tortilla espanola

I first ran into a tortilla espanola only a few months ago at Toro, and I knew right away I had to try to make it on my own! An easy, crowd-pleasing dish, this would make a perfect entertaining brunch dish. I apologize in advance for the lack of pictures, but when you're making it you'll realize how quick it is and the fact that you don't have time to do anything else!

Ingredients (makes one large enough for 4-6 brunch servings):
6 medium potatoes, sliced thinly with a mandoline to about 1/8" thickness
1 onion, diced
6 eggs
olive oil
salt

Directions:
1. Add the sliced potatoes to a large nonstick pan. Almost cover the potatoes with olive oil (yes, you will be using a lot of olive oil).

2. Cover and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, until potatoes are tender.

3. Meanwhile, cook onions in some olive olive in a smaller pan until soft and translucent, about 7 minutes.

4. When the timers are done, strain and wipe off as much oil as possible from both the potatoes & the onions, you can reserve the olive oil for the next step rather than using even more.

5. Add 1 tbs of olive oil back into the large nonstick pan and heat over medium heat. While the oil is heating, crack and whisk the eggs in a large bowl. Add in the potato & onion mixture and top with a sprinkling of salt. Mix thoroughly.

6. Add egg, potato, and onion mixture to the warmed pan. Lower heat to medium-low and cook for 5 minutes, until browned and crisped.

7. Place a large plate or a cutting board over the pan and flip before returning it to the pan. Continue to cook for an additional 5 minutes to crisp the other side.

8. Remove from heat, slide it out of the pan, and let it cool for about 4 minutes before slicing into portions for serving.
 

 

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simple weekend recap: edition 24

Friday night dinner T & I celebrated our 6 year 

anniversary at the new amazing restaurant, Asta...

 

 

 

 

...but as we headed out to our car for a nice drive home we realized our 

back window was smashed, so the rest of our celebration evening was 

spent in various police stations. Happy 6-year!

 

Saturday morning marked a new day, filled with

 hashbrowns and bacon (which make everything better...really)...

 

...and the return of my baby girl!

 

Before T took off on his weekend work trip to Berlin, I made a simple 

healthy halibut dinner (recipe this week)...

 

...and a less-healthy chocolate souffle.

 

Sunday was filled with flowers that remind me of 

fields of wildflowers in the summer...

 

 

...and Craigie on Main since it was so good last time. I started with the grilled Spanish octopus with griled cipollini onion, green olive and lemon salad, bulgur wheat, and chorizon puree. I always get grilled octopus when it's on a menu because it's one of my favorite things.

 

For my entree I went with the slow-roasted chicken breast stuffed with chicken sausage, apricots, forest mushrooms, turnip puree, and wheat berries.

 

Although we were quite full, I had to have the orange blossom beignets with a date-orange caramel and cardamom anglaise. I had no idea these would be the largest beignets in the world, but I also had no idea they would be some of the tastiest.

 

 

After a heavy food weekend, I whipped up an easy pea puree to line a lean chicken wrap to recover from a delicious, but rich, weekend of food!

 

 

 

 

 

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homemade crepes

Crepes are the skinny light fluffy cousins of pancakes. Chock-full of goodies like nutella, bananas, strawberries, cinnamon-sugar, syrup, and everything a bit naughty, crepes can start your weekend day off on the right foot. You could always play it the healthy way and swap some of the (delicious) sugary-fillings for eggs, shredded chicken, steak, ham, grilled or roasted veggies, to have a brunch or even a dinner meal instead. Using only ingredients I bet you have on hand, these little puppies are whipped up within 10 minutes. 

Ingredients (for about 6 crepes):
2 tbs butter, melted
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup nonfat milk
1 egg 
Optional mix-ins of choice (I used one banana, cinnamon-sugar & syrup)

Directions:
1. Mix flour with salt in a small bowl and set aside.
 

2.  Melt butter and place in a large bowl.

 

3. Add milk & egg to butter and whisk.

 

4. Add dry ingredients to wet and stir to mix until all clumps are gone.
 

 

5. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Pour about 1/3 cup of batter into a large nonstick skillet, pick up the skillet and let batter drip to cover the entire pan in a thin layer. Return to heat and let cook for about 2 minutes, until the wet-looking inner bit gets smaller and the crepe begins to cook through.

 

6. Carefully flip when the sides begin harder, cook for another minute, until bits of brown show on the underside.
 

7. Remove from pan and add fillings/toppings immediately. Serve warm.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Super versatile & impressive, whip these bad boys up on a weekend morning and you've found yourself a perfect brunch recipe for your arsenal.

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brunch souffle

For an easy peasy brunch meal, you can whip up a brunch souffle in as little as 40 minutes...with absolutely no effort whatsoever. Wake up, put the ingredients together, pop in the oven and wander about making coffee, entertaining, squeezing juice, watching tv, whatever you want really, until your golden goodness is ready to be enjoyed!

Ingredients (for 4 servings):
1 hunk of bread (I used about 1/3 of a loaf)
5 eggs
2/3 cup nonfat milk
1/3 cup shredded cheese of choice
salt & pepper
other add-ins of choice: mushrooms, peppers, broccoli, spinach bacon, potatoes

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Lightly grease a pie pan. Loosely rip up bread (I used pepperjack to add a bit more of a kick) to cover the bottom. 
  

 

2. Whisk eggs, milk, salt & pepper.
 

3. Pour egg mixture (along with any add-ins) over bread, sprinkle with cheese.
 

4. Pop in preheated oven for 35 minutes, until puffed up and crisped brown on top.
 

 

 

Easy enough to whip up on a super lazy weekend morning for yourself or for everyone to share!

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christmas brunch

For Christmas brunch we headed back to T.W. Food for a perfect jazz brunch. Brunch is offered Sundays from 10am-2pm with a 3-piece jazz band. My dad and I started with a casa casa orange mimosa with the matching house smoked salmon with a winter salad.

T and meim went with the bakery plate with the best chocolate-almond muffin in the world, cranberry scones, and jam.

For a main dish T went with the sherry french toast with bosc pear, mcintosh apple and maple syrup. T had a chance to taste everyones plate and reported his french toast was his favorite dish of all, the perfect combination with the sweet fruit apples and the sherry french toast.
 

My dish was my favorite and I could have eaten 1.5 servings of this: the pulled pork tartine with caramel porter pork, fried egg & sweet potato. Unbelievably delicious, not too salty, not too heavy, light & perfected.
 

Meim and my dad went with sausage & waffles with bratwurst, maple jus and apple. The bratwurst was apparently out-of-this-world, and T as well as my meim are now anxiously awaiting the opening of Bronwyn in Union Square (the owner's new eastern-European and pasta restaurant opening someday in the near future).
 

For dessert meim and T went with the apple tarte with almond frangipane & whipped cream that is made to look like vanilla bean ice cream.
 

My dad and I opted for our mimosas over dessert. Afterwards we headed out to Formaggio for some last-minute stocking shopping before heading home. Overall a perfect Christmas brunch!

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