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Bacon Onion Chipotle Frittata

So delicious. The onions are the star of the show here, so don’t skimp.

Mise en Place

• 2 strips uncured bacon
• 2 medium onions (fist sized)
• 1 Tbsp ground organic chipotle powder. Smoky heat.
• 12 organic eggs
• Organic whole milk
• 2 organic tomatoes, hopefully home grown
• salt
• 10 inch fry pan with lid and oven proof handle
• kitchen towel
• patience

Procedure

This is going to take a while as we want to fully develop the flavors of all the ingredients – and not overcook the bottom of the frittata.

• Over low-medium heat, dust the bacon in the fry pan with chipotle (reserve most of the spice for later) and cook until crispy. If the bacon fat smokes, the heat is too high. I find 6 minutes on each side works.
• While the bacon is cooking, coarsely chop the onions. I aim for 16-20 oz chopped onion.
• When the bacon is done, remove the strips and set aside. Put the onions in the pan in all that lovely bacon fat, dust with the rest of the chipotle and cover. Cook until the onions are clear; better yet, get some carmelization. I go 7 minutes, then stir well, then 7 minutes more.
• While the onions are cooking, crack the dozen eggs into a medium bowl, add a splash of whole milk and whisk. Wash and slice the tomatoes.
• When the onions are done cooking, use kitchen shears to cut the bacon strips into small pieces and add to the pan. Stir in the egg mixture until all the ingredients are well distributed.
• Cover and cook over medium-low heat until the bottom is partially set. I find this to take another 7 minutes or so. Watch for egg bubbles; I pop them with a table knife.
• Turn off the burner.
• Set the top oven rack so that it’s 4 inches or so from the broiler, set the broiler on high, cover the egg mixture with the sliced tomatoes, add a little salt and place under the broiler. Cook until browned on top.
• When the smoke alarms go off because you forgot to turn the range hood fan on, run back and forth with the kitchen towel (remember the kitchen towel?) waving at the smoke alarms to get them to shut up.
• Watch out for tripping over your panicked cat, unhinged at the spectacle of waving towels and screaming alarms.
• Once the frittata has browned, remove from the broiler (turn off the broiler) and set aside for a few minutes.
• Slice and serve.

“Frittata” translates roughly into “egg cake” – so there are endless possible variations. One really tasty addition here would be to cut the kernels off a fresh cob of sweet corn and add them with the chopped bacon and egg mixture.

Turkey / Chipotle Chili

I’ve yet to try anything chipotle I didn’t love. I’ve bought chipotle powder by the pound and recently tried buying whole chipotles (now by the pound as well). My favorite source is myspicesage on the internet (good to know if you live in the boondocks).

My process has two major steps –  1) cook the beans and whole chiles; roast the onions and fresh jalapenos then 2) assembly.

Day One (or in the morning)

Weigh out 1 lb pinto beans; wash and put in slow cooker. Add 8 whole chipotle peppers, 2–3 peeled garlic cloves and 3 or 4 other dried chiles of whatever variety you have lying around. Cover with water about 2x as deep as the solids, cook on high setting until the beans are tender –  usually takes about 6 hours for me. I start testing them about hour 5 and make sure there is enough water to cover everything.

Set oven to 375 F. Halve and peel 2 large onions, leaving on the roots. I cut them into about 4 sections, still joined at the roots. Wash 4–6 fresh jalapenos. Put in a baking dish, roast for an hour. Your kitchen is going to acquire a beautiful odor.

Day Two (or when the beans are ready)

I use my wok, but any large pot with good heat distribution will do. Have at hand:

• Ground cumin
• 2 cups or so of riced roasted tomatoes
• 3 pounds of ground turkey (probably any ground meat will work)
• The roasted aromatics
• The cooked pintos and chiles
• Salt. Non-iodized if you’re planning on canning.

Chop the roasted onions (time to get rid of the roots) and jalapenos (remove the stems. Don’t remove the seeds – too much flavor there). I like them rough chopped for a rustic look.

Put the onions and jalapenos in your pot over medium heat. Break up the ground meat over the veg, cover and cook 15 mins or so. Open, stir, recover and cook until the turkey is cooked through.

While this is happening, rice the roasted tomatoes. Pick the chiles and garlic out of the beans. Mush the garlic. Remove the stems from the chiles and tear them apart. Again, I like it rustic.

Once the meat is cooked, pour the tomato / chile / garlic mix over the meat. Add a big palmful of ground cumin. Pour in the cooked pintos. Heat through, stir, let simmer for 15 mins or so. Salt to taste.

Dig in. I’ve made this over and over and it always comes out around 26 calories per ounce.

Paleo? Leave out the beans. You’ll need to braise and soften the chipotles somehow.

Sweet Potato Bread Pudding

When it’s time for dessert…

• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1 cup cooked sweet potato, mashed
• 1/2 cup sugar (or more wholesome Sucanat)
• 2 large eggs and 1 yolk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons bourbon or dark rum (optional)
• 5 cups cubed day-old brioche (or other bread)
• 3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted

 

1. Preheat oven to 350F degrees.

2. In a large bowl, stir together milk, sweet potato, sugar, eggs, yolk, salt, spices and bourbon/rum.

3. In another bowl, toss bread with butter, then fold in sweet potato mix and gently stir to coat. Transfer to an ungreased 8-inch square baking dish and bake until custard is set, around 25 to 30 minutes. Alternately, use a springform pan, the dessert can then be unmolded for a more cake-like presentation that is a bit more elegant.

4. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream (or clotted cream or mascarpone) sprinkled with extra cinnamon.

Source

“Thanksgiving All Year” Turkey Burgers

Ground turkey is a staple around here, especially in burger form. One of the challenges for turkey burgers is keeping them from being dry. We’re pretty fond of this recipe with an Asian twist, but – variety is the spice of life, right?

