Ham and Asparagus Frittata

My goodness, it’s been a while. Along with my work schedule, I’ve gone back to school. That’s been taking up quite a bit of my time. It’s past time to talk about food, again.

Frittatas are wonderful mixtures of eggs and other savory ingredients. In this case, were; using ham, asparagus, and cheese. You may want to wait until late spring to use asparagus, when it’s in season. Other vegetables can easily be substituted, though. Unlike omelets, frittatas are finished in the oven. Unlike quiche, there’s no crust. They’re quite easy to prepare, and make a great brunch or weekend breakfast. Breakfast food for dinner is fun, too.

Equipment Needed
cutting board
chef’s knife
box grater
measuring cups and spoons
whisk
mixing bowls
rubber spatula
non-stick, oven-proof skillet

Ingredients
1/2 lb. asparagus
2 oz. deli ham, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 Tbsp oil
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup of grated gruyere, or other crumbly or hard cheese
6 large eggs
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2 Tbsp minced fresh parsley, or 1 tbsp dried parsley

Directions
Trim the woody stalks from the asparagus and cut on a bias into small pieces, about 1-inch long. Leave a few trimmed spears whole if you feel adventurous.

Adjust an oven rack to the upper middle position and preheat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In the meantime, beat the eggs in a mixing bowl. Whisk in the cheese, parsley, salt and pepper, and set aside.

Heat the oil in a medium sized, oven proof skillet over medium heat, until shimmering. Add the onion, asparagus and ham. Cook until the onion is softened, stirring frequently, about 4 – 5 minutes.

Add the egg mixture to the skillet and gently stir with the rubber spatula. Cook until the eggs on the bottom start to set, about 30 seconds. Gently pull the cooked eggs back from the edge of the skillet towards the center. Tilt the skillet slightly to let any uncooked egg run to the clear edge. Repeat, working around the skillet, until the eggs are mostly set on top, but still moist, about 1 or 2 minutes.

Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake until the top is set and dry to the touch, about 3 minutes.

Run the spatula around the skillet edge and bottom to loosen the frittata and invert onto a serving plate. Cut into 4 to 8 pieces. Frittatas can be served warm, at room temperature, or chilled.

Makes 4 servings.

Egg Salad Sandwiches

Ah, the classic egg salad sandwich. Easy to make, yummy to eat. My wife certainly loves them. I'm  pretty fond of them, too. You don’t have to put egg salad on bread to enjoy it. It works nicely as a light side. If you’re not watching your carbs, though, why not? Toasting the bread first is nice, too.

The secret in this simple recipe is not to chop the eggs too finely. Keep it course or they will dissolve into the dressing.

Equipment needed
Cutting board
Chef’s knife
Measuring cups and spoons
Mixing bowls
Rubber spatula

Ingredients
1 celery stalk
1/4 yellow onion
12 hard-boiled eggs.
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 Tbl dried parsley, or 2 Tbl fresh parsley, minced
1 Tbl Dijon mustard
1 Tbl fresh lemon juice
Salt and Pepper

Directions
Cut the celery stalk into long thing strips, then cut the strips crosswise into very small pieces. Mince the onion into 1/8-inch or smaller pieces. Cut the eggs in half, lay them on their side and coarsely chop.

Mix the mayonnaise, chopped celery, minced onion parsely, 1/2 tsp salt, pinch of pepper, mustard, and lemon juice in a large mixing bowl. Gently fold in the eggs. Season with addition salt and pepper to taste.

Spread on bread to make sandwiches, or eat as a cool summer side dish.

Makes 4 cups of egg salad, enough to make 6 sandwiches.

How to Make Meringues

Meringue - a fancy name for dried egg whites and sugar. This basic mixture is used in countless ways and in all kinds of desserts. Instead of drying, it can be poached to make oeufs à la neige (snow eggs). Mix it with nuts and you get dacquoise (also the name of a dessert cake using meringue as a base).

Here I'm sharing the simple technique of whipping them up, and drying them into little, lady finger like cookies. I'll share more elaborate techniques, later.

Equipment needed
Large mixing bowl
Measuring cups and spoons
Hand mixer
Rubber spatula
Metal spatula
Baking sheet

Ingredients
6 egg whites
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar*
pinch cream of tartar**
butter and flour to coat baking sheet***

Directions
Separate the eggs, saving the yolks for some other dish. Put the egg whites into a large mixing bowl. Add the cream of tartar. Using a hand mixer on medium-high speed, whip the egg whites until they start to hold their shape.

