Breakfast of Eggs & Juice

Continuing with my Anniversary Special thanks to our friends!

Growing up, I never imagined that I would stay in touch with my high school friends. I hoped I would but I recognised that, at best, it might only be a murky probability. I think that’s the curse of the expat life. I lived out my high school in two different countries and while I was blessed to be always surrounded by friends who gave me so much, there was also the reality that leaving was just around the corner and not knowing what the future held made keeping in touch a tenuous affair.

Which was what made having two of my dear friends from high school at my wedding such a joyous victory. Because in spite of time, terrestrial locations, and intervening absences; we had remained friends & better yet, were able to revert back to those abundantly buoyant creatures we were in high school.

So, here’s to friends with whom you grow up & grow old with – they are like a lazy Saturday breakfast – easy & delicious!

Note about omelet: I always love to eat bread with my eggs but unfortunately on Saturday, all we had in the house was day old French bread. And then I remembered this fabulous idea I saw on Nigella‘s show once where she crumbled bread on to an omelet and that’s what we did. My thoughts are you can use any kind of bread here. So here it is.

What We Used (Omelet for 2):

Egg whites – 4

Whole Egg – 2

Finely Chopped Scallions – 4

Chopped, defrosted Frozen Veggies (we used zucchini & carrots) – 1/4 cup

Chopped bean sprouts – 1/8 cup

Diced Turkey Slices – 1/4 cup

Crumbled old bread – 1/8 cup

Pepper Jack Cheese – 2 slices or grated (whatever you have around the house)

Salt & Pepper – to taste

Dried Basil – a pinch

Frying Pan – 2

Whisk & bowl – 1 each

How We Did It:

• In a large bowl, whisk together the egg whites, whole eggs, a little salt & pepper and the dried basil.
• Saute scallions, frozen veggies, bean sprouts, and turkey with a little salt & pepper over medium flame in a small frying pan. After five minutes, remove from flame.

• In a separate pan, over medium heat, pour half the whisked egg mixture. When it starts bubbling and looks like its firming up, place half the sauted mixture over half the egg.
• Crumble bread pieces over it.

• Add a slice of cheese on top of the bread. (I got a little carried away here and added it all over the place. Ideally, you want the veggies, bread and cheese to stay neatly in one half of the egg base, just enough so it’ll be easy to fold).

• Fold omelet.

• Repeat process to make another omelet.

Juice Cocktail
We had some left over store-bought juices from when house guests visited and decided to make a juice cocktail with some home made grenadine. Our grenadine, though not as red as store as the store-bought one, comforts me for it gives me a modicum of control over the ingredients & sugar level. It’s also deliciously tastier .

What We Used:

Pomegranate Juice – 1 cup

Sugar – 1/4 cup (you can add more sugar if you wish. I have seen combinations of 2 cups of juice to 1 cup of sugar, courtesy Cocktail Chronicles)

Passion Fruit Juice – 1/2 cup

Pineapple Juice – 1/2 cup

Lemon Juice – 1/2 of a lemon

Saucepan & Jug – 1 each

How We Did It:

1. In a small saucepan, bring the pomegranate juice to a boil. Reduce heat, add sugar and let simmer for about 15 minutes, or till it is reduced in half. This is grenadine!!!
2. In large juice jug, combine the passion fruit juice, pineapple juice, lemon juice and the grenadine. Stir to mix, pour into glass and enjoy!

In search of a pretty Frittata

I have been fascinated by Frittatas ever since I saw it on the WHFoods website. It just looks like a complete meal in itself, so filled with goodies, almost like a baked pie.

As the Mostafa would sell his birthright for anything with eggs in it, we thought we’d try it out, though we weren’t very sure we wanted the tofu in it.

In our search for the perfect frittata, we came across this NYTimes Iranian Frittata that looked too scrumptiously gorgeous for words. But of course, as it happens with us, when the time came for making this perfect Frittata, we couldn’t find our recipe. So we improvised and here it goes:

What we used:

Milk – quarter cup

Dill – a handful (just enough to make it look pretty. It’s got a strong flavor, so use cautiously)

Cilantro – a handful (same as dill and besides we are going to be using coriander pwdr, which is dried crushed cilantro, right? so you don’t want it to turn into a cilantro/coriander frittata)

Red Onions – quarter

Green, Yellow, Red Pepper/Capsicum (if you just happen one kind of pepper that’s fine, the idea is to have the sweet flavor of pepper/capsicum and for the frita to turn out prutty) – quarter cup

Tomatoes – half

Squash – a couple of slices

Orange Habanero - 1 (frack, these are hot so use v.v.cautiously, but they give such a unique flavor to the dish)

Potatoes – 1

Any kind of meat (optional) – I used 2 turkey slices

Mozzarella Cheese (optional)

And of course, EGGS – 5 (I used 2 egg whites, 3 full eggs)

The usuals – salt, pepper (as per taste), olive oil

The not so usuals (depending on where you’re from) – cumin, coriander pwdr (quarter teaspoon, depending on taste)

10 inch skillet

How we did it:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F
2. Boil Potatoes in Pressure cooker or just in a boiling vat of water. Take them out after second whistle or till the potato is soft enough to be pierced with a fork
3. Finely chop (separately) the dill, the parsley, onions, tomatoes, the peppers, squash, habernos, boiled potatoes, deli turkey slices
4. Beat the eggs. Pour in the milk, beat some more. Add the dill, parsley, pepper, salt, cumin, coriander pwdr, beat some more!
5. Heat a 10 inch skillet, add a little olive oil, and once it starts sizzling, saute onions, peppers, squash, habernos
6. When the veggies turn soft (adding a bit of salt really helps the veggies saute faster), drop in the chopped turkey slices – don’t worry too much about how long to saute. Just make sure its not too long because we are going to pop the whole thing into the oven in a little bit.
7. Pour in the egg mixture. Use a wooden spoon to distribute the eggs and filling evenly around the skillet so it looks as pretty as possible. Let sit over hot stove for 3-4 minutes
8. Before popping it into the oven, sprinkle a bit mozzarella cheese (or parmesan or no cheese at all) on top
9. We let our frittata sit in the oven for 14 minutes at 350° F and took it out when the cheese on top melted and the frittata started swelling up.

This is an excellent breakfast /brunch item with toast or just by itself. Enjoy!!!

In search of a Pretty Frittata