What Tony Eats

Tomato Salads

2010-09-02T15:00:00.000-05:00

Tomato, Cucumber, and Feta

Earlier in the week, I wrote about all the great things I picked up over the weekend at my local farmers' markets. I sincerely hope you guys go out and explore the markets in your area as well. The quality of produce available at these markets will blow your mind. Of particular note, in my opnion, are the fresh tomatoes.

Along with peaches, tomatoes have been a victim of giant agri-business. The fact is you simply cannot sell a vine-ripened tomato in a chain grocery store. They are far too perishable and don't travel well. As a result, giant farms pick millions of tomatoes while they are still hard, green balls and gas them with ethylene to ripen them off the vine. Here is a handy guide. Artificial ripening, coupled with genetic selection for roundness, bruise tolerance, shelf life and perfectly uniform color, has resulted in nearly inedible fruit.

On the other side of the spectrum from the mass produced, hunk of crap tomato, we have beauties like the ones in the salad at the top of this post. They're sweet, juicy, and sublime. To my palate, a superbly constructed tomato salad, prepared with respect for the ingredients, is transcendent.

Read on for a couple of really simple salads that, I hope, can bring you closer to nirvana.

In the picture above, we have red tomatoes, vidalia onions, and cucumbers from Georgia's Farmers Market and a yellow/orange variety I picked up at the Four Seasons Market. The feta, a goat cheese variety, came from Caprino Royale, a little artisanal cheese maker near Waco. I tossed in some fresh oregano and basil, and topped it off with some home-brew white wine vinegar, Texas Olive Ranch olive oil, a little cracked pepper and some fleur de sel.

Those little yellow guys up there...they're filled with sunshine that explodes in your mouth. Honestly, I can't even describe how wonderful those tomatoes are. I raved about them on a previous post, and I'll do it again. Quite simply, the first time I ate one of these little gems, I had a Foodie Moment. You know, when you take a bite of something and it's like the world stops, like you've never tasted anything like it before, all the little synapses in your brain are firing, making new connections, processing a completely new experience. These tomatoes did that to me...BOOM! That's what they did.

My short list of Foodie Moments:

Braised Short Ribs at Daniel in NYC
Toro Sushi at Sushi Sasabune in Honolulu
Linguine with Crab Sauce
Those tomatoes
White truffles on fresh pasta
Caribbean spiny lobster that was cooked over a driftwood fire on the beach in Jamaica

Okay, so you get my point. Anyway, the little yellow guys are also from Four Seasons Market and I just dropped in a little olive oil, balsamic vinegar (good, old stuff - spend the money and get it!), a little fluer de sel, some pepper, and a little basil. Perfection. See, sometimes it's not about technique or fancy preparations. Sometimes it's just about getting out of the way and letting the ingredients shine.

Go get some fresh tomatoes, prepare them simply, and have your own Foodie Moment.

Recipe - Quick Salmon Stir Fry with Baby Choy

2010-09-01T22:50:00.000-05:00

Today's entry is a quick and easy stir fry, ideal for a mid-week dinner. Stir-frying is a great technique for producing a healthy, tasty meal in a hurry. This entire dish can be done in the time it takes to make the rice.

I was inspired this time by a sale on sockeye salmon at my local market. There must have been a massive salmon season this year because they're practically giving it away. I can't pass up a good deal and have been cooking salmon at least once a week all summer. We do cedar plank salmon with a maple-brown sugar glaze, salmon tacos, etc. In this dish, we are going to dust the salmon in tapioca starch and quickly fry it to keep it crisp and moist, without being greasy. Read on for the details.

First, start your rice. I'm not going to go into rice cookery here. You can google it.

Then, procure a great piece of fresh fish, like this one:

Look at that yummy fatty part!

I like my salmon to have nice white stripes of fat running throughout. That fat melts during cooking, resulting in a moist, flavorful finished product. Of course, salmon has those little, annoying bones. Pull those out with your wife's (or hubby's?) tweezers. Please wash them both before, and after.

