Ham and Cheese Fritatta

Eggs are amazing. You can eat them as a main dish cooked any number of ways, they add the richness you need to sauces and mayonnaise and they make baked goods, well, GOOD!

I decided last night I wanted a frittata for supper. It’s a bit like an omelet but I like the slightly crispy crust that forms on the frittata in the oven. This little jewel is perfection in its simplicity and versatility.

The best thing about this little dish is you can usually make it from ingredients you have to hand. The only required ingredients are eggs and cheese. Other than that, let your creativity go! You can use spinach, veggies, herbs – some people add potatoes to make the dish more hearty. This can be a spur of the moment supper or a Sunday brunch dish since you make it with what you have.

I searched my fridge and found a number of delicious ingredients. I had some ham left over from Sunday dinner and I knew that was going to headline this dish. So I pulled it all out and started putting it together.

Just a word about beating your eggs – if you want your frittata to be fluffy, beat, beat, beat those eggs to incorporate lots of air into your dish. I like my eggs to have a little body to them so I don’t go nuts with the whisk. Just go with what you like.

I made a little video showing how the frittata goes together. Enjoy the music!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXXkQtGM6CI] [recipe title=”Ham and Cheese Frittata” servings=”6″ time=”30 minutes” difficulty=”easy”]

Ingredients

2 T. olive oil
1⁄2 cup green bell pepper, cut in 1/2″ strips
1⁄2 cup roughly chopped mushrooms
1⁄2 cup sweet onions, cut in 1” strips
8 oz. ham, bacon or sausage, cooked
1 dzn. grape tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
5 eggs
3⁄4 cup shredded cheese
1⁄2 tsp. each salt and pepper
1 T. minced garlic

Directions
Preheat oven to 325°. In a non-stick, oven-safe skillet, saute bell pepper, mushrooms, and
onions for five minutes on medium heat. Add meat and tomatoes and allow to heat through. Whisk eggs in a medium bowl until frothy, add cheese and carefully pour over ingredients in skillet. Cook for 1 minute. Place skillet in preheated oven and bake for 14-16 minutes until lightly browned. Allow to set up for 5 minutes, then slide onto a warmed plate. Slice and serve. If you like spicy, this is great garnished with a little sriracha chili sauce.

[/recipe]

Brunswick Stew – the Experience

This is one of the first recipes I wrote down when I started to develop my blog. Enjoy!

Brunswick Stew is a favorite dish in this part of the country. In fact, it’s such a favorite, folks get downright territorial about it…there are people all up and down the coast of Georgia that say it originated one place or the other.

I tend to get a bit philosophical about Brunswick Stew, maybe because it takes so long to make, I feel I have a real investment in it. I wrote this recipe as a mission statement because it kind of sums up how I feel about cooking in general.

There are two ways to learn to cook something -you can follow a recipe and measure the exact amount of all the different ingredients called for put them together in a certain order and apply a predetermined heat for a predetermined amount of time and more times than not you will end up with a really good product.

OR you can ask the person who cooked that unbelievable dish, “How did you make this”? But be forewarned, you better be ready to listen close and write fast because what you will end up with is a little treasure on paper with all the do’s and don’ts and, more importantly, the why’s and why not’s of the dish. And that little piece of paper will hold so much knowledge that it will make other folks mouth water and say stuff like “I never even knew I even liked this” or “This tastes even better than it smells” or the blue ribbon of compliments, “This tastes just like my Mother’s used to make”. So yes, I will give you the recipe but I’m also going to tell you HOW to make it.

To start with, dig out your biggest pot, something that would hold two gallons of water at a good boil without scalding you. If you don’t have one, they are cheap enough and always good to have around if you need to soak your feet or something.

For this post, I’m using a whole fryer but you don’t have to do that. The cool thing about this dish is it is a “clean out your freezer” recipe. If you have a bunch of chicken thighs or leg quarters in the freezer, use them! If you’ve got miscellaneous pork chops or beef cuts, you can definitely use them. Just keep in mind, you need 3 lbs. bone-in chicken and 1 lb. each of the pork and beef.

