Like paella, tortilla española is a quintessential Spanish dish. Ubiquitous on tapas bar menus, the circular potato and onion omelet is also versatile. Add peppers (as above) or chorizo for color and texture, or follow the lead of Michael Fiorello, chef de cuisine at Chicago tapas bar Mercat a la Planxa, who loves tossing in jamón Ibérico or seasonal mushrooms.
While labor intensive, basic tortilla española (an original recipe is after the jump) is well worth the effort for its inimitable flavor and flexibility. Adapt this recipe to suit your own needs -- perhaps finish it on the stove top, perhaps in the oven, as done at Mercat a la Planxa. Fiorello agrees: "You can cook tortilla using many different techniques." No matter how you slice it, tortilla española is addictive. If you can wait this long -- and you ought not -- it will keep for a couple of days.
Like ramps and asparagus, morels are synonymous with spring, and an edible reminder of the season's brevity. It feels less like morels have a season than a quick, annual engagement: catching them at the farmers market is like catching a solar eclipse, or Tom Jones at the MGM Grand in Vegas.
Morels are wild mushrooms that grow in forested areas throughout many parts of the country, and generally begin appearing sometime in April. They're usually available until the early summer, but their season can vary by a week or two depending on the region and the amount of rainfall. They're slender, knobby things with intricately ridged and wrinkled skin, and look like they sprouted from the pages of the Brothers Grimm. Their homely appearance belies their heavenly flavor, which is expressed to spectacular effect in the company of dairy, fat and and asparagus. Scrambled eggs are thus an ideal way to enjoy morels -- think of it as less an egg dish than a vehicle for delivering the best of the season to your very happy stomach.
Read the recipe for scrambled eggs with morels, asparagus and spring onions after the jump.
Not Martha set the foodie world on fire -- uh, 378 commenters and a bunch of blogs, at least -- with her BLT-themed, freestanding bacon cups. But they required three hours of effort and resulted in a house full of smoke.
Then Merriment Design came along and introduced a microwave to the process. Voila! Cups large and small whipped up in as little as five fire-free minutes. All they required were a few pieces of kitchen paraphernalia, some paper towels and a whole lot of bacon. Click through for the particulars of how it's done, and be in bacon cups all summer long.
They're cheesy, cheap and classic. What are talking about? Casseroles, of course! In this brand-new series food writer and blogger Emily Farris, author of "Casserole Crazy: Hot Stuff for Your Oven" crafts tasty new casseroles exclusively for Slashfood readers. Green Eggs and Ham is her premier dish -- just in time for Easter.
As a kid, I never understood why Easter dinner was called "dinner" if it happened at noon. Luckily, one of the great things about being an adult is that we can make our own rules and name our own meals. And because I still can't bring myself to call a meal that happens that early "dinner," this year I'm hosting Easter brunch.
Am I making a 10-pound ham and scrambling three-dozen eggs while my guests drink free-flowing mimosas? Nope, this thing is happening potluck style. Like most people I know, I can't afford to host lavish brunches (not to mention dinners!), but wanted my meal to incorporate the different elements of Easter and, well, be a little brunch-y. So green eggs and ham it was, with eggs, ham, spinach, biscuits and my favorite thing in the world: cheese.
After a bit of experimentation, I wound up with a sort-of upside-down quiche with a biscuit crust, and who wouldn't go crazy for that? Although it'd be a wonderful meal for Easter brunch or supper, it's also a great way to use up that leftover Easter ham. Regardless, it's the sort of thing that would make Dr. Seuss -- or the Easter Bunny -- proud.
Attention doting husbands and children: Mother's Day is right around the corner. As the mom of two small children whose energy levels are inversely proportionate to their ages, I'm here to speak up for mothers of the world and give you a hint about proper Mother's Day celebratory etiquette.
It's simple, really. We want to observe Mother's Day by shirking our motherly duties and being bona fide adults.
Preferably with our feet up and a cocktail in hand.
This brings me to some easy sparkling wine recipes, in case you're planning to whip up a nice brunch for your lovely wife or mother. For mix-in drinks, don't bother spending megabucks on real Champagne; go with an inexpensive Prosecco from Italy (such as Fantinel) or Cava from Spain (Friexenet and Segura Viudas are good bets).
Three basic but beloved Mom-friendly elixirs after the jump.
