Kale and Caramelized Onion Frittata

Recently in the food world there was a bit of a debate over how long it takes to caramelize onions. You can check out the article here, but the gist of it is that *some* recipe authors are carelessly writing into recipes that caramelizing onions takes only 5-10 minutes. I posted the article on to my facebook site that 10 minutes was laughable and got into a debate with a friend, her saying that how familiar one was with a cooking technique could depend on the timing of the recipe. That's absolutely true, but I think the main problem are the liberties that authors take with cooking times. There's nothing more frustrating then deciding on a particular recipe, namely because it only takes a certain amount of time, and then have that timing be grossly untrue.

The eventual frittata I made with said caramelized onions

Here the main culprit is caramelized onions but I'm sure this could also be true of braises, stocks, sauces, etc. But going back to the original I decided to test this out. I've caramelized onions many many times and I would never describe the process as speedy, but I'd never actually timed myself. Now keep in mind, there are many factors at play here, such as the type of onion, the uniform thickness that it's been sliced (you really want the thinnest slice possible, so that as much of the onions surface is touching the heat as possible), the inclusion of a touch of sugar (so as to help bring out the natural sugars in the onion), and how many onions you're using (how crowded is the pan). Depending on all those above things, it could be a longer or shorter process, but again I was very skeptical of 10 minutes. So I used one fairly large Spanish onion, cut fairly thin, about a 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil and a tiny sprinkle of some turbinado sugar while nearly constantly stirring. Also, I'd consider myself fairly expert. It took me just over 15 minutes.

Easter Greens: Truffled Almond Green Beans

Technically I did 2 different "green" sides, the almond green beans and then my favorite quickly sauteed collards with garlic which I've already done here. I love green beans, especially when they're in season in the spring because they really don't need much and you don't need to mess with the integrity at all. But this being a holiday I wanted them kicked up a little from just freshly steamed, or with a simple vinaigrette, so when I saw this recipe from Simply Recipes I couldn't resist, with my own little tweaks of course.

We also had 1 egg that didn't hard boil enough to be deviled, almost soft boiled. So instead of discarding an otherwise perfectly good egg we decided to incorporate it, as it is Easter after all and the pretty white and yellow added color as well as creaminess to the dish.

L'oeuf

So again, Happy Easter! Or Passover weekend, or just Happy Spring! I could write a post about how Easter, and spring, is all about rebirth, re-emergence into the world after the dark of winter, but I'd rather just talk about my favorite part of Easter, espcially the most notable, the Easter Egg. Egg hunts, cascarones, painting eggs, even the word, Easter and Egg just go hand in hand. So long after we've outgrown the hunts and the painting (or at least should've outgrown them... Mom) what remains is the best part, the edible Easter Egg which for my family is in the form of deviled eggs.

Sriracha deviled eggs with the pickled swiss chard stems

Growing up, I always thought of deviled eggs as something bland, like egg salad that is only half done, but one Easter one of my Mom's friends, a French woman, stopped by to drop off some Easter goodies and with them she included her interpretation of Texas deviled eggs. The yolk was mashed with mayo, but all similarities to typical eggs ended there. There was chili powder, a bite of Dijon mustard, cilantro, and tiny chopped shallots throughout that provided a nice bite. And from then on I was sold.

Happy Easter

A little slideshow of our spread. We tried to keep it fairly light as lamb can be rich, with lots of vegetables, virtually no cream, butter or cheese, relying on good olive oil and fresh herbs to jazz up the meal, which they did perfectly.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

There were wasabi deviled eggs, the big spread with the lamb and all side dishes, the stuffed artichoke, delicious truffled almond green beans with a soft boiled egg, and my co-chef in the kitchen, right before working off our meal with an egg hunt.

This is my first Easter home with my family in a few years and it's been wonderful. I usually spend it with my sister and friends in DC, which has always been lovely... but as they say, there's no place like home.

Counting Down

And catching up. It's been an amazing past week, that has been all part of an amazing month so I figured I'd brush up on my Flickr skills and share a little slideshow of what I've been up to, mostly food, drink, music and sports oriented.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

So you got my highly coveted LCD Soundsystem ticket (thank you B) with a delicious Johnny Mack's cheeseburger in the background. Once of my nicer shots from TV on the Radio part 1 at Radio City. Having a pretty decent glass of Pinot Noir at the Yankees Game. Very delicious siracha deviled eggs with pickled swiss chard stems I nabbed from Luisa's link love last Friday for the perfect (clearly non-vegan) dinner party appetizer and ending the night with a homemade blueberry crumble pie. Then it was off to Boston and hitting up some blueberry beer before TV on the Radio part 2. Brunch the next day was a Sinatra Sunday at Lucky's Lounge and then catching a last minute Red Sox game. April... I'm exhausted, and that isn't even the 1/2 of it.

The Texas Girl Finally Makes Something Texan!

For me this blog is an exercise in self control. You see, as a Texan it's just way too easy for me to break out some corn tortillas, cheese, a meat of some sort, a tomato, poblano and some chili powder, and I'll have enchiladas, quesadillas, tacos, or chile rellenos, hell even some nachos if I really feel like deep frying. These are the foods I grew up surrounded by and which epitomize "home" to me. But I wanted to showcase recipes here that weren't all necessarily part of my go to repertoire, because there's just something more exciting about doing something new and succeeding.

But there are days, like Sundays, when you've had too much fun the night before and the only thing that will make you happy is comfort, something that tastes like home. And so I can't help but break out my favorite Tex Mex recipe, chili.

You see what I just did there... chili brunch. Just serve with some tortillas

As Long As I Live In New York...

I will probably never make this dish from scratch. Yes I own the cookbook, and yes I have the culinary knowledge, the accessibility to all ingredients, and the required cookware, but why... when I can just go to the restaurant?

Lazy? Perhaps, but let me just say, the broth alone takes 8+ hours to make. The pork belly takes over 24. The whole dish requires things like nori, fish cake, konbu, as well as about 40 other slightly more recognizable items. So would you make this when you could just grab a friend, settle down to the counter and have a bowl in front of you in less than 15 minutes? That's right, I thought not.



Seriously. This is page 1 of more than 20.

Did I also mention that it's my go to when I'm sick? During the height of the holiday shopping, naturally I came down with the worst cold. But presents won't buy themselves, so I dragged myself out. When it came time to re-energize, my first thought was ramen and I came here. Today with a friend, also suffering from a bad cold, here we came again. It's the broth, it's the egg-y protein, it's the chewy noodles, the salty fish cake, the melting pork belly. It's that combination of so many delicious things all in one hot bowl of ramen. Chicken soup has nothing on this.