It’s fall, and my mind turned to turkey and stuffing, then to the fact I don’t really want stuffing, just the yummy spices and veggies, so…

• Chop 1/2 lb of onion and 1 lb of organic celery (celery is currently #2 on the Dirty Dozen) and saute in 2 Tbsp of coconut oil. Let cool.

In a large mixing bowl, combine:

• 5 whole organic eggs
• Stuffing spices – I used sage, thyme, oregano, fresh grated black pepper, marjoram, & rosemary all crushed with a mortar and pestle
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 8 ounces of grated organic apple (apples are currently  #1 on the Dirty Dozen list)

Pour in the cooled onion / celery mix. Add ~50 ounces of ground turkey and squish it all together with your nice clean hands.

I measure the burgers out 5 oz at a time with my kitchen scale, put them on cookie sheets (with sides) and bake at 350 for 20 minutes, then transfer them to a grill on medium heat to finish them off.

They were outstanding…

Cinnamon Nutmeg Spiced Roasted Nuts

nutmeg seeds

We first had home made roasted nuts courtesy of our friend Amy – so good we had to try them ourselves.

A few words about spices – spices are Real Food ® and therefore have a shelf life – if you use cinnamon and nutmeg from those bottles leftover from the 20th Century, the results will not be the same – use only the freshest spices.

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

• 1/4 c sugar – or less turns out OK for us
• 50 g egg whites (about 1/4 cup)
• 1/2 tsp salt (or less)
• 1 whole nutmeg seed, grated with a fine microplane
• 1 heaping Tbsp of ground cinnamon

Mix this all together in a large bowl – this mixture will be used to coat the nuts.

• 2 lb of raw nuts – my favorite mix is 1 lb walnuts + 1 lb almonds. I imagine any two pounds of nuts and seeds you can throw together will turn out fine.

Use a spatula to turn the nuts, coating them well. Turn out onto 2 cookie sheets and pat down to a single layer.

Put the cookie sheets into the 250 degree oven for 1/2 hour. Remove and stir the nuts. Put back in the oven for another 1/2 hour. Remove and cool. Ready to eat.

Bonus! 3 cups of roasted spiced nuts run through the food processor until ground to a paste makes about a pint of the best nut butter I’ve found…

Balsamic Glaze

Our friend Amy introduced us to this – simple and amazing. Dribble or dip.

Bacon Wrapped Sweet Potato Bites

Original link.

My version:

• 2 medium-small sweet potatoes
• 1 lb uncured bacon – OPTIONAL
• 2 Tbsp organic coconut oil
• 1 Tbsp chipotle powder – more or less according to your wimpiness

Preheat oven to 350F. Clean the sweet potatoes, remove any uglies (I like them unpeeled) then cut them lengthwise into quarters. Then cut into bites that your 1/2 bacon slices will wrap around.

Melt coconut oil over low-heat and stir in chipotle chili powder. Toss the potatoes in the spiced, melted coconut oil to coat.

Cut the bacon slices in half. Wrap each sweet potato bite with a half slice of bacon, and use a toothpick to hold the bacon in place.

Place on a baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes, turning once about halfway through.

These are done when the bacon is crispy and the sweet potatoes are fork-tender. Remove from heat and let cool (but  not cold) before serving.

Enjoy…

“High Protein” blueberry pancakes

Found this recipe, which looked promising, but I modified it and used yogurt instead of cottage cheese (way too salty for me). They’re pretty tasty, but won’t remind you of fluffy pancakes – more like crepes.

With all the protein and little or no fat, they like to stick, so you’ll need some fat in the pan, and I had to resort to my non-stick fry pan ’cause I was essentially chiseling them out of my cast iron fry pan.

• 1 C Oatmeal
• 1 C plain yogurt
• 3/4 C egg whites
• 2 Tbsp honey (or sugar, or skip entirely)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Put the above in the blender and do so for 30 seconds or so.

• 1 C blueberries

If you’re using frozen blueberries, defrost and drain before adding.

Cook over medium heat in a non-stick pan with a little coconut oil. I wound up using 3 minutes per side. YMMV.

I toted up ~750 calories for the batter, plus however much oil you use and about 36 g of protein for the whole batch.

P.S. – looks like there are a lot more good things over here at cleananddelicious.com, so check it out – I’ll be looking at the sweet potato recipes!

Bacon-Chipotle Black Bean Dip

One afternoon, while waiting to head over to our friends’ house for bar-b-q and beer, this occurred to me as possibly a great thing to bring. After all, bar-b-q and beer pretty much demand bacon to complete the alliterative hat trick.

I’ve now made this three times, so I consider it a keeper!

I had some freshly cooked black beans (I pretty much always have freshly cooked black beans around) so I made this up:

• 16 oz (by weight) cooked and drained black beans
• 3 slices uncured bacon
• 2 Tbsp EVOO
• 8 oz (by weight) chopped onion
• 1 Tbsp ground cumin
• 1 Tbsp chipotle chili pepper (more – in my case – or less – to adjust heat level to your liking)
• 3 Tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
• 2 Tbsp water
• 1 fistful of fresh cilantro if you’ve got it

In a fry pan on medium heat, cook the bacon in the EVOO until it’s crispy. Remove the bacon slices and set aside.

Add the cumin, chipotle and onion; saute until soft.

Add the rice vinegar and deglaze. Add the beans and stir until mixed.

Put the bacon in a food processor, pour the bean mixture on top, add cilantro and run it until you get a good consistency.

Serve with vegetables, corn chips, whatever.

Namaste, Rick

Coconut Fried Shrimp

This recipe sounds so awesome…