Put a whole chicken, skin on, guts removed, breast side up, in your pot and barely cover it with water (too much water will weaken the broth), put in a good tablespoon of salt and bring to a fierce boil. Turn it down to medium. Put the lid on and keep an eye on it. If it stops boiling, turn it up some. You want it to boil for quite a while, about an hour. If the water boils down so you can see the breast poking out above the water, pour in just enough water to cover her back up.

When you can spin the leg bone in the chicken, turn the pot off and let it cool some. Get a big plate or a casserole dish, remove the chicken from the pot and place it on the plate. I always try to use a BBQ fork and a large stirring spoon to do this. If you can’t do it without getting burned, let it cool a little more.

O.K., you have to decide where you are going to get the additional liquid needed for your stew. You have the broth from your chicken but it won’t be enough. If you save and freeze your chicken juice. you good to go. If not add chicken broth from a carton, although you are going to need at least a half a gallon and it is kind of expensive. Something that can help is to mix chicken broth and potato water (yes, you can freeze the water after boiling potatoes). Mix it 50/50 and throw in a couple of bouillon cubes. Worse case, don’t drain your tomatoes before using and add a couple of bouillon cubes.

Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, pull all the skin off and discard. Pull all the meat off the bone and put it back into the pot. When you think you got all the meat off, remember there’s a bunch more good meat underneath so dig for it!. You can save and freeze the bones and add with carrots, onions, and celery to make a wonderful stock.

Next, using a pound of pork loin or whatever kind of boneless pork you have, remove as much fat as you can. Remember, you have the fat from where you boiled the chicken with skin in the pot already. Cut into small pieces and place in the pot with the chicken. You can go ahead and put the heat back on the pot. Do the same thing with a pound of beef. If you have more than a pound of pork or beef don’t sweat it, it will just make it better but if you are a little short on one, try to make it up with the other. Remember this is a real meaty stew.

Add the rest of those delicious goodies, veggies and spices. Makes your mouth water already, doesn’t it? Bring it back to a boil, stir and cover.

Dang that’s a lot of stuff ain’t it? Stir all the way to the bottom and OFTEN. Taste testing is important as you go along. Remember to add things in small amounts and allow time for the flavor to change. I like to let it simmer on low for a long time but it is edible in about 2 hours. Patience will be rewarded with a better blending of the flavors.

Well, that’s how I make Brunswick Stew. See how you feel about it after you try it out. It’s not just a dish, it’s an EXPERIENCE!

[recipe title=”Brunswick Stew” servings=”10-12″ time=”4 hours” difficulty=”easy”]

Ingredients

- - 3 lbs chicken (whole fryer or pieces)
  - Water to cover
  - ½ gallon additional liquid (any combination of chicken broth, potato water, bouillon)
  - 1 lb. boneless pork loin (or desired cut), cut in small pieces
  - 1 lb. boneless beef chuck roast (or desired cut), cut in small pieces
  - #10 can of stewed tomatoes (drained well unless you need the additional liquid)
  - 1 large diced onion
  - 1 tablespoon salt
  - 2 teaspoons fresh cracked pepper
  - 1 tablespoon garlic powder
  - 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper or 2 teaspoons chipotle pepper
  - 1⁄2 cup apple cider vinegar
  - 3⁄4 cup Sweet Baby Rays original BBQ sauce
  - 3 tablespoons yellow mustard
  - 1⁄4 cup Worcestershire sauce
  - 1 -1 1⁄2 pounds frozen whole kernel corn
  - 1 pound frozen baby lima beans
  Wash chicken, remove giblets and place in heavy stockpot, breast side up with enough water to barely cover. Cover, bring to a boil and allow to simmer quickly for 1 hour. Add additional water as required to keep chicken covered. Remove chicken from broth and allow to cool, then remove all skin and discard. Remove chicken from bones and add to pot with broth. Add additional liquid.
  