When egg whites are beaten, some of the hydrogen bonds in the egg protein break. This causes the protein molecule to unfold itself and get stiff. The cream of tartar acts as a binder for these broken protein chains.

Gradually add 1 cup of the sugar and continue to beat the eggs for one minute. They should be very stiff and shiny. Don't over-beat them! They will loosen up and become liquid.

Using a rubber spatula, fold in the remaining 1/2 cup sugar. Folding in the sugar at the end makes for a more tender meringue.

Coat a cookie sheet with butter and flour. Fill a large plastic storage bag or pastry bag with the egg white mixture. Pipe out plane or fluted meringues, about the size and shape of lady fingers (about an inch wide and 3 inches long). Lift the bag at the end in sharp, upward motion to avoid creating a long tail. Dipping your fingers in cold water, push the tails down, or leave them if you don't mind the look of them.

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake the meringues for 1 hour 45 minutes, to 2 hours or so. The meringues should be very well dried. If you have an oven that will go as low as 135 degrees, you can dry them for 24 hours, like restaurants do. Carefully remove the dried meringues with a metal spatula. Store in a dry, covered container. Stored this way, meringues will keep for several weeks. Don't refrigerate them or they'll get soggy.

Meringues can be served on top of ice cream, with fruit, whipped cream, or plain. You can even make little meringue sandwiches by putting a little whipped cream in between two of them. I like dusting them with cocoa powder, as you can see in the picture, above.

*You can use regular granulated sugar for meringues, as well, it just needs to have very fine crystals.

** If you don't have cream of tartar, you can substitute a few drops of lemon juice or even a pinch of salt as a binding agent.

***You can use “cooking spray for bakers,” which has flour in it, if you like.

Photos by Mormon Foodie!

How to Scramble Eggs

One of the first things I learned to cook was a scrambled egg. They turned out as a flat, slightly browned disc. While perfectly appropriate for an egg sandwich, I've since learned to make the light, fluffy kind of scrambled eggs. There's something to be said for age and experience, I think.

It's best to use a non-stick skillet or saute pan. Believe it or not, a cast-iron skillet with a great patina, built up over, time, is just as good. You just don't wan the eggs to stick to the bottom and burn.

The secret to fluffy, creamy, scrambled eggs to cook the eggs gently and slowly over medium-low heat, stirring all the time. They can be served plain but I like spicing them up with chopped herbs like dill or parsley.

Ingredients (for each adult serving)

2 eggs
1 tablespoon of milk or water
dash of salt
dash of pepper
A sprinkle of dried or freshly chopped herbs, to taste (optional)
1 tablespoon of butter or cooking oil

Directions

In a bowl, whisk together all the ingredients, except the butter. If you're going to use chopped herbs, add them now. Don't whisk the eggs to long, trying to get a perfect homogeneous yellow mixture. It's not worth the time and the eggs will get rubbery if you beat them too long.

Heat the butter in a pan over medium heat until the butter stops foaming. Reduce heat to medium low. You can use other oils for this, but I find that butter seems to work best both for taste, and to help stop the eggs from sticking. Butter is always better for taste, but, to be honest, I'm not sure why it would help things stick less than oil. Maybe you'll leave a comment and explain it to me. Pour in the egg mixture.

Now you need to decide if you want a large “curd” or a small one. If you want large curds, stir gently with a non-stick safe spatula, fold the egg bits over them selves until almost set. There will be no browning.

I prefer a smaller curd so I just use the same whisk I beat the eggs with. I think the eggs turn out more fluffy that way. Be careful so you don't scratch the bottom of the pan. Better still, use one of the new non-stick whisks made with heat resistant plastic. Use the same one you used for whipping the eggs in the first place. In either case, make sure you're pulling the egg up off the bottom of the pan as it cooks.

Once it is almost set, remove it from the heat and let it set for one more minute, still stirring. Don't worry. There's plenty of heat left in the pan to cook the rest of the eggs.

Serve immediately.

