Adventures in Omelette #5: Salmon, Dill & Feta Frittata

Basically the same as the last one, except slightly bodged, so I won't go into great detail.

The biggest mistake was the choice of tinned salmon... It was vile-looking and oily. By the looks of it, a large chunk of meat, skin, bone and all, was cut out of a salmon, rolled up, cooked and shoved into a tin. Whole vertibrae were in there, let alone the spiky bones. About a third of the volume of a small tin was cast aside for looking nasty. It seems, perhaps, that I should have done a bit more research, as the packager in question has "tinned salmon" and "skinless and boneless tinned salmon". Next time I shall endeavour to find the latter... or use the ready-flaked salmon one can find in plastic trays.

Next up was the omission of onion and pepper... The former led to a rather flat frittata simply because there wasn't enough bulk in the mixture. The latter left some mouthfuls tasting a little bland.

Finally, I was a bit crap with the hob - since I cooked this one at my parents' place, and I'm not as familiar with their hob as I am with my own, I ended up setting it far too high. The first clue I got to this mistake was the loud hiss and almost instant cooking of the mixture as it hit the base of the pan.

Still, it wasn't an unmitigated disaster, and my parents said they liked it.

Oh, and I remembered to take photos of this one...

Turned out a little flat in the centre... but that might have been either the frying pan or the hob. The grill certainly did a good job, though.

Adventures in Omelette #4 - Tuna, Onion & Feta Frittata

After the flagrant underachievement of my last post, I figured I'd try something a bit more complicated this time. I'm not going to get drawn into a discussion about whether or not this counts as an omelette. Sure, the preparation method is a little different (unless you commonly put your omelette, half-fried, under the grill to finish it off), but this is basically an omelette by any other name... Or, more specifically, an other name: Frittata.

In many cases, the only differences between an omelette and a frittata are the thickness of the finished product, and the fact that some people seem to assume an omelette gets folded... Weird...

This is one of those fine examples of finding an interesting recipe in a book, and then basically shoehorning in the contents of my fridge rather than buying the precise ingredients. So...

Ingredients:

• 4 Eggs
• 1 Onion, chopped
• 80g Feta (approximately), crumbled
• 1 Small Tin of Tuna, drained and flaked
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

Preparation Time: A little over 10 minutes

Tools Required:

• Bowl for mixing
• Fork, also for mixing
• Knife, for to chop onion
• Hob & Grill
• Frying pan

The Process:
Start up the hob on a medium-low heat and pour in a tablespoon of olive oil. Also start up your grill, set to about 180C.

Beat the four eggs together in the bowl, chop your onion as finely as your preference dictates, then add to the eggs. Open and drain the tuna, flaking it into the mixture with the fork. Crumble in the Feta, stir thoroughly, then add salt and pepper to taste. It's worth noting that Feta is quite a salty cheese so, unless you're a massive fan of salty foods (and have no fear of hypertension), you could probably do without any extra. Stir it all in, then pour into the frying pan which should be up to temperature by this point. Leave to fry for about 4 minutes.

When the frittata is mostly set, take it off the hob and slam it under the grill for another 4 minutes, by which time it should have fluffed up nicely.

The Results:
According to the recipe I started with, this should serve two (albeit with added salad) but, being a complete porker, I finished the whole thing myself. The main problem here is that the average small tin of tuna contains rather too much tuna. The next problem is that my frying pan is just too darned huge to make a decent, thick frittata.

On the whole, though, this turned out pretty good. I do kind of wonder if perhaps I should have fried the onions on their own for a short while before adding the rest of the mixture to the pan. They weren't completely raw, and their crunch was quite a welcome addition to the medley of textures, but they did seem a little underdone. While I was preparing this, I had an impulsive whim to add some dried chilli, but decided against... and kind of regret it because, even when I got a mouthful with a decent pepper hit, it didn't really have much impact.

The good thing about finishing this off under the grill was that it gave the Feta more of an opportunity to melt and blend into the egg. It also really does make the whole thing fluff up nicely - which will be a strange experience for anyone like me, who had never before grilled a half-cooked omelette.

Apologies for the lack of photos this time - I really have been trying to get a shot of everything (interesting) I cook but, this time, I was just too hungry...

Fromage sur Du Pain Grille avec Des Restes

Oh, the perils of becoming addicted to a TV show about French cookery. Yes, that title is just a poncy way of saying "Cheese on Toast with Leftovers" but, admit it, you were impressed, right?

Let's just say that I figured it was time I dealt with a snack meal that literally anyone should be able to handle, and which doesn't need a recipe.

Cheese on Toast is another great British staple food. As quick and simple lunchtime snacks go, sliced or grated cheese on a couple of slices of toasted bread, slammed under the grill for a few short minutes just can't be beaten. It can be eaten 'just so' or embellished with Worcestershire sauce, Branston, even that strange home-made onion chutney you got from your neighbours that's been sitting in your cupboard for months because you couldn't think what to use it for. One of the key strength of cheese on toast is this very adaptability, which makes it the ideal recipient of any leftovers - be they meat or veg - to reduce food wastage, and alter the nutritional properties of the dish.

If you think about it, the humble Cheddar gets added to sauces used with many meals, and is often applied by itself as a topping. The thought of embellishing your cheese on toast becomes even less weird when you consider what gets paired with cheese with things like baked potatoes and omelettes. And, of course, there's that strange for'n food called 'pizza'. Granted, some of these things call for milder cheeses but, hey, Cheddar tends to be the go-to cheese for we Brits. 'The Big Cheese', even.

Ahem.

So, if you find yourself with a couple of slices of bread, a hunk of cheese, and a fridge full of leftovers, chuck it all together, and let me know what you come up with.

Fromage sur Du Pain Grille avec Poivron Verts et Oignons. De rien, gentil lecteur.