Get the bones out so no one chokes.

Next, remove the skin and cut the fish into large cubes.

Sashimi platter

You are now going to dust these fish chunks in tapioca starch. You can use rice flour our potato starch as well. Regular flour will create a thicker, soggy exterior, not the thin crispiness we are looking for. I used Cock brand tapioca starch:

No comment.

Now get your other ingredients together. I chose baby bok choy in this dish, but you could use any leafy green vegetable.

Anti-clockwise from lower right: garlic, baby choy,
hot pepper paste, carrots, onion, scallion tops,
ginger paste, garlic

The pepper paste is optional, but I love it. You can buy it at Asian grocery stores. You will also need some egg if you want to do fried rice (I did this time).

Now for the cooking! Start by heating peanut or canola oil in your wok. Get it really hot. Drop in the dusted fish cubes and quickly fry them until they are crispy, making sure to turn them to cook evenly. When that's done, set the fish aside and rinse the wok before adding a little more oil. Again, heat is key here. Once it's hot, add the garlic, ginger, pepper paste, onions, and carrots. Stir fry those until the carrots are about done. Squirt some dark soy and some fish sauce (also found at the local Asian market) into the wok as well. We are using dark or "thick" soy here because it is less salty than the more common light or "thin" soy sauce, and will impart a rich color to our finished dish.

Next, turn the heat off and add the choy. We don't want to kill the greens, and taking it off the heat will help. Once the greens are wilted, toss the whole mess with the fish. Now you can stir fry your rice, or just use steamed, and put it into your bowls. Top with the stir fry and garnish with scallions. Dig in!

Kid Friendly Recipe - Mmmmmm, Marinara

2010-08-31T23:04:00.003-05:00

The Secret of San Marzano

The other day a reader asked me to help her out with some recipes that are "kid friendly." In fact, a lot of people ask me about what I feed my 3 year old son when my wife and I are eating Portobello Pasta with Mushrooms and Caramelized Leeks. Well, the answer is that he eats the same things we eat - for the most part (he REALLY loves that dish, btw). I mean, he's not into oysters or anything, but more often than not he dines as we do. Having said that, I realize that my kid is a bit odd and most curtain climbers are more interested in chicken nuggets and such. Well, kids love "spaghetti", no?

Click below to check out the recipe for a simple, and kid-friendly, pasta with marinara sauce that you can have on the table in less than 30 minutes.

I said simple, and marinara is just that. The ingredients are few, the prep time is almost nil, and it cooks quickly to boot.

Clockwise from left: Italian Parsley, DOP San Marzanos, Garlic, Onion, Basil, Oregano

See that can up there? I don't normally advocate using anything in a can, but that particular can is no ordinary can. It contains peeled DOP San Marzano Tomatoes. Denominazione d'Origine Protetta, or DOP, is an EU certification that guarantees these particular tomatoes are indeed the San Marzano breed and grown in a specific area of the Campania region in Italy. San Marzano tomatoes are simply the best tomatoes for making sauce due to their thick flesh, lack of seeds, and just right balance of sweet, bitter, and acid (they grow in the volcanic soil in the valley of Mount Vesuvius - pretty cool, huh). DOP San Marzanos are the best of the best, and that is why we will be using those for our marinara. Sorry, they ain't cheap. This can was just shy of $4. The other ingredients are: fresh basil, fresh oregano, fresh Italian parsley, yellow onion (finely chopped), and garlic (finely chopped). With so few ingredients, quality is key. Any one item that is sub-par will bring down the whole dish.

First, heat some quality olive oil in a saute pan over medium-high heat. Throw in the parsley, then the garlic and onion. Sweat that down for a minute, then add the basil and oregano along with a little salt and pepper. This needs to cook over medium heat for a few minutes, until the onions are semi-translucent.

