Spinach Tomato Potato and Egg Salad

Dinners that are fast, fresh, cheap and delicious are not always the easiest to come up at the drop of the hat, but is the holy grail of week night cooking. In the winter the solution is easy - stews and soups that I make in big batches and freeze. In the summer I usually just make big salads, but I was craving something a bit more creative than just a salad recently and then I had a brain wave! I had spinach, eggs, tomatoes and potatoes!

What I present here is by no means fast since I had to roast the potatoes! But, with a little fore thought you could easily roast a batch of potatoes on the weekend!

Spinach, Tomatoes and Eggs, Oh My!

Here is what I did:

Pre-heat oven to 450 F. Clean and cut up 3 small red skinned potatoes (single serving). Toss potatoes in olive oil, sea salt, pepper and other herbs (as desired). Arrange on a foil lined cookie sheet and bake for 30 to 45 minutes (until soft). You should probably stir them around half way through the roasting time.

Meanwhile, put a pot of water on high heat. Once the water is nearly boiling add an egg. Boil for 15 minutes. Immediately remove from heat and chill in ice water (will help the shell peel off easier and the yolk from turning grey).

Tear up desire amount of washed spinach leaves. Half some grape tomatoes. Chop up the egg and add to the spinach and tomatoes in a bowl. Once the potatoes are done roasting add them while still warm to the partially assembled salad. Drizzle a little red wine vinegar and olive oil on top and enjoy. If you have crumble bacon on hand this goes well one top as well! Or grated cheese!

Obviously - when I made this salad it was not quick because I had to roast the potatoes. But I have repeated this when I had all the ingredients fully prepared and on hand and it took less than 5 minutes. I would like to point out the well balanced nature of this meal as well. Wouldn't you rather eat this for dinner or lunch than grabbing food out somewhere? Planning can be a busy cooks best friend during the week!

Happy Cooking!

Gorgeous Tomato Spinach Quiche

I think some of you may have picked up that ESFSW and I like eggs - whether it is an omelette (his domain) or a quiche (my domain) we do enjoy a well prepared egg dish. I had been planning on making a fritta one weekend and informed ESFSW of this. His reply was "what is a fritta?" I told him it was like a quiche but without a crust! He thought for a while and said "can we have quiche instead?" I paused for a second and thought...I really didn't want to make a pastry crust. While they are not difficult I seem to be plagued by bad luck and problems that last several times I have made one and I really didn't want to deal with the roller coaster of emotions that go along with a failed pastry crust. Now I know it is ridiculous to have yourself worth wrapped up in the success of a pastry crust and yet some how I do! When one turns out I am flying above cloud nine and when it fails I am in purgatory. I think the most upset and angry ESFSW has ever seen me was when I realized I had seriously screwed up a pastry crust of a quiche. I mean with three ingredients: flour, fat and water, how one earth can one forget one!! And yet I did. I blame it on my roommates! Some how they have frequent success using oil for the fat and so I have tried, and tried and tried and have yet to turn out a pastry crust that I find acceptable. So I went back to my roots and returned to Crisco and butter....ah my old friends! 

What I used:

Crust -

1 1/4 cup flour

1/3 cup Crisco shortening (vegetable shortening)

2 Tbs butter

1/2 tsp salt

~ 2 to 4 Tbs ice water

* optional 2 tsp cayenne

Filling - 

1/4 onion - sauteed

10 medium mushrooms sliced and sauteed

2 Roma Tomatoes sliced and de-seeded

2 cups fresh spinach leaves

8 eggs beaten well

1/8 to 1/4 cup milk

1/2 to 1 cup Shredded cheddar cheese

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

~ Crust ~

In a medium bowl measure out flour and salt (and cayenne) - give the ingredients a quick stir. Add shortening and butter. With your hands (take off any rings - saves cleaning them later!) or with a pastry cutter or two knives incorporate the crisco+butter with the flour until the mixture resembles sand clumps. Add 1 to 2 Tbs ice water and incorporate into the mixture until it starts to come together. If it is too dry add more water. Don't over water you want the dough to be a tad dry but holding together pretty well. Turn out dough on to a large sheet of waxed paper. Wrap up and refrigerate dough for ~ 30 minutes (up to 1 day).

ESFSW does have a rolling pin - so a wine bottle stood in as a substitute!

When ready - unwrap dough and form a ball - leave it on the wax paper. Cut another sheet of wax paper and put it over the top of the ball of dough. Using a rolling pin (or anything about a foot long and round). Roll out the dough into a circle. Once it is the desired size and thickness to fit into a pie plate remove the top later of wax paper. Put the pie plate over the top of the exposed dough and with one motion holding on to the bottom layer of wax paper and the pie plate flip. Remove the wax paper and arrange the dough into the plate and style the edges any way you please! Set aside while you prep the other ingredients.

