Potato and Onion Tortilla (Spanish Omelette)

Third in the brunch series.

Aside from the muffins and the laban, I thought I needed something a little more substantial for the brunch. I wasn't expecting anyone to come starving because of the time-frame, but I didn't want anyone to leave hungry. A Spanish omlette seemed like the perfect solution, but given my history with them I was a little nervous trying it out for company. The Joy of Cooking book that I'd been using had a recipe for one and I decided to give it a try, with a few modifications along the way...

The recipe called for a substantial amount of olive oil (step number one according to a friend who lived in Spain) and a fairly low egg to potato ratio. It also called for cooking first caramelizing the onions onions, then cooking the potatoes in a skillet on the stove. As I had other things to do in the kitchen that night and as I was making a double recipe and felt like getting to bed before 2am, I decided to tempt fate by cooking the potatoes and onions in the oven. I finely sliced the onion, then peeled and sliced the potatoes as thinly as I possibly could. I spread them out over 2 baking sheets (since I did a double recipe) and liberally poured on the olive oil, salt and pepper. I roasted it for about 35 minutes at 400F, stirring every 10 minutes or so for even browning.

Then I beat the eggs in a large bowl and mixed the potato onion mixture with the eggs. I think this was a key step and once I was definitely missing the last time around. This ensures an even coating and that you won't have a really dry section of the tortilla. I heated up my cast iron skillet and trying to silence my inner monologue about trying to reduce fat, poured about a quarter of an inch of olive oil into the pan. I've had disasters in the past combining eggs and cast iron and really did not want to have one at 10pm that night. Once the pan was nearly smoking, I poured in the egg mixture and then turned the heat down. I could see the oil come up around the sides and was duly horrified but the tortilla slid right out of the pan when it was done.

The next morning I warmed the tortilla in the oven, then cut it into wedges and set it out. Judging from the fact that there were no leftovers, I think everyone liked it.

Potato and Onion Tortilla (Spanish Omelette)

Adapted from The Joy of Cooking: Party Foods

1lb. (450g) potatoes, peeled
1/2 lb. (225g) onion, cut in half and sliced
2 T. (45ml). olive oil (plus more for frying the tortilla)
salt and pepper
5 eggs

- Preheat the oven to 400F. Cut the onion in half and slice it into thin half moons. Peel the potatoes and slice them as thinly and evenly as you possibly can. Spread the potatoes and onions out on a large pan, pour on 2 T. of olive oil and some salt and pepper. Use your hands to mix until everything is evenly coated. Roast for 30-40 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes, until the onion is soft and golden, and the potatoes are beginning to brown. Remove from oven.

- Beat the eggs in a medium bowl. Carefully add the potatoes and onions to the eggs and stir to coat.

- Put an oven safe skillet over medium high heat with about 1/4 in. (1/2cm) of olive oil in the bottom. When the oil just started to smoke, pour in the onion mixture. Use a spoon to even out the mixture in the skillet and turn the heat down to low. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until the tortilla begins to set. Transfer the skillet to the oven and continue cooking for 3-4 minutes or until cooked through (no jiggling eggs when you shake the pan. Carefully slide the tortilla out of the skillet and serve, or cool and refrigerate for the future.

Apple Cinnamon Muffins and an Occasion

What's the occasion? Well my 102nd post on the blog and the first time (besides moving in) that we've had more than 4 people over to the new house. I'm really proud to have gotten up to 102 posts and I have to thank each and every one of you for taking the time to read my blog. Everyone who has emailed or posted a comment- thank you, I really do love hearing from you. I started this blog as a way to force myself to write down recipes instead of just making something once and really wishing I could recreate it. In the past 8 months I have made some old favorites and found some new one thanks to all the great food bloggers out there. There is so much out there to cook I really have no excuse to ever say 'I don't know what to make for dinner'. I'd also to thank my fellow Daring Bakers for coming up with challenges that always push my baking abilities to the limit. So- thank you everyone.

