Fridge Frittata

This is seriously one of my favourite, no-effort dinners.

I made this because I had an assortment of left-overs in my fridge that I wanted to turn into dinner. Either that or order home-delivery, but seriously, why spend the $20 / $30 when you can create a yummy meal form left overs for free! Plus, as you would have guessed from my previous post I hate waste!

I am sure there is a 'proper' Spanish method to make a frittata; a method I am yet to discover! So I use the term loosely. There is no end to the combination of ingredients that you can add. As such, I can't really write out a recipe for you: this is more of an idea that you can then adapt to be anything you want it to be.

Frittata is also fantastic cold, and makes a great lunch to take to work, or to take on a picnic.

How I made mine

The contents of my fridge was as follows:

• 
  
  1 chicken breast that I had bbq'd on Sunday evening, w/ a few shakes from a pack garlic-herb spice mix
• 
  
  a large handful of baby potatoes that had been boiled, then had a glug of olive oil & parsley thrown over them
• 
  
  a medium tupperware container's worth of pancetta/mushroom mix. I used this to top slices of french bread at my mum's 60th birthday party: it was very yummy & easy to make (will post the recipe another time)
• 
  
  half a block of haloumi
• 
  
  a clove of garlic
• 
  
  4 eggs

I made it by:

I heated a frying pan over medium heat, add a good glug of olive oil, and  once the oil is warm, a small knob of butter. Swirl it all around to really cover the base of the pan. I crush & finely slice the garlic, and add it to the pan, let it sizzle for a few moments, then tipped the mushroom/pancetta mix into the pan, and stirred it all together. After a few minutes, I added the potatoes, that I roughly chopped up, and then the bbq'd chicken breast that I had sliced into bite-size pieces. Stir well to combine.

Lower the heat to med-low, and whisk the eggs together in a bowl, then pour over the mix, do your best to cover as much of the mix as possible. You may need to use a wooden spoon to push things into place, and make sure the egg gets into all the crevices etc. You don't want it pooled in the spot where you poured it in.

Allow the eggs to cook for a minute or two: don't be tempted to increase the heat, you need the eggs to set. Slice the haloumi into 'fingers' and place on top of the frittata. Place pan under a very warm grill to cook the top of the eggs / brown the haloumi.

You can serve this w/ a green salad, steamed veg, on its own or however you want! I realised after I'd started eating it that the baby tomatoes I had could have been sliced & put through the mix. Baby peas or any frozen veg would have worked well too. Feta or goats cheese works well in a frittata, as does baby spinach, or indeed regular spinach. 

I have made frittata's out of left over roast meat & roast veg; grilled sausages, left over steamed greens, anti-pasto, chorizo . . . really anything I have in my fridge that I can use up.

Don't hesitate to drop me a mail if you have any questions, or need some ideas!

It's Italian for Fried Rice!

Hello!

So, wondering home after a long day, and still feeling rotten from awful cold that just refuses to leave me be, my mind turned to dinner. Tempted as I was to pick up a take away Indian (meal that is), I thought for a few moments about what I had at home that might make a nice meal.

* left over prawn risotto

* 1 egg
(how I came to have just 1 egg I do not know)

* some crab meat in the freezer

* a few slices of pancetta

A quick swing by the F&V shop under my building for half a bunch of spring onions, and I had all that I needed to turn my left over risotto into a fried rice!

Crab meat may sound like an exotic thing to keep in one's freezer, but it is so handy to have. We have a wonderful farmers markets on every Saturday, literally outside my front door. As I have previously posted, their is a wonderful fishmonger there, and he sells me packets of frozen crab meat for around $12-$13 a packet. I get so many meals out of it (toss it through pasta, add to risotto, throw into an omelette or frittata!).

And you know what? It was so yummy! Prawns, crab meat, pancetta, spring onions & left over risotto: awesome meal of left overs!

My Random, Left Over, Italian Fried Rice

Crack the egg into a bowl & whisk gently to mix it all together.

Slice the pancetta into strips, finely chop the spring onion. The crab meat I have is in a block, so I just slice of 'slabs' like you would a loaf of bread (bottom left of this photo). Once it has thawed slightly (a few minutes), break it up into smaller bits. This is just a meal of left overs, you could use bacon or ham instead of pancetta, a leek instead of spring onions etc etc.

Heat some vegetable oil in a wok, and swirl it around to coat the base. Once it is very warm, pour the egg mix in & swirl it around to make a thing layer that cooks very quickly & remove from the wok.

Add a little more vegetable oil to the wok, and when very warm, throw the spring onions into the wok. Cook, stirring, for a minute or two, then add the pancetta. Cook that for a couple of minutes then add the crab meat.

Add the left over risotto to the wok, and stir, stir, stir (sound familiar?)! I found that some of the rice caught on the bottom of the wok, but I didn't want to add any more oil, as the rice was already quite saturated from the stock etc.

Once the rice has been cooked through, season to taste, spoon into a bowl, and pop the egg on top.

Enjoy!

Wine Match!
Umm - whatever you have in the fridge! In my case a Margaret River Sauv Blanc.