Breakfast Frittata

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Shrimp frittata with peppers, onion, zuccini, chevre and fried baked potatoes on top

If you’ve never had a frittata, I’m going to recommend you try one. They’re very easy to make and delightfully flexible. I go through periods where I want seafood, other times when my preference is for breakfast-y stuff.

Today my frittata had sausage, bacon, Danish Havarti, chevre, zucchini, onion and asparagus. Oh, and hash browns on top though next time I might try potatoes O’Brien instead. The pictured frittata has rounds of baked potato

Frittatas aren’t fast food, but they are quality food and can be as simple or complicated as you choose with everything you need in a single dish.

To make a frittata, prepare the filling. For delicate seafood you can choose to lightly precook or not as you choose. If you don’t precook the seafood, make sure you bake it long enough to completely cook it and expect the result to be a little moister than using precooked seafood (drain it before you put it on the plate).

Prepare your meat. If you’re using anything except seafood, precook. If I’m having both sausage and bacon I will cut them up reasonably small and cook them in the same pan until done. Saute the vegetables in butter until tender. I cut my zuccini in small (smaller than 1/4″) cubes, fine-dice the onions and cut the asparagus in small rounds (1/8″ cuts). If you find you like bigger pieces of vegetables, you have the freedom to make it your style. I’ve used peppers (I didn’t today because I’m out), broccoli, cauliflower, carrots (not the best), red and green peppers and mushrooms (not today, I’m out).

If you’re making a single serving frittata, use one or two eggs. Beat them a bit and add your cheese and sauteed meat and veges. Pour the mixture into a small (6″) frying pan that’s been heated and buttered. If you’re adding hash brown, sprinkle the cooked hash browns over the top. Pop it in your over (or toaster over) at between 325 and 350. How done you would like it is totally up to you. You can cook it just until the egg is set or you can cook it until it’s brown on top. Instead of hashbrowns you can add cheese. Or tomato. Or . . . This is a dish that never has to be the same twice and it’s easily delicious.

I think I’d better go shopping. I’m out of a lot of things . . .

Adolescent eggs

Adolescent egg compared to a standard small egg

When the young hens start laying, invariably their first egg is significantly smaller than a standard small egg.

The smaller egg pictured at the left is longer the average adolescent egg.

It had one more unique feature . . . no yolk.

Let’s call it the perfect diet egg!

One egg, two yolks

Big yolk in the big end and a slightly smaller yolk in the small end.

Here's a two-yolker split in half lengthwise. Yummy!

I bought a flat of jumbo brown eggs for hard boiling.  If you’ve never tried to peel a freshly laid hard boiled egg, you just wouldn’t understand.  The shell does not come off.  When hard boiled eggs are needed, and you want some sort of expectation that the eggs can be cleanly peeled, you have to start with old eggs.  Ours never last long enough to be old enough for hard boiling.

I was having a hard boiled egg and a bit of sharp cheddar snack yesterday.  I cut the egg in 4 lengthwise and was surprised to see two yolks!  Then today I was peeling eggs for egg salad and ran into another!  Wow!

My favorite recipe for egg salad is minced sweet onion, small diced kosher dill and mayo.  Mix the mayo with the egg yolks until all the egg yolk lumps are gone, then stir in the diced whites, pickles and onions.  Yummy.