Besides the blog milestone the other occasion was a sort of drop by to see the house brunch we had on Saturday. With everyone schedule's starting to get crazy at the end of the year Zach and I decided to have an early open house that friends could drop in for. I wasn't exactly sure how many people would come by or when, so I wanted to make some light brunch food that could sit at room temperature for a few hours. Since I am not a morning person (understatement of the year) I also wanted to make and prep as much as I could on Friday night, so I would have as little to do on Saturday morning as possible. Muffins were a natural choice as I could make the batter the night before and bake them in the morning. I made a few other things, which I'll be posting about later in the week.

These muffins are based on the basic recipe in Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for More Food. I substituted milk and vinegar for the yogurt the recipe called for and added the apples and spices. This recipe will make 24-30 muffins, depending on how big you like them but you could easily split it in half or double it. It's perfectly fine to mix up the batter at night and store in the fridge (well covered) till morning. When it's time to bake the batter up, scoop it directly from the bowl to your greased muffin tins and do not stir the batter!. Stirring will cause it to deflate and leave you with leaden muffins.

Apple Cinnamon Muffins
Makes 24
Adapted from a recipe by Alton Brown

Wet Ingredients:
1.5 C. lowfat milk
1 T. apple cider vinegar
1 C. vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 C. (205g) sugar (yes the sugar is a wet ingredient here)

Dry Ingredients:
4.5 C. (606g) all purpose flour
4 t. (20g) baking powder
2 t. (6g) baking soda
fat pinch of salt
1 t. cinnamon
3/4 t. ground ginger
10 grates nutmeg
1 lb (450g) apples, chopped into small pieces (I did mine in 1/4 in. cubes)


- Baking prep (the day you will bake the muffins). Preheat oven to 375F. Grease a muffin tin or two.

- Put the first 7 dry ingredient in a bowl and mix with a wisk till well combined. Add the apples and stir to coat them with flour.

- In another bowl mix the wet ingredients till well combined. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir with a wisk until just combined. The batter will be slightly lump and may have a few dry spots but this is ok.

- Fill you muffin tins, filling each up about 3/4 or all of the way. Bake for 18-20 minutes until the top is lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean.

- Carefully remove the tins from the oven and flip each muffin onto its side in the tin by inserting a butter knife on the side of the muffin and using it to gently turn the muffin. This will allow steam to escape and prevent soggy muffins. Serve immediately.

Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

Zach and I were up in New Jersey visiting my parents this past weekend and as an added bonus, D- my best friend from high school and her boyfriend came to visit as well. After a weekend spent shopping, visiting the State Fair and hiking it was time to head back to the grind. I wanted our last breakfast to be a bit of a treat (not that the entire weekend wasn't) so I decided to make cinnamon rolls from a recipe I saw Alton Brown make on the Food Network. I did cheat a little bit by using the bread maker to mix and knead the dough, but I think that was ok considering it gave me more time to focus on the game of Squatter, the Australian sheep farming game, which we were playing.

I was so focused on my severe financial distress after having to pay income tax two turns in a row, that I failed to completely read Alton's instructions and ended up dumping all 20 ounces of flour into the bread machine, instead of reserving 3/4 C. to be added only if the dough was too wet, as the recipe called for. Luckily my dad is rather handy with the bread maker and kept adding spoonfulls of buttermilk and water until the dough reached the right consistency while I went back to sheep trading. By the time the dough had risen and it was time to roll out and shape the rolls, I had lost nearly all of my sheep and money and decided to abandon the game for baking as it was clear that I had absolutely no "aptitude for a rural career" as it states in the game instructions.

Then I realized that there was no ground cinnamon in the cupboard (I hadn't even though to check- it seems like one of those things that everyone always has on hand, doesn't it?) so my dad came to the rescue again by taking out his old coffee grinder and grinding up a few cinnamon sticks for me (why he had sticks and not powder on hand, I don't really know) and the recipe was saved. I rolled out the dough to the 12x18in rectangle called for in the recipe (I even used a measuring tape on it), spread the melted butter over it, than patted on the sugar and cinnamon mixture. Rolling the dough up wasn't as bad as I expected and I cut it into 12 mostly even pieces. The dough rose overnight in the fridge and then the next morning I 'woke' the dough up by placing it in an oven with a small pot of boiling water for about 20 minutes, then baked it at 350 until the rolls were a deep golden and we were all salivating from the cinnamony smell wafting through the air.

