Spinach and Feta Frittata

I have always been very fascinated by dishes that start on the stove top and are finished in the oven. However, until I got my Lodge cast iron pan I was not able to make any of these dishes. The cast iron pan is safe both on the stove top and at high oven temperature making it a perfect pan for Frittata. Today I used spinach and feta cheese to flavor the frittata.

This is a great weekend breakfast or brunch recipe using basic wholesome ingredients. If you are looking for nutritious breakfast/brunch recipes look no further.

You will need (2 servings)
4 eggs
1 tsp. olive oil or 1/4 tbsp. butter
1/4 onion
a handful baby spinach
2 tbsp. crumbled feta cheese
6-7 sprigs cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450F. Dice the onion and keep aside. Heat a oven proof skillet, I used cast iron, and add the oil/butter to it. Add the diced onion and saute for a few minutes. In the meantime clean, wash and chop the spinach. Add it to the pan and saute until wilted. Turn off the heat.

In a separate bowl break the eggs and add the feta cheese, cilantro, salt and pepper. Add a 1/4 cup of water and 2 tbsp. milk. Beat well.

Add the egg mixture to the pan. Combine well with the spinach.

Place in the preheated oven. Let it cook for 15 minutes.

The frittata should look fluffy but should not be dried out.

Take it out of the oven and cut it into wedges.

Enjoy!

Apple Oatmeal

For the last few months, I have made an effort to create some recipe that kids in dorm rooms can enjoy with the limited resources they have. My daughter is a freshman and could use some innovative ideas to help counter the unpredictable cafeteria food. Today I have a healthy dessert. It would taste great with the ice cream from the cafeteria but would be be fine without.

Depending upon how sweet your apple is you may not need any sugar. However, I would never call this a sugarless recipe. It has plenty of sugar from the apple.

You will need
1/2 an apple (Fuji or any other)
1/2 cup oatmeal
1 pinch baking powder
1 pinch cinnamon powder
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. oil
1 tsp. sugar (optional)

Peel and shred the apple. In a bowl combine the apple with all the other ingredients.

Microwave for 1.5 - 2 minutes. If it starts to bubble over then stop and restart. The oatmeal will change color and cook all the way through.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Pancakes

Last week my daughter suddenly had the urge to eat pancakes. She wanted to run to the store to buy a bag of chocolate chips so she could add it to the pancakes. She looked to me for help to make the batter. I asked her to try it herself. She used this recipe for guidance and made the most flavorful pancakes I had ever eaten.

When she was in Kindergarten PowerPuff Girls was a very popular cartoon on TV. The three girls saving their town in every episode were her favorites. Our cats are named after them. These pancakes reminded us of one of the episodes. We googled it and found it was the 2nd episode of season 2. It is available on You tube. The episode starts with a regular family where the Mom cooks pancakes everyday. Everyday she asks her family to guess what they are having for breakfast and everyday she serves pancakes.

The original recipe called for 1 3/4 cup milk so my daughter added a cup of milk. She then realized the pancakes would taste better with buttermilk so she add 3/4 cup buttermilk. She meant to add 2 drops of vanilla but the bottle tilted too much and a whole tablespoon fell in. She is my daughter after all, cannot follow a recipe. :) But the pancakes came out fluffy and flavorful. And we enjoyed them.

You will need
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp. butter or oil
2 drops vanilla extract

1/4 cup chocolate chips

Milk all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Whisk the egg and mix in the other wet ingredients. Combine the dry and wet ingredients.

Heat a pan and drop a 1/4 of a cup of batter on it. Sprinkle some chocolate chips. When done flip it over and cook the other side. Remove from heat. Repeat for the remaining pancakes.

Serve hot with pure maple syrup. Enjoy!

Croissant

Croissants are made with a super enriched dough. This is one bread I wanted to try for a very long time but never felt like I was ready. It takes a long time to prep, took me 24 hours from time I fed the starter to the time they were baked and ready. The outer crust is crisp but the inner layers are soft. It is this sinful soft flaky goodness that made me want to try the croissants.

The bread dough is enriched using a lamination technique. A layer of butter is sandwiched in the layers of dough. The dough is rolled and folded over and over again. The resultant dough has very thin alternating layers of dough and butter. This process converts the bread dough into a flaky pastry dough.

Lamination, done right, results in a soft mesh on the inside of the croissant. While I was able to get some of that effect towards the ends of the croissant the middle is far from perfect. But given how rich the dough for this recipe is I will give it a few months before I attempt the croissant again.

I used the Tartine recipe from the book Tartine bread by Chad Roberston. I had heard from fellow artisan bakers that his formula results in a very flavorful croissant. I have to say the flavor of the bread was awesome. My daughter had it for breakfast over several days and the flavor did not diminish at all. For the exact recipe refer to the book. The recipe is heavy on butter but I rarely bake dishes that are rich. And I wanted to try to replicate the authentic recipe so I went all out. My daughter sure thought it was worth it. For about a 1000 gm of dry and wet ingredients I used about 200 gm of butter. Here is how I did it.

