Baked Frittata - An Italian Omelette

In my home, breakfast dishes are often enjoyed as part of quiet, sombre twilight meals instead of rushed and busy mornings. Over the weekend, we stocked up lot of fresh produce, milk and eggs as a precautionary measure to tackle any  unforseen situation of food shortage. The panic caused by the travel advisory issued to public, resulted in my local grocery running out of bread, 2% milk and white meats of all kinds. Last time I witnessed this scene of panic induced shopping during Hurricane Irene in 2011. Both of us were excited about Nemo (in a fun and anticipatory way) because it had been a while since we had witnessed a humongous pile of fresh powder. While I prepped the grocery, lugged home extra supplies of emergency items, the husband took charge of the dinner and the eggy aroma of warm and spicy, oven cooked Frittata welcomed me home. When it comes to our cooking style, I prefer to go with measurements for any recipe; his interpretation of a recipe is oh-its-easy-put-this-and-that-together-and-bake kind of a thing. Either ways, I was glad to be entertained (than to be entertaining) and was very happy with the way the Frittata turned out. The husband finds its easier to use the oven and prefers baking his lunch or dinner with quick roasted and seasoned meats and vegetables while I reach out to the warm stove for my long-winding traditional Konkani and Indian recipes.

Frittata is an Italian Omelette cooked with eggs, vegetables, meat and cheese. The ingredients are bunged in a cast iron pan and slow cooked on gas stove if one follows the traditional route. For this Frittata, we used spicy Chicken sausages which packs a punch and satisfies the need for spicy and hot flavor in our food without strong, overpowering heat. We used Habanero and Green Chilli flavored sausage, which is the spiciest among all available at our local store. This is the kind of dish where you can put everything together and continue with rest of your chores and then come back to say "hello" to your dinner all done and ready for a chow. How easy can it get? The dish used to cook the Frittata was my non-stick round 8" cake pan. Once cooked, make wedges and serve with buttered and toasted bread.

~ Baked Frittata ~
An Italian Omelette
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
Eggs - 4
Spicy Chicken Sausage - Habanero and Green Chilli (sliced into roundels) - 2
Onions (finely chopped) - 3/4 cup
Mushrooms (sliced into thick chunks) - 3/4 cup
Green Chillies (seeds removed, finely chopped) - 1
Coarse Black Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
Cheese (grated) [optional] - 4 tbsp
Paprika - 1/2 tsp
Olive Oil
Salt

For Garnish -
Cilantro or Flat leaf Parsley - 1 tbsp

Method:

Preheat Oven at 385 F for 10 minutes. In a skillet, saute finely chopped onions in olive oil till they are soft and translucent. Lightly season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a plate and set aside. Increase the flame and saute the thick chunks of mushrooms in the same skillet. Season with salt and pepper and once the mushrooms change color and become firmer in texture, transfer to a plate. Add oil if required. Sear the sausage pieces till they have light brown spots on them. No need to season the sausage as its pre-seasoned. In a mixing bowl, lightly beat 4 eggs and season with salt, pepper powder and paprika. Add the sauted onions, mushroom chunks and seared sausage roundels. Give a good gentle stir.  Spray cooking spray on the baking dish. Transfer to the 8" round cake tin or an equivalent baking dish or casserole. 

The oven will be ready to bake now.
Bake uncovered at 385 F for 15-20 minutes. Once done, let cool for couple of minutes. Turn off the oven. Garnish with flat leaf Parsley or Cilantro. Slice into wedges and serve with toasted bread and hot sauce or ketchup.

Vegetable Pizza

We both love Vegetable Pizza. Recently, for a get together with friends, one of my dear friend made Pizza from scratch topped with Artichokes, Olives and Mushrooms. I felt it was the yummiest one I had eaten; it had a very gourmet flavour. She shared the recipe with me and vouched for the Jamie Oliver touch to the Pizza dough. I tried this at home; the flavour was very cheesy, gourmet and my choice of cheese meshed beautifully with the vegetables. Both of us love trying and tasting various cheese, especially European ones and this recipe just served the purpose right.

Jamie Oliver opines that the dough be prepared 24 hours in advance for better results, it can be stored in a cling wrap in the fridge and used the next day. I was tempted and gave a resting time of couple of hours. I was amazed at how little amount of planning yields the perfect Pizza.