Once that's done, open the can and - using your clean hands - break the tomatoes into bits as you drop them in. Rustic chunks are better then mush in this case. You can use some fresh tomato as well if you like. Also, you may use some of the juice from the can to add volume to the sauce.

Let all of that simmer for a bit with the lid off or on depending on whether you need to tighten the sauce up a bit or not. After about 15-20 minutes, you'll have this:

That's the stuff...

Now, check for salt (it will probably need quite a bit) before you toss this into some high quality pasta (linguine is my son's favorite) and sprinkle with a little parmigiano reggiano cheese. I have had many many kids over for dinner with my son and they go nuts for this dish. As an added bonus, this particular marinara is going into my family's secret Eggplant Parmigiana recipe, which I will share in the near future...stay tuned.

Farmer's Markets - Eating Like a Locavore

2010-08-30T23:46:00.002-05:00

Nature's Bounty

What if I told you that you could buy delicious, fresh, natural, sustainable, healthy food, right in your own neighborhood, at competitive prices, and help your local economy all at the same time? Too good to be true? It's not, and it's easier than you think.

Look people, if you're not shopping at your local farmer's markets, you are seriously missing the boat. I know I've mentioned a few great things that I've picked up in my neighborhood, like this bread and these peaches, but I think it's time to dedicate a whole post to the fabulous foods lurking around the corner. If you live in any city of any size in this great land, I guarantee that there is a farmer's market near you. For a start, check out Local Harvest, which has a search-able database of markets and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) resources for the entire US.

When you buy from your local farms, ranches, and dairies you're not only supporting your local economy, but you're getting (generally) higher quality products that are grown in more sustainable ways. You also get a chance to speak with the producers themselves and learn more about how your food is grown. Click the read link to find out what I picked up this weekend, and what I'll be cooking with this week.

Best Tomatoes Ever

See those little yellow globes of sunshine up there. Those bad boys are the BEST tomatoes I've ever eaten...and I'm Italian which means I've eaten about eight million kilos of tomatoes in my life. I'll be treating those to a splash of Texas olive oil (betcha didn't know we pressed our own olive oil in the Lone Star State) and balsamic. Those tomatoes are grown by this gentleman, also responsible for the Texas olio d'oliva, from Texas Olive Ranch:

Friday is Hawaiian Shirt Day

Also from Four Seasons Market, I picked up that gorgeous bread in the picture atop the post (perfect for Roasted Eggplant on Garlic Toast) as well as the yellow/orange tomatoes and goat's milk feta I will use this week to make another summer salad. The feta is produced in Waco by these folks, Eric and Karen from Caprino Royale:

The Accidental Goat Herders

They also make a killer fresh chevre and a goat's milk caramel called cajete, which I'm quite certain has heroine in it. I will be making a trip to Waco to do a full report on Caprino Royale in a future post. These two goat wranglers are what the local, slow-food movement is all about. This husband/wife team left their careers in San Antonio to raise goats and make cheese. And they're digging a cheese cave on their ranch. Let me repeat that. They are digging a CHEESE CAVE on their ranch. In Waco. That deserves further investigation.

Rounding out this weekend's treasures, we have Vidalia onions (the last of the season, sorry folks), red tomatoes, cucumbers, new potatoes, red beets, and turnips all from Georgia's Farmers Market, in Plano.

You see? I travelled a few miles from home, picked up wonderful things I can feel good about eating and feeding to my family, and met some great people. Isn't that what food is all about, connecting with other humans? I think so.

So get out there, find the best your local food scene has to offer...and share what you find with others. Please comment below and let me know what you come up with!

The Greatness of Tortas, Barbacoa, and Cachete

2010-08-28T15:05:00.000-05:00

Barbacoa Torta at El Paisa

Tortas are awesome. At it's most basic, a torta is a Mexican sandwich, prepared using a large, soft bun that's been toasted a bit. To me, however, tortas are like everything wonderful in a hamburger basket and a great taco, all together in a delicious, hand sized package. They come with several fillings including Al Pastor (marinated pork), Carne Asada (grilled beef steak), Jamon (ham), Milanesa (breaded, fried beef cutlet), etc. My two favorites are Barbacoa (pictured) and Lengua (beef tongue). Hold on a sec! Stay with me. Beef tongue is REALLY good. If you've never had it, please reserve your judgement. Tongue is like very very tender pot roast. The flavor is beefy and rich and wonderful. Please try it. Now on to the barbacoa.