The rolls came out looking so good I took a picture right away and liked this photos of the naked rolls even better than the ones I took after their topping of cream cheese frosting. The rolls came out much better than I had expected (given the extra flour I had put in) and I might even say better than those at a certain chain whose smell always seems better than their taste. The roll itself was slightly less tender than the chain ones, but the overall taste had just the right balance of sweet to cinnamon to warm bread and judging by the immediate silence which fell over the table when we started eating, everyone else liked them two.

Since I made Alton Brown's recipe exactly (with the help of the bread machine) I won't post the recipe here but you can get it from the Food Network website.

Strawberry Breakfast Cake

Sometimes I see a recipe and it hits a particular cord in my head and I immediately think 'I want that now.' Such was the case a few weeks ago when I saw the Baked Strawberry Pancakes at Lisa's Kitchen. Strawberries might be my all-time favorite fruit. Though I've more recently come to love nectarines, blueberries and mangoes and have been known at times to claim that one of these is actually my favorite, strawberries will always be in a special category for me as they were my favorite fruit when I was really young. Even know I have been known to eat a kilo of berries in a single sitting, but that might not be something I should brag about.

But back to the pancake. Well- it looked so good I had to make it immediately. Lisa copied the recipe out of a cookbook years ago and doesn't remember her original source, but I think she is right in her assessment that it's a Jewish grandma recipe. It's leavened only with whipped egg whites, so it would be good for Passover and it just seems like that kind of recipe to me. I would call this pancake a close cousin of the angel food cake, but better since the strawberries are built in. It's so light and fluffy Zach and I nearly ate the whole thing for breakfast, but that wouldn't have been too bad since it's fairly low on calories and has only 1 tablespoon of butter in the whole thing.

I made a few changes from Lisa's original recipe to use whole wheat flour and brown sugar and to add a bit of peach for more color, so I'll give the recipe to you here. One note- this pancake does not keep well at all- I suggest eating the whole thing (well, not by yourself) right when it comes out of the oven, or sometime that day. This would be great to serve at a brunch since it bakes in the oven and you don't have to babysit it and it's a good light dessert too.

Strawberry Breakfast Cake
Serves 3-4 for breakfast or dessert
Adapeted from Lisa's Kitchen

1 T. butter melted
2 eggs, separated
1/4 C. milk
1/4 C. whole wheat flour
1/4 C. white flour
1 T. brown sugar
1/2 t. vanilla
5-8 strawberries, halved
1/2 peach, sliced

- Preheat oven to 425F. Put butter in a 9 inch pie plate and put it in the oven to melt.

- In a medium bowl, beat egg whites until stiff. Mix yolks, milk, flours, sugar and vanilla in a separate bowl.

- Fold egg whites into flour/milk mix, some streaking is ok. Pour into pie-plate and arrange the fruit in whatever pattern you would like.

- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve immediately.

Tortilla Española

Yesterday, after a rather futile attempt at the gym, I came home starving. It was 10am so I thought 'omlette', only we had nothing but cheese to fill it will. Then my eye landed on the leftover baked potato and 'omlette' shifted to tortilla española, otherwise known as Spanish omlette.

Spanish omlette is an egg and potato dish, usually layered high in a deep sided pan, but as I only had one potato and 5 eggs, mine turned out rather more trim. I sauteed some onion and added some smoked and hot paprika for flavor before added the potatoes. When they were warmed through, I poured in the beaten eggs and turned the flame down to low. To finish it off, the pan went under the broiler for a minute or two, to firm up the top of the eggs and I sprinkled on a garnish of parsley for a little color. Truthfully, it turned out a little dry, which may have been due to the potato's extended stay in the fridge. Also- when I conferred with a friend who used to live in Spain, she said that the Spanish usually use quite a bit of oil in their tortillas, which I definitely did not. This needs a bit of fine tuning before my next attempt, which will hopefully turn out well enough to post the recipe of.