Rolled out dough

Crimping the edges

~ Filling ~

In a fry pan saute onions and mushrooms til they are cooked through in either butter or oil (your choice - just never use margarine because I may have to hunt you down and lecture you on why this is NOT a healthier alternative to butter! I'm a chemist so I know!).

Set the onions and mushrooms aside. Mean while heat a little olive oil in the pan. Once hot add the de-seeded tomato slices to the pan in a single layer. Let them cook about 2 to 3 minutes each side. 

Once those have cooked - turn off heat and set aside. In a large bowl beat eggs with the milk and a dash of salt and pepper (and any other spices you want). If the cheese isn't shredded yet you should get on that! Or in my case get a kitchen helper to do it (aka. ESFSW).

Bring the pie plate with the crust back over and layer the mushroom and onion mixture with the fresh spinach leaves (make sure that they are well washed and dried). Pour the egg mixture over the top of this. Carefully lay the tomatoes on top of the egg mixture and sprinkle the cheese on top and sprinkle some pepper for good measure! Now place the assembled quiche into a pre-heated oven at 375 F. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes. The egg should only jiggle the slightest when it done. Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Assembled quiche ready to be popped into the oven!

The baked quiche resting after all its hard work in the oven!

Using fresh spinach means that - it ribbons through the quiche , as seen by this cross section.

We served the quiche with mango and grape fruit salad and paired it with a dry rose wine. It was a lovely meal. and I was thankful that my crust came out wonderfully!

It looks as lovely as it tasted!

Left overs can be re-frigerated and re-heated for up to a week. While it takes a while to assemble and bake it is worth it and yields a meal for 4 to 6 or leftovers if it just you. And is a balance of all the food groups!

Happy Eating!

If you hadn't noticed the pictures in this post are much better than previous posts. That is mostly due to using ESFSW's newest toy to take the pictures and not my tablet. 

Braised Brussels Sprouts and a 5 minute Egg

If you are wondering if you read the title wrong I swear I didn't make a mistake! Yes, braised Brussels sprouts and a 5 minute egg!. Now for any of you how have spent any time in France or with french cooking soft boiled eggs are very common on top salads, the runny yolk combines with any dressing used making something rather ordinary into something that is wonderfully rich. 

I was a little low on groceries one night last week but had some Brussels sprouts and eggs, so I decided to combine them! So I braised the Brussels sprouts in butter and popped and egg into boiling water for 5 minutes. Best to start the egg only after you braised the Brussels spouts.

Place cut side down sprouts in a pan with melted butter and some garlic - over medium heat

Turn over when cut side is browned

When both sides are browned add 1/2 cup of water

Once the water has evaporated they are ready to go!

 Arrange the Brussels sprouts on a plate. If you lettuce greens you can put the sprouts onto these, tomatoes and crumbled bacon would also be lovely additions. Since I didn't have these things I just did the sprouts. Once the egg is done - carefully remove from the boiling water and rinse with cold water. Carefully peel the egg - the egg will be soft and hot. If it breaks just plop it on top the sprouts and let the golden yolk run out overall the sprouts.

The cabbage is my first attempted at vinegar cured cabbage which you will hear more about in future posts!

My plate!

It is a bit of a random dinner or lunch idea but it turned out quite tasty! And if you don't sometimes try something that sounds weird you never discover wonderful combinations like this one!

Omelette Night Try 1!

 

There are nights when the only thing that sounds appetizing is breakfast foods! I am not snobby I have no problem eating breakfast any time of day. I do however do have issues eating non-breakfasty foods in the morning. Luckily ESFSW also enjoys breakfast for dinner and omelettes. He actually makes them quite frequently for himself. I haven't tasted any of his yet but he promises to make one for me soon! 

Omelettes are not tricky to make, although it did take me a while to find the patience to let the egg cook before I accidentally just turned my omelette into a scramble! I also learned that it is best to use slightly cooked vegetables and always use cooked tomatoes or else the whole thing gets watery! Ewwww!

The omelette I made this night was asparagus, blushing tomato and goat cheese! I also made hash browns, but I haven't been too successful in that endeavor so I didn't take a picture of those.

And here is what I did:

Ingredients:

2 eggs (per omelette)

1/8 onion - diced and saute in butter

3-4 asparagus stocks (cut into thirds and lightly steamed)

blushing tomatoes

herb goat cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

butter

Beat two eggs in a bowl. Heat frying pan and melt butter. Heat on medium high heat (adjust as needed). Once butter has fully melted, tilt pan to make sure it coats the entire surface. Pour egg into the pan. Add onions on top the egg. Let the eggs cook undisturbed when you start to see the edges firm up add other ingredients to one side of the pan. Let eggs continue to cook. Gently with a spatula fold the egg only side over the other ingredients. Let it cook til the egg sets. You can actually turn off the heat at this point. 

Now the tricky part! Take a plate and with a sure and quick movement turn the frying pan over flipping the omelette onto the plate. Now I usually would eat mine with some mixed salad greens, but hash browns also are tasty!

My Omelette!