Barbacoa, for the un-initiated, is a beef dish popular in northern Mexico. I say beef because the barbacoa in my area is pretty much all beef due to the massive numbers of people from northern Mexico. In other parts of Mexico they use lamb or pork or goat. Either way, barbacoa is a method of slow cooking meat that is usually wrapped in something, like a banana leaf. This cooking method results in an extremely tender finished product...it literally melts in your mouth. The best barbacoa, in my humble opinion, comes from the cabeza (the head) of the cow, and I'm specifically referring to cachete (the cheek).

Cachete is wonderful for several reasons: it has a dense, rich flavor; it's cheap as hell; it gets better if it sits for a while. All of those qualities together make cachete barbacoa the end all taqueria food as far as I'm concerned. For about $7, I procured the torta and fries pictured above from El Paisa in Carrollton. If you live in Dallas, give El Paisa a try for lunch. Their food is very good, and incredibly cheap. The Carrollton location is new, and has a drive through. The Walnut Hill location is older, and has a different menu featuring a little more variety of Mexican dishes. This place is MEXICAN, not Tex-Mex. If you've never done authentic Mexican, you should. Tex-Mex is fantastic, but Mex-Mex has its place in my rotation as well.

Let me know if you find a great torta in your neck of the woods!

Recipe - Portobello Pasta with Mushrooms and Caramelized Leeks

2010-08-26T10:00:00.001-05:00

Mushrooms are one of life's great pleasures. Earthy, woodsy, mushrooms. Every time I taste one, I'm transported back to my youth. Back to a cool, crisp autumn morning spent slowly strolling through the thick forest that surrounded our family cabin. A gentle mist blankets the brown patchwork of fallen leaves at our feet. My father and I scan the earth, searching for our treasure. Crinkly morels, velvety oysters, pungent porcinis. We fill our baskets with the terrestrial bounty of fall, and return home to prepare supper.

Okay, that story is completely fabricated. My point is this: mushrooms are delicious...and possibly hallucinogenic. If you like fungi like I like fungi, then this dish is really going to grow on you. We start with some fresh, locally made portobello mushroom pasta and prepare it simply with fresh shitakes and criminis, some caramelized leeks, and parsley. Click the read link for more details.

Clockwise from left: Garlic, Caramelized Leeks, Italian Parsley, Mushrooms, and Parmigiano

Let's start with the leeks. Leeks are related to both onions and elephant garlic, and have a mild flavor. I chose leeks in this dish to add a little sweetness without overpowering the mushrooms with onion or garlic flavors. Leeks are notoriously dirty, so begin prepping them by removing the tough, dark green parts, cutting lengthwise, and rinsing the leeks thoroughly. Cut the clean leeks into little half-moon strips.

Leeks

Bring a large skillet to the fire and render some bacon fat. The bacon will give a gentle smoky flavor that compliments the earthy notes of this dish as well as a little salty balance to the sweet caramelization we are going to achieve with our leeks. Once that's done, toss in the leeks, a little cracked pepper, and begin sweating the water out of them.

Ooooo, steamy.

When you've cooked most of the water out, sprinkle a little sugar on them to kick start the caramelization. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone of you won't. Continue cooking over medium heat until you get this:

Sweet

Check for salt and set aside.

Resist the urge to eat this with a spoon

Now for the mushrooms. I used cremini and shitake. Go with whatever you have as long as they are not those white things (button mushrooms, meh).

Slice them and throw into a hot saute pan with a little olive oil, chopped garlic, chopped Italian parsley, and cracked pepper. Brown the mushrooms by keeping the heat up and not fiddling with them.

