“Eggs and Things”

“Eggs and things”

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I call this “eggs and things”. It’s sort of like a reverse frittata. The actual vegetables used don’t matter too much, as long as they’re fresh and in-season. Made with potatoes and onion, this becomes la tortilla de españa.

Here’s a version I did back in April — with ramps and Yukon potatoes.

This preparation contains plum tomatoes, shallots and baby spinach. It’s delicious.

1 large shallot, peeled and thinly sliced
3 plum tomatoes, diced
1 lb. baby spinach, washed and trimmed*
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3 eggs, lightly beaten

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallots and cook, stirring frequently or until translucent, about 1 minute. Add tomatoes, a scant pinch of salt and pepper. Sauté or until tomatoes disintegrate slightly and form a light sauce. Reduce heat to medium. Season to taste. Once tomatoes are thoroughly cooked but not yet completely liquid, add the spinach. Cook until spinach barely begins to wilt, about 1 to 2 minutes.

Add a couple of beaten eggs; pour over the vegetables. Cook until eggs are set. Stir to break eggs up — the eggs should be somewhat “shredded”. Check seasoning, then serve immediately.

Time: 20 minutes (including prep time).
Makes enough for 1 serving. Pair with a baguette and a glass of white wine for a light dinner.

* Substitute regular spinach, however you may have to adjust the cooking time slightly.

Breakfast 1

Heirloom tomato and mint salsa

As far as salsas go, this one is pretty basic. 1 cucumber, diced; 3 heirloom tomatoes, diced; 1/2 red onion, finely chopped; juice of half a lime; pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper; 4 tablespoons olive oil; handful of chopped flat-leaf parsley and mint. Toss to combine. Can be made up to an hour prior to service.

Fried eggs, sunnyside-up, with heirloom tomato and mint salsa, served over crispy sourdough toast

This is one of my favorite ways to eat breakfast. It’s also relatively quick. This took about 20 minutes from start to finish (including making the salsa). Can’t beat that. I haven’t included a recipe because it’s so elemental that almost anyone can make it.

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Recession Specials 4b — Monday

Radish, tomato and red onion “bruschetta”

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Radishes and red cippolini onions were roasted in a 350 F oven for 30 minutes, then combined with halved Sungold cherry tomatoes and garlic chives, and spooned atop slices of toasted sourdough bread. If this were true bruschetta, I’d have used Italian bread or perhaps a baguette, but I didn’t have that luxury this time around.

Main entrée was a plain French omelette and salad greens with a white wine viniagrette.

Rather than describe how to make an omelette, this is one of those times where the best explanation is something you can view, preferably by a true master:

This blog post seems appropriate given that Julie and Julia was released last week.

Eggs on Toast 2

Eggs sunnyside-up, heirloom tomato and cucumber salad, toasted levain

This is my newest favorite way to have breakfast — pan-fried eggs over salad and crispy toast. Ingredients vary, depending on the season and what looks good at the market. The salad is simply halved cherry tomato, diced cucumber and summer squash, half an onion, lemon juice, salt, pepper, garlic scapes, parsley and extra-virgin olive oil.

Once you have it this way, you’ll wonder why you hadn’t thought of it before.

A bigger version of the pic can be seen here.

Eggs on Toast

Sautéed kale with garlic and extra-virgin olive oil, poached farm egg, baguette

Two 20 Minute Meals

The most common excuse I hear when people say they’re not into cooking is “I don’t want to slave for hours on end in the kitchen just to make something to eat”. That could be a legitimate excuse but the reality is that you can make something tasty in a fraction of that time and it doesn’t even have to be complicated, as these two dishes prove. I think the real reason why people make excuses when it comes to cooking is they either don’t want to expend any effort or they don’t know how to cook. And we wonder why fast food and obesity are the issues they are today.

Thin spaghetti with mustard greens, garlic, pine nuts and golden raisins — This is an adaptation of a dish at Contigo, a restaurant located in Noe Valley in San Francisco. The original uses fava greens instead of mustard greens and doesn’t contain pasta.