~ Vegetable Pizza ~
Preparation time: 6 hours
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Size: 8" Pizza

Ingredients:
Pizza Dough -
All Purpose Flour - 4 cups
Extra Virgin Olive oil - 3 tbsp
Salt - 1 tbsp
Sugar - 2 tsp
Luke warm water - 1 and 1/2 cups
High active yeast - 1 sachet ~ approx. 1/2 oz.

Pizza toppings -
Black pitted Olives - 1/2 cup
Mushroom (sliced baby Portobello) - 1/2 cup
Green Bell Pepper - 1/2 cup
Green Olives (optional) - 1/2 cup

Pizza Sauce -
Crushed Tomato (medium) - 2
Parsley - 1 teaspoon
Mixed herbs (Rosemary, Thyme) - 1/2 teaspoon
Oregano - 1/2 teaspoon
Salt
*** Grind to a smooth paste in blender and discard the juice, retain the pulp mix ***
*** One can also use Marinara sauce - store bought ***

For garnish - Red chilli flakes, Oregano, Garlic powder
Cheese - shredded Mozzarella (80%) and shredded Monterrey Jack (20%)

Method:

Pizza Dough - Mix the wet ingredients of olive oil, water and yeast. Water should be lukewarm and not hot. Allow the yeast to form a bubbly froth for 10 minutes. Add the dry ingredients now which is flour, salt and sugar. Stir gently with a fork and knead to a smooth pliable dough to form a ball. Coat with a teaspoon of olive oil finally and cover with a wet cloth and leave in a warm oven for an hour with the light on. After an hour the dough will double up in volume. Punch it to let out the air and knead again. The dough will be elastic now. Dust the work surface with flour, roll out a Pizza of desired shape and transfer to a cookie tray lined with foil. Dust the foil with olive oil and flour. Proceed with the toppings.

Pizza Toppings - Roll out a 8" pizza out of the dough. Gently press the entire edge with 1" gap to provide elevation for the pizza toppings not to spill out. Prick the fork evenly into the pizza dough. This prevents the pizza from puffing up in the oven. Pre-heat the oven at 425 F. Add the sauce now leaving 1" border. Sprinkle liberally with Oregano. Add the toppings of Bell Peppers, Mushrooms and Black olives. Sprinkle olive oil liberally. Seal the vegetables with cheese of choice. Add the cheese with low melting point first and finally seal with cheese of high melting point. Bake in the oven at 425 F for 40 - 45 minutes.

Plating - Garnish with oregano, garlic powder and red chilli flakes. Enjoy with soda or beverage of choice.

Note - Use cheese which can withstand high melting point in the oven. I prefer Mozzarella or Parmesan blended with flavoured cheese like Monterrey Jack or Fontina which also melts perfectly (all shredded). Whole milk cheese has high moisture and melts well for a nice tasting Pizza. Use Olive oil in dough as well on topping as it gives the necessary gourmet flavour to the Pizza. Bread flour works better instead of All Purpose flour and gives the desired crispness to the base. I used All Purpose flour for the Pizza dough.

Garlic Bread ala Ash

There are days when you transport yourself to the Kiddy World. I happened to speak with my niece, the naught brat so much so that I quickly make a Garlic Bread for her which I am sure she would love. I added all her favorite elements as add ons for the Garlic Bread - Chunky Salsa sauce, Coriander leaves and Shredded Mozarella cheese which she loves to devour and gobble up. I named this dish Garlic Bread ala Ash.


Little bit of creativity and soul satisfaction = smiles and cheerz!! Now my niece does not like Coriander leaves, for that matter any humble sight of anything remotely green, so I thought of adding green in a different fashion. Hope she likes the idea of this creative style of consuming Garlic Bread.

Serves: 1 individual

Ingredients:
Garlic Bread - 2 slices
Chunky Salsa sauce - 2 tablespoon
Coriander leaves - 3-4 sprigs (chopped)
Mozarella Cheese (shredded) - 2 tablespoon

Method:
Take each slice of Garlic Bread from freezer. I used Texas Toast brand as I find their breads tasty and easy to bake and serve. Thaw for some time. Warm up on a frying pan or heat up in in microwave for 2-4 minutes with 1 T each of Mozarella cheese.

For garnishing, add a line of Chunky Salsa sauce and top it with Coriander leaves. I created a tiny coconut tree on my breads. Its important to get little creative with kids to make sure they tuck in their yummy fare without any fuss and tantrums. :)