  Add pork and beef to pot, then add remaining ingredients. Bring stew back to a simmer. Allow to simmer as long as possible, minimum 2 hours. Serve in bowls with cornbread.

[/recipe]

Old Fashioned Tea Cakes

Normally I have a pretty good idea of what most of the new recipes I work on should look like and how they are supposed to taste. Well, this recipe turned out to be nowhere near normal. Shocking right?

Let me just start from the beginning. I get a simple message from a fellow baker that reads, “Do you know how to make Tea Cakes?” and me just being me, I almost reply with “I bet I can figure it out.” But before I type a single letter, my brain kicks into gear and I realize I have never even seen a tea cake before, much less tasted one!

So after I reined my ego in, I wrote, ”No, I don’t, but I can try to find somebody who does.” I really figured saying that would buy me plenty of time and I would look into it at my leisure. Fat chance, big boy! My friend replied back with a quickness, “Oh Andy, thank you so much! my neighbor lady is really old and when I was checking in on her, we got to talking about the good ole days and she asked me if I would bake her some tea cakes like her Mama used to make when she was a child. I’m really not sure where to start.”

Well, daggum it, I’m in too far to make a long story short so please indulge me and read on.

The first thing I figured I needed to do was to find a picture of one. I found 16 images of tea cakes and you guessed it – no two even remotely matched. The same thing happened when I read recipes – some sounded like cookies, others would have turned out to be cakes. To be quite honest, I did not have a clue what to do next. I was about ready to throw in the towel and move on but I just didn’t feel right about doing that to that sweet old lady.

So I decided to talk to the one person I knew that could help me if anyone could, my mother-in-law (Granny) and it was like hitting the tea cake lottery. She said “Oh yes, I remember making those right after the depression!” Well, that’s all it took for me. I was on the edge of my seat, pencil in hand. She continued, ”We didn’t have much money back then and those little tea cakes were such a treat.”

Using her thumb and forefinger as a measuring tool, she said, “They need to be rolled this thick and I always use a round can to cut them with.” She went on to tell me, ”They need to be slightly crunchy on the outside but tender and cake-like in the middle and not to sweet.”

I baked her a batch and she said they were perfect. I shared this recipe with my baking friend, she made some for her neighbor lady and that sweet lady said they were just like she remembered them. Yeah, I would say this is a keeper.

Granny took a long while telling me all about tea cakes and I will never be able to thank her enough so I will share the recipe with you and hope you share this with someone you love.

[recipe title=”Old Fashioned Tea Cakes” servings=”4 dozen” time=”13 hours (12 for chilling)” difficulty=”Medium”]

Ingredients

1 cups butter room temperature
2 ½ cups sugar plus extra for sprinkling
3 eggs
5 cups all- purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon buttermilk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions

Whisk together flour and baking soda in a bowl and set aside. Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition. Scrape bowl down. Add buttermilk and vanilla and mix on slow until fully incorporated. Continue mixing and slowly add flour mixture scraping down bowl as needed just until no flour is visible in dough. Transfer dough into plastic wrap, making sure to completely cover and chill for several hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 400°. Unwrap dough, cut into 2 equal pieces, rewrap one and place back in refrigerator. Place remaining piece on a well- floured piece of waxed paper. Dust the top of dough with flour and roll to a thickness of ¼” with a floured rolling pin. Sprinkle top lightly with sugar, using a medium to large biscuit cutter, cut out teacakes and place on a well-greased cookie sheet. Bake 7 to 9 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely on cookie sheet. Repeat with second piece of dough.

Cooking notes

The dough is extremely sticky and cannot be worked until completely chilled. Any surface that comes in contact with dough will stick. Almost any fruit or nut extract works well in the place of vanilla.

[/recipe]

Spicy Shrimp and Chicken Gumbo

When I got out of the navy in ‘82, jobs were scarce in Atlanta but I was fortunate enough to find one off Ashby Street in the West End. After about 6 months, I was given the opportunity to transfer to the big city of Houston, TX – a 25% pay raise and the company would pay all moving expenses. At 22 years old, I was like “Heck yeah, I’m all in!”