Get them good and brown

With your fungi browned, toss in the prepared leeks and just a splash of chicken stock and cream. Easy on the cream! We are just holding it together with the fat, not making a cream sauce. This should NOT look like a "sauce", more like a pan of sauteed mushrooms with a little extra liquid.

Meanwhile, boil the pasta.

Head over to Nova Drive and get you some

I used this portobello mushroom linguine because my three year-old picked it out. This dish would be excellent with regular linguine or fettuccine, pappardelle, mafaldine, bucatini, etc. I'm not going to go into proper pasta cooking technique here, but please don't over-cook it for God's sake.

When the pasta is al dente, pull it out with tongs and dump it in the pan with your shrooms, bringing some of the pasta liquid along for the ride. Sprinkle in some additional chopped parsley, a little extra virgin olive oil, and a generous amount of grated parmigiano. Toss to coat. Buon appetito!

Restaurant Review - Omi Korean Grill and Bar

2010-08-26T00:11:00.001-05:00

Omi God, it's Korean BBQ!

I'm a big fan of Asian cuisine. I grew up eating things that, to the traditional "American palette," would seem a little out there - goat, raw oysters, rabbit, bone marrow - so I guess authentic Asian food presents a rare opportunity to get me out of my comfort zone. I also love the traditions and process of eating an Asian meal: the order of the food, the little dishes of this and that, the condiments...the ritual of the whole thing.

I'm also a big fan of dragging co-workers to bizarre restaurants where the menus are written with English subtitles. So it was on a recent trip to Omi, located in a shopping center anchored by Super H Mart at Old Dention and Highway 190 here in Dallas. (As an aside, Super H Mart is one of my favorite grocery stores. I will cover it in a later post.) Read on for the full scoop.

Joined by two adventurous comrades, I sat down in the ample dining room. The banquets are high-backed and very comfortable. Each table has a large gas burner in the center for the "grill your own" all you can eat specials. We all opted for lunch specials, however, so no pyromania this time.

We decided to share two orders of kalbi (marinated, grilled beef short ribs) and one order of bulgogi (marinated thinly sliced beef). Service was prompt and crisp.

meh

Soup: unremarkable. Some broth, some seaweed, some meat bits.

Banchan - now we're talkin'!

Next came the banchan (little dishes of pickles and salads to use as appetizer and condiment). Clockwise from the left we have: kimchi (ubiquitous spicy, fermented cabbage), ggakdugi (kimchi but with daikon instead of cabbage), ikan bilis (little dried anchovies with jalapeno), kongnamul (cold bean sprouts with sesame oil), marinated boiled potato, American cole slaw (?!), marinated eggplant, egg custard, scallion omelet, miyeok muchim (seaweed salad), and pickled zucchini. Most of these were quite good with the notable exception of the little dried minnows. I apologize to those of Asian descent who may find these things delicious. It's like eating stale bait to me. The highlights were the eggplant and the ggakdugi in my book...both very delicious and great with the main dishes.

Kalbi

The kalbi was very, very good. It had a nice amount of fat and the meat was tender and seasoned perfectly for me. Sometimes I think Korean restaurants can marinate these too long and you can't taste the meat. Omi did an excellent job on their kalbi, really letting the marinate compliment the rich short ribs. The onions soaked up the drippings as well...mmmmmmmm.

Say it with me: bull-go-key

The bulgogi was good, but not up to the kalbi. I would have liked some more caramelization on the meat; it was a little flat tasting to me, and my fellow diners agreed.

The price: each dish was $8.99 on the lunch special and we were all stuffed. I'd say that's a decent value by today's standards. The banchan is all-you-can-eat, too. My only issue with their pricing was the $1.99 for a soda...in a can. As in ONE can of soda for two bucks.

Final Vedict: Reccomended. I'll be back for kalbi and a glass of water.

A Great Peach??!??!?!?!!??