Bravo Thomas

For the past few months I have had a strange obsession with English muffins. Something about them, maybe their perfect size for a snack, the fact that you can put jam on one half and butter on another, and/or their slightly chewy texture and nobbly appearance just call to me. I have been buying packages somewhat guiltily for while Thomas doesn't put transfats in their muffins, they do use high fructose corn syrup,* or so I thought.

At the grocery store last week I saw that siren song sign 'buy one get one free' under the English muffins. I couldn't resist and promptly pulled two plain packages (the sign expressly said 'plain variety only' or else cinnamon raisin and honey oat would have been my choices) off the shelf. I was shocked- but in a really good way- to see "now with no high fructose corn syrup" proclaimed in bold letters next to the Thomas logo! Now I can finally eat English muffins guilt free. It also gives me hope that if a huge company like Thomas can get rid of the high fructose, other companies might follow.

On a sidenote- does anyway have an English muffin recipe? I'm always wanted to try making them myself.

*High fructose corn syrup is a sugar syrup made from corn that has undergone processing to increase its fructose to glucose ratio and has a variety of industrial food uses including in soft drinks, candy and baked goods. It is much more prevalent in the US and Canada than other countries because of sugar prices supports and quotas on the ammount of sugar allowed into these two markets. This results in an increase in the price of cane sugar and as a result many manufacturers have turned to corn syrup because it is cheaper than cane sugar/syrup (because of the sugar quotas and agricultural subsides given to corn farmers in the US-- can you tell I'm taking an econ class this semester?).

What the problem with high fructose corn syrup? Well, according to which source you read maybe none, but it may make your blood sugar rise faster after consumption than sugar and could increase obesity. The research on these potential negative effects has been limited. My feeling- high fructose corn syrup is a heavily modified sweetener. I try to consume things in as close to their natural form as possible so I avoid it. No matter what your feeling on the matter, I think it's important to know the facts about what you're eating. A good place to start if you're more interested in this topic is (and I can't believe I'm citing this- Zach may actually drop dead- but it is actually a decently written article with citations and sourcing that seem legitimate) Wikipedia's article on the subject.

Mashed Potato Pancakes

I cannot even tell you how excited I am about this post.  You know how sometimes the simplest  things are sometimes the tastiest and most satisfying?  This is definitley one of those times.  Last week Zach and I made mashed potatoes to go with some leftover meatloaf that my dad sent home with me.  We cooked a few too many potatoes and had enough for a lunch for each of us and another container of leftovers for the fridge.  I happened to catch Michael Chiarello on the food network while at work (it's really not as bad as it sounds-- we were stuffing envelopes) and saw him make an Italian potato pancake stuffed with cheese.  I thought, why not just make pancakes out of the leftover mashed potatoes?

I mixed the potatoes with an egg and flour to provide some structure and then divided it into two portions, one for each of us. I dusted my hands with flour then shaped the potato into a ball and stuffed in a piece of Edam cheese, then rolled the potato balls in a bit of flour, to help give them a nice golden crust and flattened them slightly into patties. The got a quick fry over medium high to make them crisp and then got an extra topping of cheese and went into the toaster oven. They emerged, 10 minutes later, puffed and golden, with a fluffy, creamy potato texture and a bit of melty cheese in the center.  We ate them for breakfast but they would be great for a weekend lunch or even for dinner with a bit of salad or wilted spinach.

Mashed Potato Cakes

Enough for one large and one medium cake, can easily be adjusted 

2 c. mashed potatoes, seasoned with salt and pepper

1 egg, slightly beaten

1/3 c. flour plus additional for dusting

1-2 oz. cheese (Edam, gouda, cheddar or whatever you've got that melts)

1/4 c. oil for frying (olive, canola or a mix)

-  Preheat your toaster oven, or if you are making mass quantities of cakes, your real oven to 400F.

-  Mix the potatoes with the egg and flour.  Cut the cheese into domino sized disks, one for each patty, shred the remaining cheese.