Why Vegetables Are Difficult

I’ve come to the conclusion that vegetables are more challenging than animal proteins, especially when it comes to creating interesting combinations. When you go to a high-end restaurant like Gramercy Tavern or Blue Hill, there are for example, five-course or seven-course vegetable tasting menus. That presents a challenge where a chef needs to structure a meal so that each course offers a different, yet interesting range of colors, shapes, textures and flavors that doesn’t mimic or duplicate from its predecessor. If you think about it, your options become even more limited when you cook seasonally. There’s only so much you can do with potatoes and turnips before things start to become boring.

Fortunately this problem doesn’t assert itself all that often in the spring, summer or fall. There’s such a profusion of ingredients available on the market that the only limits in the kitchen are those that spring from your imagination.

Vegetarian plate
Clockwise from right foreground: wild mushrooms and garlic scapes deglazed in Belgian beer and finished with a touch of fromage blanc; pan-glazed sugar snap peas with ginger; roasted new potatoes with lemon and thyme; poached farm egg

Odds and Ends 1

Fettucine with summer tomato sauce

Later in the season when tomatoes get more flavorful, I usually opt for an uncooked tomato sauce or a bread salad. This sauce is great though with first-of-the-season toms like the ones pictured in the post below.

olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 ripe tomatoes, diced
handful of fresh oregano or parsley, chopped
kosher salt
freshly milled pepper
extra-virgin olive oil (optional)
cooked pasta

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook until it takes on a bit of color, about 1 minute. Add tomatoes and stir until tomatoes begin to relax. Check seasoning and remove from heat. Add chopped herbs and a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil. Stir. Add cooked pasta to the pan and toss to coat. Serve immediately.

Midsummer Bounty

Some pix from this morning at Union Square Greenmarket. Some of what you see in this post will appear in meals throughout this week’s menu.

Strawberries — Simple is best when it comes to in-season strawberries. I like them with cream and a bit of sugar, or with a touch of balsamic vinegar and a sprinkle of black pepper. Breakfast tip: try a bowl of fromage blanc with strawberries macerated in vanilla sugar and chopped mint.

Sucrine — Rooted in the French word for “sugar,” sucrine (sugar lettuce sounds better) is a smaller variety of romaine with soft, silky leaves, buttery texture, and, as the name suggests, a sweet-ish flavor. You can take the elongated core of the lettuce, peel it, and steam it — it is as delicate as asparagus and just as delicious.

Green garlic — Green garlic is young garlic which is harvested before the cloves have begun to mature. The resulting vegetable resembles a scallion, with a deep green stalk and a pale white bulb. It can often be found for sale at a farmers’ market in the spring, and can also be grown at home relatively easily. Many large grocery stores do not stock green garlic, although growing consumer demand may change this. It can also usually be special ordered through a greengrocer.

When Thin is In

Minestra di capelli d’angelo, asparagi e spinaci — Angel hair, asparagus and spinach soup

Angel hair pasta is a long, thin noodle with a round shape. It is also known as capellini or capelli d’angelo. This extremely fine pasta is excellent with light, delicate sauces as well as seasonal fresh vegetables or in soup. Several traditional Italian recipes call for angel hair pasta, and the pasta is readily available in most supermarkets. You can also make it by hand, although producing pasta of adequate thinness requires time and patience.

4 cups water, chicken stock or vegetable stock
1/2 lb. asparagus, trimmed and sliced on a bias
1/2 lb. spinach
1 lb. angel hair pasta
unsalted butter
1 egg, lightly beaten
kosher salt
white pepper
onion chives
freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Bring water or stock to a gentle simmer in a large pot. Add pasta and cook until pasta is al dente — about three minutes if using fresh pasta, or six to eight minutes if using dried. Turn heat down to low.

Meanwhile, melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Briefly sauté asparagus and spinach until vegetables take on a bit of color, about two to three minutes. Check seasoning. When pasta is done, add vegetables and pan drippings. Simmer for an additional five minutes to let flavors blend.

Stir in 1 lightly beaten egg. Check seasoning. Serve immediately, passing grated cheese and herbs at the table.