Quick tip: Because you don't want to beat the eggs too long, anyway, the only reason to whisk the eggs in a bowl before hand is to avoid getting bits of egg shell in the pan. If you want to save some time, and you don't usually get shell bits in your egg when you crack them open, anyway, crack the eggs directly into the heated pan. Add the milk, salt, pepper and herb, and go at it with the whisk. Why dirty another dish if you don't have to? My kids like to put ketchup on their scrambled eggs. Once in a while, try adding a dash of soy sauce to the egg mixture before you cook them. It adds extra complexity and deepens the egg flavor. If you really want to “guild the lilly” though, replace the milk in this recipe with cream and serve the eggs with very thin slices of smoked salmon or fried salami.

Photo by Steve Woods

Eggs Benedict

Who was Benedict and why did he like eggs so much? Whoever he was, he was pretty smart. Ham and eggs are staples in almost every society. Putting them together with hollandaise on a toasted English muffin was a pretty smart move.

You knew all these recent posts about eggs was leading somewhere, didn't you?

The origins of Eggs Benedict are up for grabs. Some claim that stock broker Lemuel Benedict invented it as a special order when he wandered into the Waldorf Hotel, New York, in 1894. Another source claims it was Commodore E.C. Benedict. Most likely it's an American variation on an old French recipe, oefs benedictine. If that's the case, it could have been developed as early as the Renaissance.

Whatever the origin, Eggs Benedict makes a great brunch, but it's equally good as dinner. I like serving it with fresh sliced fruit, such as oranges or peaches.

I will admit that I like Eggs Benedict more than my wife or kids do, but hey. I gotta cook for me once in a while. It can't all be about them, can it?

Ingredients

8 eggs, poached
4 English muffins, split into halves
olive oil
8 slices of Canadian bacon or ham
Hollandaise sauce
paprika

Make the Hollandaise sauce and set it aside with plastic wrap over it to keep it from forming a skin on top. Poach the eggs, keeping them in warm water until ready to use.

Split the English muffins in half and place on a baking sheet. Brush with olive oil. Lay a slice of the Canadian bacon (or ham) on each muffin and place under the broiler for about 3 minutes, until toasted and warm. Turn off the broiler, move the baking sheet to the middle rack and leave in the oven to keep warm.

Drain the poached eggs thoroughly on a kitchen towel and place one egg on each muffin, right over the ham. Spoon the sauce over the eggs, sprinkle with a dash of paprika, and serve immediately. There should be enough flavor in the sauce that you won't have to add more salt or pepper.

Serves four adults, or two adults and three kids with some left over for the next day.

You can omit the olive oil if you want to. I just like the subtle flavor it adds.

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Poaching Eggs

Fox went out on a chilly night ...

Poaching eggs is a long time tradition with foxes, but it's also a tradition with the French. Of course, we're talking about two different kinds of poaching, here. Foxes trespass to steal eggs. Some of the French may have done this, too, but mostly they boiled the ones they got legally. Then again, maybe they poached the eggs they poached.

You know, my neighbor keeps chickens. Hmmm ...

When I first tried poaching eggs, the water was too hot, I overcooked them, and there was little to no egg white still attached to the yolk. They were pretty awful. It made me wonder what the heck people were thinking when they first cracked an egg into boiling water, or why they'd ever want to do it again.

Fortunately I didn't listen to myself. Since then, I've learned a better way to poach eggs that yields a light texture and creamy flavor that's as perfect on toast as it is in Eggs Benedict.

When poaching eggs, the fresher the egg, the better. The whites in older eggs spread out too much in the water. Adding vinegar to the water helps firm the white up faster. Adding salt to the water thins the egg white, but I still do it. I think it gives it better flavor. You can poach eggs up to a day in advance, if you want. It can save you time if you've got a lot of food to cook, and people to feed.

Ingredients

6 eggs
2 1/2 to 3 quarts water
1/4 cup vinegar
2 teaspoons salt

Bring the water, vinegar, and salt to a boil in a large pot. Reduce to a light simmer. Fill another large bowl with ice water.


Break one egg at a time into the water, holding it as close as you can to the water before opening and letting the egg slide into the pot. If you're worried about burning yourself, crack the egg into a small cup and then slide the egg into the water. (I prefer the former method, but the picture didn't turn out. Sorry.) You should be able to do several eggs at a time, but don't overload the pot. Try and drop the eggs over places where the water is lightly bubbling so that it doesn't go into the pot too fast.

As soon as the eggs are in the water, and the whites are starting to firm up, gently drag a large slotted spoon over the bottom of the pan to move the eggs around slightly, keeping them from sticking to the bottom.

