The Kitchen of Procrastination

Salad and popsicles (and the occasional salad masquerading as a sandwich).  That’s pretty much all I can manage to eat during the summer; the heat just kills my appetite.

Now that I’m finally settled in on the West Coast (sorry about the hiatus) and my pots and pans have arrived I thought I’d post something that takes full advantage of the summer produce all around me.

Farmer's Market Frittata Salad

This frittata  works well on its own as a savory breakfast, maybe served on top of some toast, or wrapped in a tortilla.  It’s like hashbrowns and scrambled eggs all rolled into one! But, I wanted to “beef” it up for lunch, adding in some crunchy lettuce and sweet grated beets and carrots.  I thought the beets were a perfect accompaniment (beets and eggs are often seen together in mediterranean cooking!)  But, I encourage everyone to only use what you like to eat, so if that means a salad of just lettuce, or tons of tomatoes and radishes, more power to you!  For dressing, I just sprinkled on a little olive oil and black cherry balsalmic vinegar, but again, I imagine just about any dressing would work.

Farmer’s Market Frittata

2 Tbs olive oil
4-5 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4-1/2 tsp crushed red chili flakes
4 small yukon gold potatoes, grated
6 eggs
3 Tbs milk
1 big handful fresh basil, well chopped
1/3 cup feta cheese, crumbled
salt and pepper

salad fixin’s: your choice of – chopped romaine lettuce, grated beets, grated carrots, chopped tomatoes, chopped red bell peppers, cucumbers, etc

Heat the oil in a high walled sauté pan, preferably non-stick for your own sanity. Add the chili flakes and garlic and sauté for 1 min, then add potatoes and a little salt and stir till well coated. Cook on med-high heat with lid on for several minutes until potatoes are starting to get brown on the bottom and tender. Stir them up and continue cooking.
In a mixing bowl combine eggs, milk, a little salt and beat well. Add chopped basil and feta.
Add egg mixture to the potatoes when they are tender, stir around in the pan to loosen the potatoes into the mixture. Turn heat down to med-low and put on the lid. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until the frittata starts to pull away from the sides of the pan. Put the pan into the oven and broil until the top is a nice light brown.
You can either let the frittata sit and reach room temperature, at which time it will settle and set further, or you can choose to eat it hot out of the pan. Just be warned that hot out of the pan will not be as firm as you might expect.

Assemble your salad in individual bowls and scoop a heafty serving of frittata on top. Sprinkle with dressing and more feta, if desired.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 18th, 2010 at 10:53 pm and is filed under Lunch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.