Golden Phoenix rooster
Hatching
- Mar 19, 2020
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The Wife and I recently purchased an 8-quart Ninja Foodi Deluxe Tendercrisp multi-cooker. OMG, this isn't "just another piece of kitchen clutter." It's something EVERYBODY NEEDS. They just don't know cuz they never had one.
We also have ten hens burying us under eggs every day. What on earth to do?
Frittatas are a great way to make yummy food out of lots of eggs that will otherwise go bad. It's potentially as yummy as pizza, infinitely flexible in terms of ingredients, super nutritious, and incredibly simple and easy to make-- but even more easy and fuss-free if you use a Foodi or Instant Pot.
Here's a recipe for the bare-bones frittata I made last night. Think of this recipe as a "base" to which you could add more ingredients to your taste, just like pizza, but it's plenty good enough to eat all by itself:
6 medium russet potatoes, each cross-cut into four big slabs (an equal amount of cauliflower could be substituted for "keto" reasons)
4 slices bacon
2 large onions, chopped
12 to 18 eggs
1 lb (or more) extra sharp cheddar cheese
1 lb broccoli florets, fresh or frozen
salt & pepper to taste
1) Put the cut potatoes in an 8-qt pot with enough water to generously cover, add plenty of salt (nearly all of which will drain back out), boil to "al dente" firmness, drain, set aside open to the air so they cool down
2) With potatoes in progress, fry the bacon on moderate heat to "bacon bits" crispiness, rendering out all the fat. Set bacon aside on paper.
3) Fry onions gently and slowly in the bacon fat until soft, translucent, and golden; allow to cool
4) Crack all the eggs into a BIG (roughly 1 gallon) mixing bowl; if the eggs are old, as mine were, you'll want to "screen" them as you do so: crack each egg into a small flat-bottom bowl or deep saucer so you can check for quality before adding it to the big bowl; if super watery and the yolk has no firmness, discard it and rinse your "screening" bowl for the next egg.
5) grate all the cheddar in batches into the bowl of eggs, mixing it in after each batch
6) crumble the crispy bacon into the cheese-egg mixture and mix it in; also add the fried onion if cool
NOTE: you want all additions to the big mixing bowl to be COOL so the mixture remains liquid. Otherwise the heat of the ingredient will cook the egg matter prematurely.
7) If the potatoes are reasonably cool (100 degrees F or less) roughly mix them in by using a potato spud or similar to "smash" them into the mixture; You want the mixture uniform but the potatoes don't need to be "creamed" into the other ingredients-- unless that's your thing
8) the broccoli is the one ingredient that needs to be treated gently so it remains intact in the finished frittata. If fresh, just cut the florets off the head and fold them into the mixture with a big spoon or rubber spatula. If frozen, you'll want to blanche and cool the broccoli first. Mine was frozen so I did the blanching in the Foodi by putting in 2 cups water and an old-fashioned folding steamer insert, throw in the broccoli, close it up, set it to STEAM for one minute, and let er rip. Super easy. Remove the steamer insert promptly and let the broccoli cool down before adding it to the egg mixture. Also toss out the steaming water in the bottom of the Foodi. Fold the blanched broccoli into the egg mixture along with however much salt & pepper you want and mix it all together.
You now have a great big bowl of prepared "frittata batter." Depending on how fast you want to cook it into frittatas, you could leave it on the counter or stick it in the fridge, but use it all up within a day or so. Enter the Ninja Foodi or Instant Pot. Or... you could just pour the whole thing into a behemoth baking dish and pop it in the oven at 400 degrees for ten minutes or so. It's done when firm all the way through and lightly browned on top. What you do NOT want to do (I know cuz I tried) is pour the whole thing in the Foodi and try to cook it all in one go. It won't cook properly because it's too deep. The top will overcook while the deep interior is still liquid. To cook right, a frittata needs to be fairly shallow: 2" inches deep at most, with heat circulating around all sides of the baking dish. In this sense it's less like casserole, more like cake. So in the Foodi you cook many beautiful single-serving frittatas using the "pot-in-pot" method. Pour two inches or less of "batter" into an 8" diameter round baking dish, springform or push-bottom cake pan, etc., put it on a wire trivet in the bottom of the Foodi, drop the air-fry lid and set the Foodi to BAKE at 400 F for 10 minutes. Check for doneness by digging into the center with a fork to make sure it's solidified all the way through; adjust cooking time if needed. If you have two of these pans you can cook as many frittatas as you want in rapid succession. I like using the Foodi for this because the Foodi is so automated, doesn't heat up the kitchen AT ALL, and clean-up is trivial.
