Asparagus Frittata

Memorial Day is the traditional segue to summer. And in the Great Lakes, it’s the start of weekend gatherings–at home, at the cottage, and at the campsite. What’s a quick and easy way to enjoy breakfast together? A simple frittata with seasonal vegetables. And right now, it’s asparagus season.

Most people in Michigan can’t wait for the first asparagus to show up at farmers markets and roadside stands. I’m one of them. As soon as the Holland Farmers Market opened in May, I was there with my basket, loading up on this spring vegetable that can be prepared so many ways. Putting it in a frittata is one of my favorites. In addition to the asparagus, I buy the rest of the ingredients from our local farmers at the Holland Farmers Market: pastured eggs from Grassfields, red onions from Visser Farms, and goat cheese from Country Winds Creamery. (Another reason why I love this recipe? You can cook it over a campfire, too!)

Asparagus Frittata

Serves 4.

3 T. olive oil

1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced

1/2 lb. fresh asparagus, trimmed and chopped into 1-inch pieces

8 eggs, beaten

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese, 1/4 cup Pecorino cheese,  or dollops of goat cheese

Optional: chopped fresh herbs such as rosemary, thyme, tarragon, or parsley

Put 1 tablespoon of olive oil and vegetables into a large oven-proof skillet. Saute onions with asparagus on medium heat until nearly tender, about three minutes. With a slotted spoon, remove vegetables from pan. (Note: You can also leave the veggies in and pour the eggs right over them but I remove them and do the next steps first so the frittata doesn’t stick to the pan.)

Add salt and pepper to eggs, then stir. (If using herbs, add them now.) Heat remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil in skillet on medium-high heat until bubbly. When oil is very hot, pour egg mixture into pan. As edges cook, lift up with a spatula and tilt pan so uncooked egg mixture runs underneath. Continue until eggs are no longer runny. (It will still be slightly soft.)

Preheat broiler on high. Spoon vegetables evenly over egg. Sprinkle cheese or place dollops over entire pan. Put pan in oven under broiler flame and immediately reduce to low. Broil about 3 minutes, checking occasionally. Frittata is done when the edges are brown and the cheese is bubbly (or soft for goat cheese).

Remove from oven and let set about a minute. Cut into eight slices and serve.

Cooking over a campfire? Just place foil on over the pan to cook the top of the frittata.

From My Mother’s Recipe Box: Rice and Cheese Casserole

Anyone who grew up when processed food was all the rage has most certainly eaten a casserole. They vary from lasagna to macaroni & cheese to tuna casserole, with the main ingredients ranging from some form of carbohydrate plus a meat or dairy component, and some vegetables thrown in. From the French word for saucepan, it’s basically a meal in a pot or pan.

For some, casseroles are comfort food. For others, it’s a reminder of the harried lifestyle they lived, running from school to sports events to theater practice. To me, moms and casseroles go hand-in-hand. So this year for Mother’s Day, I’m featuring one from My Mother’s Recipe Box: Rice and Cheese Casserole.

Winter Tomato Soup by Martha Rose Shulman

Photo via The New York Times

One of my favorite writers for The New York Times is Martha Rose Shulman, who always seems to come up with something yummy in her column Recipes for Health. Check out this week’s recipe called Winter Tomato Soup with Bulgur, a simple, Mediterranean vegetarian soup that’s quick to make. Martha tells us that you can make this a day ahead and reheat.

And I suggest—if you have a wheat allergy—try substituting quinoa for bulgur. I would add it at the same point in which the bulgur would go in, and then cook the soup for about 12 minutes, which is about how long it takes to cook quinoa.

If you try it with the quinoa, let me know how it turns out!