In a large mixing bowl put together all the wet ingredients - fed starter, the poolish and milk.

Add the dry ingredients - flour, yeast, salt and sugar.

Combine to form a soft dough. Stretch and fold over an hour and a half. Keep aside for the bulk fermentation for a few hours.

Using a pastry cutter combine the cold butter with the remaining flour. Until it has the consistency of the flour. Refrigerate.

Roll the dough on a floured working surface.

Place the chilled butter / flour slab over the dough.

Fold the dough over the butter on both sides.

You will have a long rectangle.

Roll it out into a long rectangle in the opposite direction as the folds.

Fold one side over the top.

Then fold the other side. Place it on a parchment paper in a baking sheet and refrigerate for an hour.

Take it out of the refrigerator and roll it out into a rectangle in a floured work surface.

Fold one side over the top.

Fold the other side.

Refrigerate overnight.

Transfer the dough to a floured working surface.

Roll it out thin to about a half inch. Cut into triangles as shown below.

Roll up the triangles starting from the wide end.

Repeat for all the triangles.

Let then rest for another two hours to almost double in size. Brush with cream and egg wash. I skipped the eggs and used just the cream.

Bake in a 425 F preheated oven for about 30 minutes or until brown and flaky.

Enjoy!

Savory Breakfast Muffins

Savory muffins make a great breakfast as they are filling and healthy. This recipe is no exception. Made with mostly whole wheat flour with roasted red bell pepper, spinach and feta cheese these muffins will be a welcome addition to your breakfast menu.

I used King Arthur white whole wheat flour along with a small amount of all purpose flour. I chose spinach, red bell pepper and feta cheese as we all like that combination.

I roasted the red bell pepper on the gas stove until charred, peeled and diced it. It added a lovely flavor to the muffins.

You will need
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
2 cups white whole wheat flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. dried sage or thyme
1 tsp. paprika (adjust according to taste)
1 cup spinach, julienne
1 red bell pepper
3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

Preheat oven to 375 F. Using a few drops of olive oil grease a 12 muffin pan and keep aside.

Wash the red bell pepper and stick a fork in the center. Roast it over the stove top flame until charred on all sides. Meanwhile julienne the spinach and crumble the feta cheese. Once charred wrap the pepper in foil and keep aside for 10 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl beat the eggs. Combine the milk and oil. Add the sugar and combine. Sift in the flours, baking powder, thyme or sage, paprika and salt.

You should have a fairly thick batter, more like a dough than batter. Add the spinach and feta cheese. Unwrap the bell pepper, peel the skin and dice. Add it to the batter.

Mix all the ingredients until the vegetables and cheese is well distributed.

Scoop the batter into the greased muffin pan. Fill the muffin to the very top. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

Use a blunt knife to loosen the sides and transfer to a cooling rack. Let them cool completely before storing. Use in within a day or two.

Caramelized Peach Fruit Parfait Breakfast

Today I am posting a recipe for fruit parfait made with caramelized fresh peaches and homemade yogurt topped with granola.

Whether it is fresh fruit with cereal, pancakes or eaten on its own fruit is a great addition to any breakfast. But caramelized stone fruit served with yogurt and granola take breakfast to a new level. Parfait does not really have a recipe. Mix the following ingredients in proportions that you like

Homemade yogurt
Granola
Caramelized peaches

For the caramelized peaches
2 fresh ripe peaches
3 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. butter

Cut the peaches into bite sized pieces. Melt the butter in a pan and add the peaches. Sprinkle the sugar over the top.

Let the peaches cook in the butter and sugar until caramelized. Turn over and cook the other side. When the liquid has thickens turn off the heat and let them cool completely.

Once cooled use them to layer the fruit parfait.

Banana chocolate chip muffins

You cannot go wrong with these muffins. I made these pretty late at night. We had run out of breakfast cereals and I was trying to avoid replacing them. I wanted an alternative, preferably a healthy alternative. I have several tried and tested muffins recipes but after our move a couple years ago I seem to have misplaced the whole recipe bundle.

For this recipe I used 50% whole wheat flour. When I bake them again I will use 75% whole wheat flour. I also cut down on the sugar as I wanted these as breakfast muffins, You could increase the amount of sugar if you like the muffins sweet. You could also use regular sugar if you like.

You will need
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
a splash of olive oil
3 ripe bananas
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup coconut milk
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour (I used chappati atta)
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

In a mixing bowl beat the brown sugar, oil and butter. I used a hand mixer. Next mash the bananas and beat them in. Next beat in the egg. Add the vanilla and coconut milk and beat. Add the baking powder and soda, salt and the flours. Beat until mixed together. It will be a gooey sticky batter.

Grease a 12 cup muffin pan or use paper cups. Fill the cups with the batter and bake for 20 minutes or until a tester in the muffin comes out clean.

Turn off oven. Remove the muffin pan. Transfer the muffins to a cooling rack. Enjoy!