Wednesday, June 5th, 2013
Good morning! I wished my Aunt Jeanne a HAPPY Birthday on Facebook yesterday, but wanted to give her another shout-out this morning. Hope you had a great birthday, Jeanne! Miss you, uncle Keith, and Hoss - hope to see you guys this summer for some Yucca & trout!! :-))
It was another stunning day in the Park. 61 degrees, sunny, and blue-skied. Zero humidity. There was a lot of trash in the Park today, which is an unfortunate consequence of it being very nice out. Thank GOODNESS for the wonderful people from the Central Park Conservancy because they work so hard every day to keep the Park looking beautiful.
I made the best frittata I've ever made last night. I
loved it, AND Brian liked it. I've done some thinking and some tweaking. I'll share it with you in a minute. But, ultimately I've learned an important lesson - a mathematical one.
"The tastiness of the frittata is directly proportional to the quantity of input cheese."
Fact.
My usual frittata's involve a bit of some onion type, garlic, a leafy green like kale, spinach, swiss chard, or collards, and either goat cheese or feta. I changed up my cheese and cooked down my greens this time. I don't usually cook down my greens - I just add them to the egg in the pan. I also learned that while I like the taste of thyme and marjoram and other savory herbs, I honestly don't like them in a frittata - there's something off-putting about fresh thyme for me when mixed with egg. I'll share my most delicious, wonderful, crispy-topped, savory frittata now.
Jen's BEST Gouda, Chard, and Red Onion Frittata:
- 1/2 lb Swiss Chard (about half to 3/4 of a big bunch) - white or rainbow - de-stemmed and chopped into big pieces
- 2 cups of shredded gouda cheese - you can obviously cut this down, but you'll be going against the mathematical rule stated above.
- 1/2 finely cut red onion (I like to keep the pieces long and thin)
- 2 cloves of minced garlic
- 2 good pats of butter
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 12 eggs
- 11/2 teaspoon ground coriander seed
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
-11/2 teaspoon salt (more or less depending on whether your butter is salted or not)
- grated parmesan cheese to garnish
Heat 1 generous pat of butter and a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan. Add your garlic and cook for about 30 seconds. Then add red onions and cook for another minute or so. Finally, add your chard - there should be enough that it is practically billowing out of your skillet. Cook all of this for about 3 minutes or until your green is wilted - no longer - you want the vegetables to still have lots of flavor. Preheat the oven to 325-350 depending on how hot your oven is.
While your vegetables are cooking, whisk 12 eggs together in a bowl. Pour your vegetables directly into the egg mixture from the skillet and mix evenly. Add your coriander seed, black pepper, and salt - mix.
Add another pat of butter and olive oil back to your original skillet. Pour in your fritatta mixture and then add your cheese in big handfuls. Top with just a little bit of parmesan (maybe a tablespoon) (It makes a nice crispiness).
Cook the fritatta on the stove top until the edges have begun to solidify then stick it in the oven for - our oven is so hot I'm not even going to give you a time estimate b/c yours is probably so different - until it's golden brown on the top and an inserted knife comes out clean.
Enjoy!! (Seriously, this is a
good frittata - and they only get better as leftovers).
Carpe diem,
J
