Saturday, January 14, 2012

French Toast Waffles

Ok, this one is all over the web, but I thought it was pretty rad.



You take your favorite pan-fried french toast recipe, but instead of cooking it on the stovetop, you cook it on your waffle maker!!  

That is all.

I topped mine with macerated berries and maple syrup.  
It was good.

Home Fry-ttata

It's like the inside of a breakfast burrito that you slice up and eat like pie.
Yeah.

Why not?  
Makes one small fritatta.  Serves 2-4.

Ingredients

5-8 fingerling potatoes, 1/2 cubes (8 if your potatoes are small or you want a Really potato-y frittata)
4 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup milk
1/4 of a small onion, chopped
5 baby bella mushrooms, sliced
8 cherry tomatoes, halved 
4 oz goat cheese, crumbled
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 tbsp pesto
2 tbsp butter
Salt and Pepper


Directions
Rinse the cubed potatoes in cold water, pat dry.  Heat skillet to med-high, when hot add 1 tbsp butter.  Add potatoes once butter has melted, stir to coat.  Add salt and pepper.  Cover for 15 minutes, stir occasionally.  Add onions, mushrooms and garlic and stir in.  Continue to stir occasionally for 5 minutes.   Test a potato cube by piercing with a fork to see if it is tender enough for your liking.  At this point toss with the pesto, coating each cube.
Meanwhile, mix eggs and milk together in a bowl.  Add another dash of salt and pepper here too.  Place  the other 1 tbsp butter into pan with the potatoes and let coat the bottom of the pan as best as possible. Pour the egg mixture into the pan, over the 'taters.  

Wait 1 minute, and then add veggies and goat cheese, sprinkling lightly over the mixture.  Preheat oven to broil (light broil if it's an option).  Let the frittata cook on the stovetop until the edges are cooked. Place pan in oven for about 5 minutes to finish cooking the top of the frittata.  Watch closely!  Seriously, don't stray far.  Keep the oven light on and park a chair in front if you have to.  

When eggs are firm and lightly browned on top, it's done.  Try tilting the pan to make sure no runny liquid remains.  Let cool for 5 minutes and then slice into quadrants and slide out with a spatula onto your plate.  

Voila!  A vegetarian breakfast with everything you could want in one bite.  Feel free to use your own fillings, add bacon/sausage, whatever your frittata-fancy may be.  
Enjoy!


Thursday, January 12, 2012

Calamari Pizza @ Coppa

This is the Sicilian Fisherman's Wood-Fired Pizza from Coppa.
It will be the best fried-cephalopod pizza you've ever had. 

We went to go check out Coppa this week.  I'm glad we did.  It's a beautiful, simple, elegant hole in the wall with great music and a yummy, creative menu.  We sat at the bar, had a couple of beers and ordered the broccoli raabe antipasti with Meyer lemon and garlic.  It was one of the best dressed greens plate I've ever  had.  Next we got the above photographed pie.  This was special not only because it was frikkin' fried calamari on a pizza, but because I've been pondering grilled squid on pizza for a while.  I thought it might be too chewy, so this was a way to experience a similar version and test my theory out.

The Squid came piled high- tubes, tentacles and all, along with cherry peppers, parmesan and tomato. Each slice was decked out, and the first bite was slightly awkward as calamari toppled over onto the plate, but overall it was an unbelievably delicious combination of flavors and textures.  And you know what?  The squid that falls to the plate, you just pick up with your hands and eat.  No biggie.  I didn't find the squid to be too chewy for the application, either.  The key here may be the quantity of the squid on the pizza - enough so that you get at least one whole tube with every bite.  The tentacles required a little more sophisticated maneuvering, but totally worth it.

Big fan of Coppa.  Can't wait to try out Toro, with another menu by Chef Jamie Bissonnette.

One pie served two of us with leftovers to spare.  Made an excellent late night snack AND breakfast.