We also have ten hens burying us under eggs every day. What on earth to do?
Frittatas are a great way to make yummy food out of lots of eggs that will otherwise go bad. It's potentially as yummy as pizza, infinitely flexible in terms of ingredients, super nutritious, and incredibly simple and easy to make-- but even more easy and fuss-free if you use a Foodi or Instant Pot.
Here's a recipe for the bare-bones frittata I made last night. Think of this recipe as a "base" to which you could add more ingredients to your taste, just like pizza, but it's plenty good enough to eat all by itself:
6 medium russet potatoes, each cross-cut into four big slabs (an equal amount of cauliflower could be substituted for "keto" reasons)
4 slices bacon
2 large onions, chopped
12 to 18 eggs
1 lb (or more) extra sharp cheddar cheese
1 lb broccoli florets, fresh or frozen
salt & pepper to taste
1) Put the cut potatoes in an 8-qt pot with enough water to generously cover, add plenty of salt (nearly all of which will drain back out), boil to "al dente" firmness, drain, set aside open to the air so they cool down
2) With potatoes in progress, fry the bacon on moderate heat to "bacon bits" crispiness, rendering out all the fat. Set bacon aside on paper.
3) Fry onions gently and slowly in the bacon fat until soft, translucent, and golden; allow to cool
4) Crack all the eggs into a BIG (roughly 1 gallon) mixing bowl; if the eggs are old, as mine were, you'll want to "screen" them as you do so: crack each egg into a small flat-bottom bowl or deep saucer so you can check for quality before adding it to the big bowl; if super watery and the yolk has no firmness, discard it and rinse your "screening" bowl for the next egg.
5) grate all the cheddar in batches into the bowl of eggs, mixing it in after each batch
6) crumble the crispy bacon into the cheese-egg mixture and mix it in; also add the fried onion if cool
NOTE: you want all additions to the big mixing bowl to be COOL so the mixture remains liquid. Otherwise the heat of the ingredient will cook the egg matter prematurely.
7) If the potatoes are reasonably cool (100 degrees F or less) roughly mix them in by using a potato spud or similar to "smash" them into the mixture; You want the mixture uniform but the potatoes don't need to be "creamed" into the other ingredients-- unless that's your thing
8) the broccoli is the one ingredient that needs to be treated gently so it remains intact in the finished frittata. If fresh, just cut the florets off the head and fold them into the mixture with a big spoon or rubber spatula. If frozen, you'll want to blanche and cool the broccoli first. Mine was frozen so I did the blanching in the Foodi by putting in 2 cups water and an old-fashioned folding steamer insert, throw in the broccoli, close it up, set it to STEAM for one minute, and let er rip. Super easy. Remove the steamer insert promptly and let the broccoli cool down before adding it to the egg mixture. Also toss out the steaming water in the bottom of the Foodi. Fold the blanched broccoli into the egg mixture along with however much salt & pepper you want and mix it all together.
You now have a great big bowl of prepared "frittata batter." Depending on how fast you want to cook it into frittatas, you could leave it on the counter or stick it in the fridge, but use it all up within a day or so. Enter the Ninja Foodi or Instant Pot. Or... you could just pour the whole thing into a behemoth baking dish and pop it in the oven at 400 degrees for ten minutes or so. It's done when firm all the way through and lightly browned on top. What you do NOT want to do (I know cuz I tried) is pour the whole thing in the Foodi and try to cook it all in one go. It won't cook properly because it's too deep. The top will overcook while the deep interior is still liquid. To cook right, a frittata needs to be fairly shallow: 2" inches deep at most, with heat circulating around all sides of the baking dish. In this sense it's less like casserole, more like cake. So in the Foodi you cook many beautiful single-serving frittatas using the "pot-in-pot" method. Pour two inches or less of "batter" into an 8" diameter round baking dish, springform or push-bottom cake pan, etc., put it on a wire trivet in the bottom of the Foodi, drop the air-fry lid and set the Foodi to BAKE at 400 F for 10 minutes. Check for doneness by digging into the center with a fork to make sure it's solidified all the way through; adjust cooking time if needed. If you have two of these pans you can cook as many frittatas as you want in rapid succession. I like using the Foodi for this because the Foodi is so automated, doesn't heat up the kitchen AT ALL, and clean-up is trivial.
