone spatula over the sauce, with the heat turned off. You might need to add more chicken stock depending on how dry the sauce looks. Serve immediately decorated with tortilla ghosts.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: If you ever need to adapt a recipe that calls for tomato sauce due to food sensitivities, I recommend you try this red bell pepper version. I saw it online in a discussion forum and was intrigued. We really like it a lot. It is of course a huge departure from the ranchero sauce, but I hope the Ranchero Police won’t come after me. Cooking the eggs in the pan can be tricky, I had a big mess on my first try, I did not use spray, I rubbed olive oil in the cavities and that was clearly not effective. Some readers of her blog recommended adding the yolk to the sauce and just cooking the whites in the pan, but I found it harder to invert the egg whites only as the volume is very shallow. I think what works best is add the eggs to the sauce with the heat OFF, and let the yolks just cook in the residual heat. You might want to practice with one egg in your oven and see how it goes. Nudge the egg gently with a plastic spatula before inverting on the parchment paper.

Such a fun meal for scary times! The tortilla ghosts I saw on FoodTV The Kitchen show, and thought it was a good way to add something else to this meal. Poor little ghost was a little scared, knowing his end – another end – was near!

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14Mar2018

DEVILED EGGS GO GREEN

Posted in Appetizers, Breakfast & Brunch, Small Dishes by sallybr

First things first:
Thank you to all of you who contributed by donating or sharing my gofund page on behalf of our graduate student Aritri.

Deviled eggs. Either you hate them or you love them, there’s no in-between. They are retro, I suppose, in the sense that their popularity seems to have faded compared to say, 20 years ago. But they are more retro than that, as the term dates to the XVIII century, applied to foods that carry a lot of spicy heat. My version added some avocado to the filling, and we both thought it was a nice little twist on this classic.

AVOCADO DEVILED EGGS
(from the Bewitching Kitchen)

6 eggs, hard-boiled and peeled (obviously)
2 medium avocados, ripe and tender
2 tablespoons full-fat yogurt
1 tsp Sriracha sauce (or more, to taste)
1 tsp lemon juice
salt and black pepper to taste
generous sprinkle of Tajin for serving

Cut the eggs in half, and gently scoop out the yolks, placing them in a small bowl.

To the yolks, add all other ingredients, except Tajin, and mash it all together with a fork. Transfer the mixture to a piping bag or simply fill the egg whites with a small spoon. Divide the filling on all egg whites, you might have a little bit leftover. It goes nice on a piece of baguette or Ak-Mak cracker.

Sprinkle with Tajin, and serve. It keeps well in the fridge, cover lightly with Saran-wrap.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: Honestly, I don’t know why I don’t make deviled eggs more often. It is such a delicious little treat, retro or not, I could not care less. It is tasty, and Phil loves it. He arrived home from golf on a Sunday and I surprised him with this batch. I don’t know if he was smiling so much because of his score (he had shot 72 and beat all his buddies) or if the deviled eggs were part of it. At any rate, these are awesome. I know some people don’t think avocados and eggs make a good match, and yes, maybe the whole “break an egg inside an avocado half and bake it” is pushing it a little. But in this preparation? No issues, I promise. I would make it for company anytime. And if you don’t have Tajin, don’t let that stop you. A little freshly ground pepper will do. But Tajin is pretty awesome, a perfect match for avocados, so if your grocery store carries it, bring a little bottle home.

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20Oct2016

IMPOSSIBLY CUTE BACON & EGG CUPS

Posted in Breakfast & Brunch, Small Dishes, Sous-Vide Cooking by sallybr

Should I be embarrassed to blog about a “recipe” that is essentially two ingredients plus seasoning? Potentially, yes. But in reality I am not, because this non-recipe has a nice little unexpected twist to it: the bacon was pre-cooked sous-vide. WAIT! Don’t run away, you can make it if you don’t have the Anova gadget sitting in your kitchen drawer. But I must say bacon cooked sous-vide and stored in the fridge waiting to shine in any recipe is a very nice item for the busy cook. Or any cook, actually, because this method gets quite a bit of the greasy “feel” of bacon out of the equation, and the texture will be superb.

BACON AND EGG CUPS
(from the Bewitching Kitchen)

several slices of bacon, preferably cooked sous-vide
large eggs
salt
Aleppo pepper (or pepper of your choice)

If cooking the bacon sous-vide, place the slices in a bag and submerge in the water-bath set to 147 F (64 C) overnight. I left mine 12 hours, but you can do it longer if more convenient. At the end of the cooking time, a lot of fat will have accumulated inside the bag. You can save it if you like to cook with it, or discard it. Place the cooked slices of bacon over paper towels to dry them well. Store them in the fridge until ready to use. If not using sous-vide, cook the bacon on a skillet, but do not allow it to get too brown or crispy. Drain them well in paper towels before assembling the cups.

Heat the oven to 375 F (175 C).

Cover the bottom of a muffin baking tin with bacon, making sure to come up all the way to the top. Gently break an egg and place it inside. Season with salt and pepper. Bake according to your preference. I like the egg yolks to be runny, so 10 to 15 minutes maximum will be enough. If you like your eggs fully cooked, go for 20 minutes, but pay close attention, you don’t want to over-dry the egg.

Remove to a serving dish, and dig in!

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: I made this recipe for the first time in July, and since then we’ve been cooking bacon sous-vide on a regular basis. To me, it takes bacon to a whole new level, cutting some of the harshness I find overpowering. If you get your pan screaming hot, you can get by simply searing one side of the bacon slice, as the whole thing is already perfectly cooked to start with. But, even if you crisp up both sides, the texture will be perfect.

These little cups are perfect for breakfast, or a light lunch. Having the bacon waiting in the fridge makes this preparation a breeze. All you need to do is warm up your oven (we use the Breville that heats up super fast), grab the muffin tin, and you are less than 20 minutes away from a nice meal. I also made those using prosciutto and ham. Both work very well, but the sous-vide bacon is my favorite. Keep also in mind that if you’d like a vegetarian version, cooked spaghetti squash strands can be a nice receptacle for the egg. I intend to blog about that sometime. The secret is to be assertive in the seasoning, otherwise it can be a bit bland.