2010-08-24T16:51:00.000-05:00

I grew up in a little house in Oak Cliff that my dad and my grandfather built. We had a peach tree in our back yard. Actually we had a few peach trees, and every summer I would go out back with my grandfather or grandmother - who lived next door - and pick warm, ripe peaches. I'll never forget the way those peaches tasted. Mostly because those peaches had a lot in common with pretty much every peach sold in every grocery store in America: they were dry, hard, and almost flavorless...

...not at all like the treasures I found this past weekend at the farmer's market down the street:

The Holy Grail

These peaches are fragrant and colorful on the outside, juicy and perfectly soft on the inside. The flavor explodes in your mouth. Eating fruit like this makes you realize how God-awful mass-market produce really is. I mean, I have literally examined hundreds of supermarket peaches and you could drive nails with them, they're so hard. They're like little fuzzy baseballs.

I know I'm going to regret saying this because, selfishly, I want to be the only one "in the know" on these guys, but go to the corner of Beltline and the Tollway on Saturday or Sunday if you live anywhere near Big D. Look for the Italian guy drooling on himself. That will be me...I will be near the peaches.

Recipe - Roasted Eggplant on Garlic Toast

2010-08-23T22:21:00.001-05:00

The aubergine is one of my all time favorite foods. Eggplants, as we call them here in the States, are members of the nightshade family and are indigenous to India and southeast Asia. They arrived in the West no earlier than about 1500. The particular eggplant pictured above arrived at my house no earlier than Saturday, and was quickly dispatched.

Eggplants have such a velvety flavor: rich and smooth on the tongue. They are excellent grilled, fried (particularly in Eggplant Parmesan, which I will share at a later date), and also roasted. Inspired by a superb loaf of crusty bread procured at our local farmer's market, I decided to roast this fine specimen. Read on for the details.

First, remove the green end and cut into 1/2 inch cubes, sprinkle with olive oil, and place in a single layer on a greased sheet pan, seasoning with salt and pepper. Note: I like the peel, but it is a little tough when cooked, so you may want to remove some or all of it with a vegetable peeler.

Ready for the oven

I baked mine in a convection oven at 325 degrees for quite a while, but your mileage may vary. At any rate, cook the snot out of 'em until they look nice and brown and are a little crispy on the outside, but soft and yummy in the middle. Okay, I'm starting to drool.

Now toast some crusty bread. Like I said, the bread in question was really the inspiration for this appetizer. I guess my thoughts on bruschetta are like my thoughts on pasta: the "topping" is a condiment; the starch is the star of the show. So when I examined the well developed crust, beautiful crumb, and substantial gluten structure of this little guy, I decided Mr. Eggplant would play the supporting role.

The camera loves me.

Check out the GLUTEN!

Sinewy gluten structure

The secret to great, garlicy bruschetta is as follows: skip the butter, spreads, mashed up garlic stuff in a jar, etc. Simply toast your bread, and when it's hot out of the toaster or off the grill, rub it with a whole garlic clove.

Don't be shy with that garlic either. Once that's done, top with your roasted eggplant, drizzle some extra virgin olive oil, a little coarse salt, and a sprinkle of parmigiano reggiano. As my Italian grandpa would say, this is so good, you'll loose your teeth!

Mmmmmmmmmm. Toasty.

Recipe - Belgian Waffles with Strawberry Compote

2010-08-22T23:27:00.001-05:00

Hungry yet?

Compote? I hate the word "compote." Too close to "compost," and who wants to eat that? I prefer "goo," which more accurately describes a "compote" in my opinion. Nomenclature notwithstanding, compotes do make delicious toppings for Belgian waffles. My dear wife particularly likes strawberry goo on her waffles. Strawberry goo is crazy simple to make, and it really dresses up Sunday brunch. Read on for the quick and dirty details.

Let's begin by slicing up some gorgeous strawberries, shall we? Toss those into a little saucepan with an ample amount of sugar, a splash of water, a little honey (adds something in my opinion, but not a traditional "compote" ingredient), and some fruit preserves for a little body (I used fig).

