Late Night Baked Frittata

 

During one of those late-night mother and son conversations yesterday about how nice the frittata was at the Kendal People's Cafe / PopUp Repair Workshop at the Castle Street Centre in Kendal, the son grinned and said, "frittatas are easy" and promptly vanished into the kitchen to make one.

He normally makes them in a cast iron frying pan on the stove, but this time he wanted to try a baked in the oven version to see how it worked.

Mother was drafted in to help: chopping onion and long red pepper into small pieces ready for a quick softening fry in the pan, and to crack eggs into the bowl without dropping the shell in as well (she failed!)

Son tackled the potatoes - nice fresh redskins that were just washed and sliced thinly, no need to peel them.

The end result was very tasty and proved that, yes, you can make frittata in the oven! Here's how...

Ingredients

800g of potatoes, washed and thinly sliced
9 eggs
1 large onion, finely chopped
½ long red pepper, finely chopped
approx 10cm of Aldi spicy chorizo or equivalent
Olive oil to fry the onion, pepper and chorizo in to start with
A couple of dashes of Cholula Chipotle sauce
Salt and pepper (optional)

Method

Firstly, put the olive oil into a frying pan and shallow fry the onion, pepper and chorizo for around 3 minutes or so, adding the cholula sauce and making sure everything is hot through.

Crack the eggs into a jug or bowl and lightly mix with a fork to break up the yolks.

In a large mixing bowl combine the sliced potatoes and the contents of the frying pan, pour mixture into a large baking dish (ours is approx 28cm x 17cm). Level it down, then pour the eggs over the mixture. Sprinkle a pinch of salt on the top (only a little!).

Bake in oven on Gas Mark 4 for 100 minutes (1hr 20mins).  Remove from oven and lightly sprinkle a small amount of black pepper over the surface, cut into portions and serve hot.

Serves 4 as a main course or 8 as a side dish.

Post-midnight Hummus making (V)

A couple of nights ago I had a hankering for hummus. I blame my son for this - he introduced me to hummus and I've been hooked ever since. We've been trying various types from the local supermarkets, but we wanted to try and make our own as our village shopkeeper, who is Greek, told us it was easy to do.

Our first attempt some weeks ago was a bit of a failure. It was too runny and the flavour was all wrong. Then came the hankering and no hummus in the fridge - what to do?

Finding a recipe online - one of those really helpful ones with a video so you can see what it's supposed to look like as you make it - I went raiding the pantry for the needed ingredients. I knew we had chickpeas - tinned ones from ALDI as I use them for stews and bean burgers. Tahini - yes we had that - two jars reduced to £1 a jar in Tesco a few weeks ago and dated late 2017 so still fine to use. Olive oil - yes, it's the only oil we use for cooking. Fresh lemon juice - no, but we usually have a bottle of lemon juice and one of lime juice in the fridge (both from my local ALDI), garlic, cumin and salt from the spice rack and I was ready to experiment again.

I was a bit worried as the recipe said it used a food processor to mix things up, and we don't have one. Initially I used the potato masher on the drained and rinsed chickpeas until they were all nicely mashed and lump-free, but discovered that using the end of a sturdy wooden rolling pin in a large flat-based bowl worked even better for mashing them (think large pestle and mortar!)  The tahini and citrus juice (half lemon, half lime) I mixed using a wooden spoon - it really doesn't need much effort as it goes very quickly after a minute's beating with the spoon. Once the tahini and citrus was mixed, the olive oil and the spices went in, followed by the chick peas, and it was all mixed by hand for a couple of minutes.

A taste test showed it needed a bit more seasoning, so my son went rummaging and found a tub of Tesco's Tikka curry powder and a bottle of chipotle sauce, so we added some of each (1 tsp of each approx.) and a small pinch of salt (we use sea salt for preference, but any salt works. Just don't add too much!)

The result was very tasty hummus in less than half an hour, which we spread liberally onto warm seeded paninis and thoroughly enjoyed at two in the morning!

Our final recipe:

1 400g can chickpeas, drained and well-rinsed
¼ cup (60 ml) fresh lemon juice (1 large lemon)
¼ cup (60 ml) well-stirred tahini
2 garlic cloves, minced (use 1 clove if you prefer a milder garlic flavour)
2 tablespoons (30 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon ground cumin
Pinch of sea salt

1 teaspoon Tikka curry powder *

1 teaspoon Cholula chipotle sauce

Dash of ground paprika and a little olive oil, for serving if liked

* If you want to make your own there is a recipe here: 

http://www.food.com/recipe/tikka-spice-mix-2654

Method:

In a bowl mix the tahini and lemon juice for around 1 minute, using a wooden spoon, until mix changes colour and goes lighter and a bit fluffy looking. 

Add the 2 tbsp's olive oil, the minced garlic, cumin, curry powder, chipotle sauce, and the sea salt to the whipped tahini and lemon juice (you can substitute a ½ teaspoon of table salt instead of sea salt if you prefer it.)

In a 2nd bowl put the chickpeas and mash them until there are no whole peas or lumps visible, then add the chickpeas to the tahini mix and combine well until you have a creamy mixture. 

You can eat it immediately, or leave it in the bowl in the fridge for an hour to let the best flavour develop.