Southwest Hash

Ever feel like being in the shoes of an old time cowboy? I mean like back in the days of Clint Eastwood. What on earth am I talking about, you ask? As usual, I'm being a little random, but with some relevance. I always have a vision of cowboys sitting around a campfire with a pot of beans and eating hearty food. So, what would be a fitting cowboy breakfast? Well, hash and eggs, of course!

Ok, enough of my flashback to cowboy days. Hash is a very easy dish to whip up. It combines the heartiness of potatoes with the flavors of onions and bell peppers. From there, it's really up to you whether you want to use mushrooms or not and how you want to flavor it up.



For this one, I went with my basic hash recipe which uses potatoes, bell peppers, and onions. It's flavored simply with garlic, black pepper and green chillies. Throw yourself an egg (any style you please) on top and you've got yourself a hearty and delicious breakfast. For a real treat, make some of my whole wheat biscuits to have on the side!

Ingredients:

Baby potatoes - 5-6, cut into bite sized chunks
Red onion - 1, chopped into large chunks
Bell pepper - 1/2 green, 1/2 red chopped into chunks
Green chillies - 5-6, or to taste, chopped
Garlic - 3 cloves, finely chopped
Black pepper - 1 tsp, or as desired
Pepper jack cheese, grated - 1/3-1/2 cup, optional (depending on your preference)
Eggs - 4, cooked any style
Oil
Salt to taste

Method:

Heat oil in a pan. Add potatoes to the pan, cover, and cook on medium heat until the potatoes are mostly cooked. Toss in the onions, bell peppers, green chillies, garlic, salt and pepper. Cook on medium-high until the veggies are a bit caramelized and are crisp-tender. Sprinkle the cheese over the top, if desired and cover to melt. Meanwhile, heat another skillet and cook the eggs any style you like. To serve, place a bit of the hash on your plate and top with the cooked egg. Serve with salsa, if desired. Enjoy!


This plate is off to Pooja for her VOW/JFI event themed bell peppers!

Spring Vegetable Frittata and Whole Wheat Biscuits

It's been ages since I made a frittata. If you're not familiar with them, frittatas are like crustless quiches. Basically, they're composed of eggs and whatever you want to add to flavor them. They're started in a pan and baked in the oven to finish. The end result is an egg dish that looks like a pie and can be served hot, warm, or room temperature.

This time, I decided to load up my frittata with veggies. I used a combination of onions, asparagus, zucchini, spinach, and roasted red peppers. It turned out to be very light on the eggs, which was fine with me. I used only 4 eggs to make this dish, but if you'd prefer to have more eggs to balance the veggies, you could go up to even 6 eggs.

Frittata: (Serves 6-8)



Ingredients:

Eggs - 4
Onion - 1 medium, chopped
Garlic - 3 cloves, grated
Asparagus - 5-6 spears, cut into 1 inch long pieces
Zucchini - 1 medium, cut into medium dice
Frozen spinach - 1 10 oz package, defrosted and squeezed dry (You could use fresh, if you have it)
Roasted red pepper - 1, coarsely chopped
Salt - to taste
Parmesan cheese - 2 tbsp
Milk - 2 tbsp
Crushed red pepper flakes - to taste
Olive oil

Method:

1. Beat the eggs with milk, Parmesan cheese, salt to taste, and black pepper. Keep aside. Preheat the oven to 425 F

2. Heat oil in a 10 inch skillet. When hot, add the onions and crushed red pepper flakes. Fry until the onions turn translucent.

3. Now, add the asparagus, zucchini, garlic, and a little salt. Fry until the veggies are crisp-tender.

4. Add the frozen spinach and roasted red peppers. Toss for a few seconds.

5. At this stage, add the egg mixture. Stir gently to combine. Allow the whole thing to start to firm up a little around the edges.

6. Now, place the pan in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, or until the eggs are fully cooked and the frittata is solid. You can check for doneness with a toothpick, if you're not sure. The toothpick will come out dry (i.e., no uncooked egg) when it's done.