Winter Tomato Soup with Bulgur

Serves 4 to 6

1 28-ounce can chopped tomatoes in juice

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus additional if desired for drizzling

2 medium onions, preferably red onions, finely chopped

Salt to taste

2 to 4 garlic cloves, to taste, minced

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/2 cup coarse (#3) bulgur

5 cups water (more to taste)

Freshly ground pepper to taste

2 to 4 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

2 ounces feta, crumbled (about 1/2 cup)

Pulse the tomatoes to a coarse puree in a food processor. Heat the olive oil in a heavy soup pot over medium heat and add the onion and a generous pinch of salt. Cook, stirring often, until the onion is very soft but not browned, 8 to 10 minutes.

Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 seconds to a minute. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste and sugar and bring to a simmer. Cook, stirring often, until the tomatoes have cooked down slightly, about 10 minutes. Add the bulgur, water, and salt to taste and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer 30 to 45 minutes, until the bulgur is soft and the soup thick and fragrant. Add pepper to taste and adjust salt.

Ladle the soup into bowls and sprinkle with mint and feta. Drizzle on a little olive oil if desired. Serve hot.

Bill-Friendly Fried Green Tomatoes

I don’t know about you but I hate to waste food. So when there are green tomatoes on the vine at the end of summer it’s a great opportunity to make fried green tomatoes. But what do you do when most of the recipes include bread crumbs and/or cornmeal—and you’re allergic to wheat and corn like Bill is?

When I tried making them, I improvised the best I could! Here’s how:

Set-up is key, just like when you make stir-fry. You need to have everything prepared ahead of time because the process of dredging, dipping, and frying goes quickly.

First, slice the tomatoes about 1/4-inch thick.

Then put some buttermilk in a bowl. I used leftover buttermilk from my raw milk butter process because Bill can consume raw cow dairy products (as opposed to pasteurized). If you have a dairy allergy you could try rice milk instead.

Mix together oat flour with some paprika, salt, and pepper and put it on a plate for dredging the tomatoes. (In retrospect, I would probably use brown rice flour since it retains less moisture.)

Beat an egg in a bowl.

For the bread crumbs, use old bread, or create old bread by leaving a few slices out the night before. We use Sami’s Millet & Flax Bread because it doesn’t have wheat or corn in it. (If you don’t have a wheat allergy you could use any kind of plain bread crumbs.) Simply smash the dried bread with your hands or a rolling pin to crumble the bread into small pieces.

Once everything is ready, heat some vegetable oil in a large skillet. I used safflower oil and was very liberal with it so the tomatoes wouldn’t stick.

Then it’s just dip, dredge, dip, dredge—from buttermilk to flour to egg to bread crumbs. And into the pan they go.

Fry on each side for about two minutes or until brown and crispy. If you need to fry in batches, keep the cooked ones warm on a plate in a low oven.

We enjoyed ours with a variation on Bill-Friendly Mac & Cheese on a cool autumn night!

Local Fish Tacos

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is one of my favorite places in the world, and I’m lucky to live so close to it.

That’s why it’s become an annual camping destination for my friend Sandy and me. We don’t really “rough it” too much, although three days without a shower may be pushing it. Our focus is on eating–and drinking–well, which is why Day 1 of our camping excursion always includes stops at Good Harbor Vineyards, Stone House Bread, and now Good Harbor Farm.

We used to come up with a cooking theme for each camping trip but the last few years we decided to make it easy on ourselves and just focus on either bringing or procuring locally raised foods. This year, our first dinner was fish tacos with Lake Michigan whitefish from Carlson’s of Fishtown in Leland. (For our previous take on fish tacos, check out the blog post from our 2009 trip when we used shrimp.)

Although I have a one-burner camp stove, which works great for brewing coffee quickly in the morning or making popcorn at night, we generally cook our dinner over a fire.

For the tacos, we cut our one-pound-ish whitefish filet into big chunks so we could marinate them in lime juice, olive oil, onion, and cumin.

Then we sprinkled them with cayenne pepper and put them on foil on the fire grate to cook, flipping them once, for a total cook time of about ten minutes. (You know fish is done when it starts to flake.)