The compote pile

Fire that bad boy up over medium heat and cook it down to a syrup. Taste it part way through to make sure it has the desired sweetness and the flavors are melding together...but be careful not to burn your tongue! Hot sugar is hot.

Ready to goo.

Put this delicious goo on waffles, pancakes, ice cream, pound cake, enchiladas...let your imagination run wild!

Recipe - Saturday Morning Frittata

2010-08-21T16:45:00.001-05:00

Frittata with Steak, Hatch Chilis, Potato, and Scallions

Growing up, my dad had a rule about breakfast. He would come to my room, open the door, and announce "Tony, time to get up!". That was my only alarm. If I decided to keep sleeping, I would miss breakfast entirely and be left to my own devices until lunch. Often, that missed breakfast would consist of a frittata (a kind of Italian omelet), and some black coffee ("black" referring to coffee made in a "moka pot" on the stove - I had mine with cream and sugar). If you've never had a frittata, you should really try making one. You will understand why I rarely slept through breakfast.

The word "frittata" must be Italian for "delicious leftovers", because that's exactly what it is. Take anything left over from Friday night's dinner, cut it into pieces, fry it in a skillet, dump scrambled eggs on it and bon appetito! You have yourself Saturday morning breakfast...or lunch...or a snack.

Click the read link for the recipe.
Making a frittata is very simple, and this recipe is meant to teach you more of the technique than anything else. You can use any ingredients you wish in place of mine, but generally speaking you would use a starch - in this case potatoes, but leftover pasta is great as well - and a vegetable or two. Optionally you can add a meat; I often use leftover steak as my wife can only eat about 2 oz. of steak at dinner.

My leftovers: steak (middle), roasted hatch chilis (next to steak)
along with some fresh yukon gold potatoes, scallions, and garlic

First, heat up your skillet with a little olive oil and cook your starch (if it is uncooked) or heat it up (is it is cooked). Once that's about ready, throw in the veggies. Again, use your leftovers. Asparagus, broccoli rabe, spinach, whatever. I didn't have any of those, so I added some scallions and roasted hatch chilis for a little greenery and flavor. Here's my skillet:

Yummy hash browns!

When that's good to go, add your meat and heat it through.

Steak and few more scallion tops

Beat about four eggs for a frittata this size. Add those over the top and reduce the heat to medium-low.

Now, using a thin spatula, keep lifting the edges of the giant egg pancake, allowing the runny egg to get underneath and congeal. Repeat all around the edges until your egg is just a little runny on top and the bottom of the frittata is loose from the pan.

At this point you can do one of several things:

If you are a master chef and/or daredevil, you can attempt to flip the whole thing over to cook the other side.
If you are not afraid of burning your hands, you can attempt to use a plate to flip the frittata over to cook the other side.
If you are none of the above, turn on your broiler, place the pan under the broiler, and cook the top.

Now plate the sucker.

Voila!

Mmmmmm. Breakfast!

About this blog

2010-08-21T16:41:00.000-05:00

The web certainly doesn't need another blog. However, I am starting this one for several dumb reasons:

Friends tell me they like what I cook, they like to know where I buy food, and they like going out to eat with me because I take them to weird places and I know how to "order well"- whatever that means.
I love food and I love eating in Dallas. I think we have a unique food culture here. It has been said that the only things Dallasites are good at are eating and shopping. Truer words have never been spoken.
I like to take pictures of my meals. This blog will give me an excuse to continue annoying my wife with said picture taking.

This blog will center around, quite literally, what I eat. Whether that's dining out, shopping for food items, cooking, etc. it's all about the stuff I consume and the stuff I love. It will be focused on Dallas/Fort Worth, but I reserve the right to meander - and I think that readers elsewhere will get a lot out of my posts as well.

And occasionally I'll cover what I drink, too.

Happy eating,

Tony