After 3 to 4 minutes of cooking, the eggs can be removed with a slotted spoon. To check the eggs, lift them out of the simmering water and press the whites gently with your fingertip. The whites should be set, but the yolks soft to the touch.


As soon as the egg is done, gently transfer it to the ice water to stop the cooking process, and wash off the vinegar.
Once the eggs are cold, remove them from the ice water and remove any ugly hanging bits with a sharp knife or a pair of kitchen shears. Place them in a bowl of fresh cold water and refrigerate until you're ready to use them.

If you want to serve them cold, remove them from the water and drain them well on a paper towel. If you want to eat them hot, place them in a strainer and lower them into boiling water for about a minute. Remove, drain well, and serve immediately.

Poached eggs are great so don't be nervous either poaching them, or eating them. Just don't poach them before you poach them.

Erm ... you know what I mean.

Title picture by Steve Woods
Other pictures by Writer Girl!

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Eggs Over Easy (the Easy Way)

My wife loves eggs cooked “over easy.” So do I, for that matter. So for her "Mother's Day Breakfast in Bed," she'll be getting some. Getting fried eggs to turn out with moist yolks and completely cooked whites, can be tough. It turns out there's an insanely easy way to do it, though. Believe it or not, it has as much to do with your toaster as it does your stove.

I love this recipe for kids, too. It's easy enough that a young cook can handle it. Just supervise them a bit so they don't burn themselves.

I first learned this technique from James Thorson in his book “Tough Guys Don't Dice.” It's a great book. I recommend it to any neophyte cook. As far as I know it's out of print, but you can find copies if you look.

By the way, this book is not an example of fine cuisine. No way. Instead, it's filled with basic recipes and techniques you can use to feed yourself (and others) using down to earth language that most guys will appreciate. At the very least, it's an entertaining read.

The secret to this recipe is to serve it with toast. Here's how you do it.

Ingredients

2 teaspoons butter (one if you're just cooking one egg)
2 large eggs (or one if you're watching your weight)
1 /4 teaspoon salt
1 /8 teaspoon pepper.
Two slices of bread

First, heat a small saute or omelet pan over medium to medium-high heat. Add 2 teaspoons of butter and melt until it stops foaming. You can use a teaspoon or two of vegetable or canola oil, if your prefer. Just make sure the oil is hot before you add the eggs. Crack two eggs into the pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, cover tightly, and remove from the heat. Trust me. There's enough heat left in the pan to cook the eggs.

Now, put the slices of bread in your toaster. Set it to make a reasonably brown toast, please. None of this “barely warm enough to melt the butter but not brown the bread” garbage.

When the toast pops up, the eggs are done.

I know. It sounds weird but, if you get the temperatures right, it works great. If you leave the eggs on the heat, the bottom will get too crusty. If you don't let the pan heat up enough before hand, the yolks will be too runny.

I like my eggs either way, so I don't mind so much when I don't get it perfect.

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How to Make Deviled Eggs

If you're like me, once Easter is over, you'll have quite a few very pretty hard-boiled eggs left over. Eating boiled eggs for weeks can get boring. One way to spice them up is to serve them "deviled."

Having just celebrated Christ and the atonement, bringing the devil back into the equation may seem a little odd. If that idea bothers you, don't think of them as being deviled eggs. Think of them as "de-viled" eggs. You're just taking the vileness out of them.

Trust me. That sounded funny when I first thought of it.

Anyway, here's a good, basic deviled egg recipe for you to try.

Deviled Eggs

6 hard boiled eggs
1/4 cup salad dressing or Canola mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
Paprika for garnish

Peel the eggs and cut them in half, lengthwise. Remove the yolks and place them in a bowl. Add the salad dressing, mustard, salt and pepper to the yolks, and mash the whole thing together with a fork to make a thick paste. Refill the empty egg whites with the yolk mixture. Sprinkle with paprika and serve.

Eat deviled eggs the day you make them. If you need to refrigerate them, cover them with plastic wrap. Even then, they won't keep well for more than a day.

If you want to get adventurous, try mixing a couple of teaspoons of chopped green onion in with the yolks, and maybe a few dashes of hot sauce. You could also substitute chili powder for the paprika, if you want an extra kick.

For more great deviled egg recipes, visit The Deviled Egg Gourmet.

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