-  Scoop up about 1 cup of the potato mixture and form it into a ball (yes- your hands will get covered in it but you can wash them later).  Press one piece of cheese into the center and cover it with the potato.  You want the cheese to be at the center of the potato sphere, sort of like the core of the earth.

-  Roll the ball in flour to cover, than lightly toss it between your hands to remove the excess flour.  Press the ball slightly so it assumes patty form.  Repeat these two steps till you are done with the potato mixture.

-  Heat the oil in a heavy skillet over medium high heat.  When the oil just starts to shimmer, carefully place in the potato pancakes.  Cook 2-3 minutes or until golden brown, flip and repeat.

-  Remove the pancakes to you baking tray and top with the remaining cheese.  Bake for about 10 minutes.  You can tell they're done when they have puffed up and the cheese is melted.  Serve immediately.

Breakfast Redux

Last week I posted our weekday breakfast of steel cut oats so I thought I might put up a weekend breakfast as well. A few years ago I was visiting a friend in Cologne and on Sunday morning she and her mother made a lovely breakfast tray of coffee, bread, cheese, cured meats, jam and Nutella and we all sat outside on the balcony and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. It's not quite warm enough to sit outside yet here (and even if it was, it's not like we have a balcony or patio) but sometimes it is nice to sit over breakfast.

We were sadly lacking in the cheese department and only had 3 slices of bacon left from another recipe so I decided to try making individual baked eggs in the silicon cupcake forms my dad gave me. I put a little cream cheese at the bottom of each mold, carefully poured in an egg (that I first broke into a custard cup- much easier to fish out fragments of shell that way) then topped it off with a few dried tomatoes and some smoked paprika. I baked the eggs in a bain marie (fancy way to say pan with water half-way up the sides of the molds) for about 20 minutes at 350F and out they came.

Tasty, and a very pretty presentation, although next time I will definitley give the molds a light coating of olive oil first as the egg didn't quite slide out of the molds, as I had hoped.

Breakfast

Growing up, I always preferred cold cereal to oatmeal. Crunchy cereal swimming in milk seemed more satisfying than a warm bowl of soft and often bland porridge. Lately though, I started thinking that oatmeal deserved another chance because A) it's cheap B) it can help reduce your cholesterol and C) why not?

After a few weeks on the quick cook oats (which were less mushy than the instant kind but still pretty tasteless) I came across a package of steel cut oats at Trader Joe's. The price, $2.69 for 21 servings, was right so I tossed it in the cart. Steel cut oats (often called Scotch or Irish Oats) are the whole oat grain, chopped into pieces instead of being rolled into flat little disks like most quick cooking oatmeal. In addition to a chewy texture, steel cuts oats may take longer for your body to digest since they are in a more natural form leading to less rapid release of sugars aka- you feel fuller longer and your blood sugar doesn't spike.

The only issue with the steel cut oats is the cooking time- 30 minutes, something I think few of us have in the morning. Luckily my friend M--- came up with a way to cheat (although he actually doesn't remember telling me this). You can soak the oats overnight in the cooking water, then pour the whole think into the pot the next morning, cutting the cooking time to about 20 minutes. Also- I've started prepping 2 or 3 breakfasts worth of oats at once and popping the leftovers into the fridge in bowls; then I can just pull one out and nuke it for a minute or two and add a bit of brown sugar or, for a treat, some golden syrup and milk and breakfast is ready.*

Steel Cut Oats
Makes 4 servings, can easily be halved or doubled

1 c. steel cut oats
4 c. water
pinch of salt
milk, brown sugar, cinnamon, golden syrup, ect. for topping

- Before you go to bed, put the oats and water in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap.

- As soon as you wake up, pour the oats and water into a small pot and bring to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer and cook for approx. 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

- The oats are done when they are chewy but not crunchy; start tasting at 20 minutes and stop cooking when they are done to your liking. Stir in the pinch of salt and serve. They'll firm up as they sit.

- Serve with milk and your favorite toppings.

*In the interest of truth I should add that while I prep the oats at night, Zach is pretty much always the one that starts them in the morning since I can never seem to get myself out of bed....