For the vegetables, we used chopped cabbage (which we brought with us from the Holland Farmers Market) and a garnish of fresh cilantro from my garden.

And we made a sauce from my homemade yogurt by mixing it with fresh-squeezed lime juice and a dash of cayenne.

While the fish was cooking we wrapped flour tortillas in foil to heat them on the fire. We made a simple pico de gallo garnish with tomatoes, onion, and jalapeno pepper. And we made a side of organic bok choy (from CJ Veggies at the Holland Farmers Market) steamed with olive oil, salt, and pepper in foil over the fire.

For assembly, you just pull the fish apart with a fork, place it in the middle of the warm tortilla, then top with cabbage, yogurt sauce, pico de gallo, and cilantro.

It’s a quick and easy meal for camping. And it goes great with local wine!

I Made Yogurt!

For a couple of years now I’ve been inspired by my friend JuJu over at The Skinny Daily Post to make my own yogurt. She makes it sound so easy in her recipe. But, I had two problems keeping me from trying it: 1) An old, drafty house that has a stove with no pilot light; and 2) two nosey cats.

Since Bill’s and my raw milk supply has increased for the summer, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to figure out my approach to making yogurt. After doing some research online, I decided to buy a Euro-Cuisine yogurt maker, which I found at Williams-Sonoma. It’s basically just an incubator–but it’s also cat-proof!

It comes with these cute little six-ounce jars to make seven individual servings ready to go. You can change the number in the lid to the production date.

Between the manufacturer’s instructions and the instructions on the yogurt starter that came with the machine, I figured out the process and had success.

Because we get raw milk, it comes with cream, which I skim off before I use any milk and either make ice cream or butter. The Euro-Cuisine machine uses 42 ounces of milk.

As with JuJu’s recipe, the first step is to bring the milk to boiling, around 180 degrees F, for 1-2 minutes. I use a candy thermometer to watch the temperature.

Then you have to get the milk down to lukewarm (about 110 degrees F), which you can expedite by setting the pan in another pan of cold water and ice.

If you have yogurt starter, you mix it into the lukewarm yogurt at this point. You can also use plain yogurt. This recipe calls for 6 ounces, or one jar-ful.

Once you’ve blended the yogurt (or starter) with the milk, you pour it into the cute little jars.

Then you put the jars in the Euro-Cuisine. It has a separate section that holds the lids, which go on after the yogurt is done.

The incubation times vary depending on the fat content, according to the instructions. I don’t know the exact fat content of our raw milk once I skim off the cream but I took a guess that it’s about 2%. So I set the timer for 9 or 10 hours, since I’m still experimenting. (The manufacturer suggests 7 hours for whole milk and up to 10 hours for skim milk.)

I have found it’s easiest to start the process at night and let the yogurt “cook” while I sleep. The fat rises to create a lovely shade of yellow on top.

All you do is put the lids on, let them cool slightly, and put them in the fridge. I prefer making plain yogurt so I can mix it with whatever I want for breakfast–either in a smoothie or blended with seasonal fruit. This time of year: strawberries! It’s also a good substitute for sour cream, and Bill can eat it since it’s a raw milk product, not pasteurized.

Next step in my experiment? Buy Greek yogurt starter to make Greek yogurt!

Moujadarah Lettuce Wraps

When Bill and I were invited to a plant-based dinner hosted by my friend Sue over at Stirthepotgr.com, I definitely felt challenged to find a recipe that qualified as vegan but was also something Bill could eat. Because, when you’re allergic to wheat, corn, and cow dairy like he is, meat is an ingredient that helps you get through the day.

For some reason I had it in my head to make lettuce wraps–probably because I had never made them before and wanted to try them. There are a lot of great Asian lettuce wrap recipes out there but many of them have meat in them. I also found some with rice and beans, but finally I settled on Lebanese Mjadra – Lentil & Rice Lettuce Cups. When I read through the recipe I realized it was basically the same as Moujadarah with Curry, one of our favorite legume recipes. The one on Food.com simply uses lettuce as a vessel for serving it.

