Weekly Cooking Report August 22: Frittatas of various shapes and sizes

Things have been busy around the house hold, and also I've been in the mood for finicky cooking, so there haven't been as many things for me to highlight here. Still, we had teenager guests here last weekend for the annual in person 13th Age Game/Ren Faire weekend that let me pull back out this classic - great when you've got gluten free or vegetarian guests. (Or whenever, I'm not the boss of you.)

The biggest problem with cooking eggs is that they are so finicky in when they are done, but a frittata has so much egg volume that it's much easier to control. The Frittata is great because it can use pretty much anything you have in your fridge (just ask Harrison Ford) and is probably going to taste good. So here's the ingredient list. (I pulled the base recipe for this from Cooks Illustrated and made it less finicky, because, well, CI.)

12 large eggs (I used 8 while eggs and 4 egg whites to cut the calories a bit, I wouldn't go lower than 6 and 6), ⅓ cup whole milk, Salt and 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil. 

Plus anything you have in the fridge. The prep shown above is 1/2 cup each of sautéed onions, tomatoes, cheddar cheese, and pulled pork. You'll also need a 10-12" oven safe skillet. The recipes I found call for 12", but my 12" isn't necessarily over safe so I went with my 10" sauté pan and it worked fine. 

To prep, get the oven rack to middle position, set oven to 350 degrees. Whisk eggs, milk, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a bowl until it's combined. set it aside as you get everything else ready.

Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Now, if you're not working with pre-cooked veggies here's the bit where you cook them a bit, do your general liking, with 1/4 teaspoon of salt and keeping . Broccoli is great in these - that takes about 7-9 minutes to get crisp tender - and you can also cook your mushrooms, onions or peppers about that long to get them to soften. Tomatoes, scallions, etc. you can toss in a few minutes before, along with any cooked meats to warm them through. (For mine the tomatoes, onions, and pork all hit the pan together because the pork and onions were pre cooked.)

Add any cheeses and the set aside egg mixture and cook, using rubber spatula to stir and scrape bottom of skillet. You want large curds to form and the spatula leaving a trail through eggs, but eggs are still very wet, about 30 seconds in a 12" pan, but a little longer if the pan has less volume. Basically you're making everything fluffy here and then you smooth it out and let it cook without stirring for about half a minute before chucking it in the over for 6-9 minutes. Check every minute from 6 on to see if it's slightly puffy and bounces back when lightly pressed. 

Once it's ready, loosen it with the spatula, take it our of the skillet and give it 5 minutes to rest before serving to a grateful family. My teenage guests went back for seconds, so I'm figuring it came out OK.