7. Remove from the oven. Carefully run a spatula around the edges and the bottom of the frittata, being careful not to break it. Gently slide it out onto a serving dish. You could just serve it out of the pan, if you want.

I garnished it with just a little bit of shredded Parmesan, but that's totally optional. Cut into wedges and serve!

Frittata slice!

I served these with whole wheat biscuits, since my husband loves biscuits. The recipe is my modification from one I originally saw on Lisa's blog here. I used garlic and Parmesan to flavor these and boy, were they a hit!!

I love these because they're wheat and they use olive oil instead of butter and/or shortening. You wind up with biscuits that are soft and fluffy as clouds. Truly wonderful!!

Whole Wheat Biscuits:

Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 1 cup
Whole wheat flour - 3/4 cup
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Baking powder - 1 tbsp
Olive oil - 5 tbsp
Milk - 1 cup
Parmesan Cheese - 2 tbsp
Garlic - 2 cloves, grated
Black pepper powder - 2 tsp, optional

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 450 F

2. In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flours, salt, baking powder).

3. Now, add the olive oil, milk, cheese, and garlic.

4. Stir until just combined. Do not over-stir or the biscuits will be tough!

5. Drop onto a greased baking sheet in 1/4 cup amounts. Sprinkle black pepper on top, if desired.

6. Bake at 450 F for 10-12 minutes until light golden.

Makes about 12 biscuits.


The final resulting breakfast:

Breakfast of Champions!

I am sending these over to my dear girl Mansi, over at Fun and Food. She's hosting this month's WBB, with the theme of balanced breakfasts. I hope she is satisfied with the balance of protein, veggies, and whole grain in this breakfast! :)

Egg Fry (Muttai Perattal)

So, the story here is that my mother could NEVER get me to eat any sort of egg curry/kuzhambu growing up. I had somehow managed to develop an aversion to it and would not eat it at our house or anyone else's house. However, the unthinkable has just happened... My hubby and I were at my SIL's house and she made this egg fry. Not only did I eat it (initially just to be polite), but I actually LIKED it! Needless to say, I had to get the recipe!

egg fry:)

So, here is the recipe with my minor modifications.

Ingredients:

Hard boiled eggs* - 4, peeled and cut in half
Onions - 1 medium, sliced finely
Garlic - 2 pods, chopped finely
Tomatoes - 1 medium, chopped
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
Chilly powder - 1 tsp, or to taste
Garam masala - 1/4 tsp
Coriander leaves - small handful

Method:

1. Heat oil in a pan. Add onions and curry leaves. Fry until onions turn golden brown.

2. Now, add the garlic. Fry for a few seconds and add the masala powders (coriander, turmeric, chilly, garam masala). Saute until the raw smell goes away.

3. At this stage, tomatoes are added and fried until they mush a bit. Add salt to taste.

4. Now, add the cut hard boiled eggs. Reduce the heat to low. Slowly and CAREFULLY, spoon the masala over the cut eggs. Continue to let simmer for 3-5 minutes to let the masala flavor penetrate the eggs.

5. Check for salt. Add more if needed. Also, you can add a few drops of lemon juice for additional flavor. Lastly, garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Serve with pulav rice, rotis.


*Note: I want to share the easy way to get perfect hard boiled eggs every time. Some people serve hard boiled eggs that have a nasty looking green ring around the yolk or the eggs are rubbery. Here's the foolproof method:

1. Put raw eggs in enough COLD water to cover the eggs. Starting them in cold water prevents the green ring around the yolk!

2. Bring the water to a boil. As soon as it boils, turn the heat OFF and cover the pan for 10 minutes. This prevents the white from becoming hard and rubbery.

3. Now, drain the hot water off and pour cold water over the eggs.

4. Let them rest for a few minutes to make peeling easier.

Voila! Easy, right? Enjoy! :)

I am about to go and have my egg fry with some carrot rice now! :)