So I followed the recipe on my blog instead, which also includes a garnish of tomatoes, green onions, and parsley.

The legume mixture can easily be made a day ahead. I mixed the caramelized onions right in with the rice and lentils for this appetizer so it’s easier to eat.

Then I stuck it in the fridge overnight.

After heading to the Holland Farmers Market (on opening day!), I found Bibb lettuce from Visser Farms, which I washed and laid out stacked between paper towels in the fridge until I was ready to assemble the wraps.

I took everything out of the fridge a couple hours prior to assembly.

Then I made the tomato garnish and sliced up some lemons to serve with the wraps.

I had to warm the moujadarah slightly in the microwave so it would be soft enough to spoon into the lettuce. Then I packed them closely into a serving dish for the trip to Grand Rapids, where the dinner was held.

They survived the trip and I think they were the right temperature–room temperature, but slightly on the cold side to keep the lettuce crisp.

Bill and I enjoyed the variety of creative plant-based dishes that the guests–about 30 people–brought to the event. We made some new friends and spent a lovely evening at a beautiful location in Grand Rapids!

Red Lentil Falafel

When I made Red Lentils over Rice recently, there were plenty of leftovers. And the lentil mixture had thickened quite a bit in the fridge. So I thought, why not make lentil falafel?

Falafel is actually a fried ball or patty made from chickpeas or fava beans. So what I made isn’t technically falafel, I suppose. But it was a good way to get another round out of the lentils I had made previously.

Here’s how I did it:

1. Form lentil paste from Red Lentils over Rice into one-inch balls.

2. Heat olive oil in a skillet and brown lentil balls on all sides.

3. Drain on paper towel. Serve with white rice.

After sprinkling with sumac, I garnished the dish with oil-cured sun-dried olives.

On the side, I had a salad and crostini with kasseri cheese and a taste of harissa.

What to Do with a Pork Steak?

Before I bought meat in bulk, I had never heard of a pork steak. Either it simply wasn’t in my food vocabulary, or we just didn’t have them in the grocery stores in New Jersey where I grew up.

Once I started buying half a grassfed pig at a time, I learned about all kinds of meat cuts and loved the challenge of figuring out what to do with them. (See Fresh Ham Roast for another exploration in new cuts of meat.)

According to Wikipedia, the pork steak (also known as a blade steak) is cut from the pork shoulder blade (Boston) roast. The steak is flavorful and contains a significant amount of fat, which helps keep it moist while cooking. Because it comes from an active muscle location on the pig, a pork steak is less tender than some other cuts.

Key words: less tender. And with a grassfed pig, it’s important not to overcook a pork steak.

Here’s one way Bill and I like to prepare a pork steak:

Baked Ziti Redux

Even though I already posted a recipe for Baked Ziti back in December, I couldn’t help but post another–even easier–recipe. What’s easier than baked ziti? Baked ziti with a jar of sauce that’s so unique, so delicious, I can’t believe it’s not homemade.

Yet, in a way, it is homemade–made “at home” by G.B. Russo’s–a local gourmet food store in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It’s Russo’s Pinot Grigio Puttanesca Sauce. (On a side note, check out the origin of Puttanesca on Epicurious.com. Generally, it’s considered a Mediterranean sauce but the etymology of “puttanesca” is interesting!)

What’s unique–to me, at least–is the amount of olives in the sauce. All I did was saute some onions, add a few chopped Kalamata olives, pour in the sauce with a little dry red wine, and let it simmer while the pasta cooked. Then I mixed the sauce with the pasta in a lasagna pan.

Finally, I covered it with a Greek sheep’s cheese (for Bill since he can’t have cow dairy products), drizzled it with olive oil, and baked it for 10 minutes covered with foil.

I removed the foil for another ten minutes to brown the top.

It’s so quick and easy–good comfort food on a winter night.