Sunday, March 8, 2015

Showgirl Sunday Brunch: Asparagus Mushroom Bacon Frittata


Out here on the West Coast, Spring has definitely Sprung (Yay!), and The Showgirls' production has gone into overdrive!  Every day, I get two or three eggs (rarely just one - and *never* none!).  My little egg-basket on the counter has been re-jiggered multiple times to ensure that the oldest eggs get eaten first!

And yes, I have been eating eggs for breakfast almost every day - just to keep the egg population under control!

(Actually, I am getting ready to start sharing eggs with neighbors!)

Today, I decided to make another frittata* - since that seems to be the best way to use-up eggs quickly!

Today I started with an old (proven-delicious, shared, and received RAVE reviews) Crustless Quiche recipe.  I didn't have all of the ingredients for that particular dish, so I lay in bed this morning debating whether I wanted to :::gasp::: leave the house to procure the necessary items (I didn't!).  Then I pondered what I actually do have on-hand, and this is what I came up with:

QT's Asparagus Mushroom Bacon Frittata
Yields on 9-1/2" pie-plate's worth

Ingredients

  • 2 cups fresh asparagus, cut into 1" chunks (was roughly 15 spears)
  • 6 sliced fresh white mushrooms
  • 1/2 of a medium red onion, diced
  • 4 slices thick-cut applewood bacon (fried, de-greased and chopped into chunks)
  • Jarlsberg Cheese (mild, semi-soft swiss cheese), grated.  Appx 2 cups (I used half of a 10 oz package)
  • Mozzarella Cheese - appx 1/2 cup (?) for the top "crust"
  • 2 TBS sour cream
  • 2 TBS heavy cream
  • As many eggs as it takes to fill-it-up (in my case, it was 10 smallish-medium eggs)
  • Seasoning Salt
Instructions
  1. Preheat your oven to 375°
  2. Chop up your ass-per-grass, toss it in a bowl with a TBS of water and nuke for appx 4 minutes ('til al dente).
  3. Fry up your bacon 'til crisp.  Drain well on a paper towel and reserve some of the bacon grease in the pan.
  4. While the asparagus is nuking (or cooling), and the bacon is de-greasing, lightly saute your onions and mushrooms in the bacon grease.  Sprinkle a few dashes of seasoning salt while sauteeing (I used Goya Adobo All-Purpose Seasoning.  Lawry's works well, too**). 
  5. Once the bacon has cooled, chop it up into small chunks.
  6. Lightly grease a 9-1/2" pie plate.  You can use some of the bacon grease (if it hasn't gotten black and chunky) or olive oil.
  7. Drain, then dump your asparagus into the greased pie plate.  Add onions, mushrooms, and chopped bacon.  Smush 'em around with a fork til everything is evenly distributed.
  8. Grate a generous helping of Jarlsberg cheese on top of the mixture.  Once again, I failed to measure - but I'm guessing it was roughly 1-1/2 - 2 cups (it was definitely half of the 10 oz package!).  Smush again to make sure everything is pretty even.
  9. Whisk your fresh eggs with sour cream and heavy cream.  I started out with 8 eggs (I needed 10!), pour over the veggie/bacon/cheese mixture and stir gently with a fork to ensure even coverage.  If it's not enough egg, whisk a few more and pour 'em in.
  10. Top everything with a thin layer of Mozzarella (make sure you don't have any exposed veggies poking out).  Then I gave it a light shake or two of paprika for color.
  11. Bake for appx 30-45 minutes, til the cheese is golden brown and the eggs are "set" (knife, inserted in center, comes out clean).
Serve and Enjoy!

Frittata with cottage cheese, served al fresco, on my handmade swirly shino plate

Tasting Notes:  Very good.  Very flavorful.  Unfortunately, the bacon was "lost" under the stronger flavors of Jarlsberg cheese and asparagus.  Next time: 6 slices of bacon and maybe do half/half Jarlsberg and Mozzarella for the filling.  Or (better still) Mozzarella for the filling and Jarlsberg for the crust.

*footnote down at the very bottom (where Hubs is not likely to read!):  Hubbie refuses to eat Quiche, but if I tell him it's a Frittata "which is basically an Italian baked omelet" he gobbles it right up! Shhhhhh! ;-)

**I will get a wee bit o'spliff if you use my Amazon links.  Or you can probably just find them at your local grocery store :-)

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