Talk about culinary culture shock – their BBQ was beef not pork, I swear they had more sausages than days in the week and what was this cumin stuff? And the Tex-Mex and Mexican choices were endless and delicious! But that’s a post for another day.

Well, the folks I was working with were old school French Cajuns from Baton Rouge and, to put it simply, they knew how to burn in the kitchen! I was introduced to boudin sausage, crawfish, gator tail, frog legs and probably 100 more bayou delicacies. The one meal that always stuck out in my mind above all the rest was the Gumbo and since then, I have eaten it with everything from mudbugs to gator tails in it. I can say without a doubt the worst I ever had was excellent. On a bed of rice, good gumbo is nothing short of heavenly

Before we get down to making this dish, let’s talk about the number one most important step to making a rich, delicious gumbo – the roux. Pronounced “roo”, it is basically a combination of equal parts (by weight) of flour and fat. Cooked together to form a paste, it thickens your dish without lumps and, properly prepared, adds a complex flavor and color. Now, some people will try just adding the flour to the pot but even if you avoid the lumps (almost impossible), you end up with a less flavorful outcome with a floury undertone.

Roux comes in three versions – white, which is used for sauces such as béchamel (think mac and cheese; blonde, great for gravies; and brown, which is what we use for this yummy gumbo. The finished roux is caramelized to a deep brown color with a nutty flavor and aroma. Now, that’s some good stuff there!

I use a cast iron skillet and a wooden spoon to make my roux, but do not use cast iron to cook this dish as it will darken your tomato-based dish to an unattractive color. If you don’t have a cast iron skillet (gasp!!), any heavy pan made from a non-reactive material will work. Note: an aluminum pan and a wire whisk will make your roux gray. Heat your fat (butter, oil, lard, olive oil – whatever your preference), add the flour, stirring to make a paste and cook over medium heat until a deep, rich brown and the consistency of wet cement, about 30-35 minutes. This isn’t something you can walk away from very far – burnt roux will ruin your gumbo.

Enjoy this recipe. Feel free to change up the meat and seafood options to your taste. [recipe title=”Spicy Chicken and Shrimp Gumbo” servings=”10-12″ time=”3 hours” difficulty=”medium”]

Ingredients

½ cup olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 large sweet onion roughly chopped
1 bell pepper roughly chopped
1 stalk celery finely chopped
2 boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into 1” pieces
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 bay leaves
2 cans (14oz size) chopped tomatoes with juice
1 can (14oz size) whole kernel corn
6 cups chicken broth
4 teaspoons Creole seasoning
1 or 2 (how hot do you want it) teaspoons cayenne or chipotle pepper
2 teaspoons table salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 lb large shrimp peeled and deveined
2 ½ cups okra sliced into ¼” pieces

Directions

Add 1/4 c. olive oil to a heavy, non-reactive skillet, over medium heat. Sprinkle flour over oil, stirring constantly to combine. Continue to heat and stir until roux is a rich, dark color, about 30 minutes. Set aside to cool.

In a large stock pot (not cast iron), heat 1/4 c. oil to medium and saute onion, bell pepper and celery until onion is opaque. Add chicken and cook until tender. Add garlic and cook 1 minute. Stir in roux to combine. Slowly add water while stirring and bring to a slight boil. Stir in remaining ingredients *EXCEPT OKRA AND SHRIMP* and simmer on medium while covered for at least 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add shrimp and okra, cover and allow to cook for 15 more minutes. Remove bay leaves and serve on a bed of your favorite rice.

Cooking Notes

Do not cook this in a cast iron pot. It will change the color of your finished gumbo.
I use Tony Chachere’s creole seasoning and am always pleased with the results. It can be purchased almost anywhere and it won’t break the bank.
Okra cooks fast so I put it in last. I like when the seeds still pop in your mouth. Also, if overcooked, okra will make your gumbo very thick.

[/recipe]