Every spring, ostrich eggs appear at Whole Foods, where they nestle in beds of straw alongside the more diminutive and mundane quail and duck eggs. Glimpsing one is a little like watching that video of a pig suckling some tiger cubs: a novel and slightly surreal display of the animal kingdom's quirkier side.
Most shoppers pause to look at them quizzically, perhaps remembering the "Top Chef" contestant whose doom was sealed by an ostrich egg quiche. Others pick them up, marveling at their weight (about 3 pounds) and size. Very few people actually seem to buy them -- aside from the "What on earth do I do with this thing?" factor, there's the additional deterrent of the price tag: each egg, which is the equivalent of about 18-24 chicken eggs, costs $39.99. That's is a lot to pay for breakfast, even if it will feed 10 of your closest friends. But according to one Whole Foods manager, the eggs are oddly popular, particularly among those cooking for office parties. Apparently hummus and carrot sticks just aren't what they used to be.
Though their size may be intimidating, ostrich eggs are surprisingly easy to cook. Their shell is literally their biggest barrier, and that can be easily breached with the help of a hammer. Once you're in, you're pretty much free to do as you please. The watery consistency of the yolk and albumen lends itself to easy blending, and combined with a couple tablespoons of olive oil, some good cheese and whatever other fillings you prefer (the one here employed one bunch of kale, chopped up and sautéed in olive oil, and half a pound of Zingerman's Cheshire), the egg is perfect for scrambling. Its texture is lighter and fluffier than that of a chicken egg, and it has a milder, faintly sweeter taste that's incredibly delicious. It's little wonder that places like The Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch, which sells the eggs for $15 apiece, are trying to increase their popularity. With a little bit of PR savvy, these beauties could be the next breakfast of champions -- or at least the toast of office parties nationwide.
If anything says "good day, sunshine," it's this cup of coffee. How could you not want to wake up to something like this?
This is what the softer side of caffeine dependency looks like. It's hope and promise and love in a mug, perfectly brewed -- you can almost smell how good it is. And while foam art is too often both cloyingly cute and a sign of obsessive compulsion, this lovely little heart melts our own.
It's the design of Lara Ferroni, the food and photography maven behind Cook & Eat, and we love how she contrasts the white of the foam with the dark orange of the mug. It's coffee as still life, though we hope Ferroni didn't have to sacrifice her morning brew for her art. Because as good as this looks, we're going out on a limb and guessing that it tasted even better.
We can't swear to it, but we suspect that this Momofuku Milk Bar Volcano was sent here from Planet Chang either to teach us or to enslave us. We can't be certain of its purpose, but what we do know is that all the breakfast food bravado we've flaunted up to this point -- Brooklyn deli egg and cheese bombs, full-on Irish black and white pudding spreads, Meatnormous® BK sammies and half-sow Bellagio Buffet crepes laid waste to in short order -- meant diddly squat as we stood at the Volcano's lip and by God, were afraid.
Chef David Chang's co-conspiritor Christina Tosi works the sweet end of the Momofuku Ssam Bar's East Village space at Milk Bar, turning out scrumdiddilyumtious sun-dense cornflake-chocolate chip cookies, dentist-scoffing Crack Pie and soft-serve cereal milk ice creams by the bucketload. We thought we had her all figured out, and there she had to go tossing out double-dog-dare words like "savory" and "volcano." Dang.
Turns out the steaming, softball-sized item is essentially a knish stuffed to rumbling with potato gratin, Gruyere, Benton's bacon, caramelized onions and a good 20 or so minutes off the average human's lifespan. No worries -- contrary to today's New York Times' $25 and Under assessment, we found its hefty, tangy slather of Mornay sauce to be more than adequate compensation for the latter.
We're not ashamed to admit that we were bested and could not conquer the Volcano in one sitting, or even without assistance from concerned colleagues, but we learned and we grew as people (or perhaps that last part was just our thighs.)
No matter. What we'd like to know is this -- how much can you manage to chow down in the morning? Are you after daybreak fare that sticks to your ribs or does coffee alone keep you fueled until lunchtime? Take the poll, and as always, comment away.
Recently, Scott and I have been trying to eat a bit more healthfully and shed a few of those winter pounds that crept on over the last few months. We've found that doing Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet helps us both get our eating habits in check and forces us to think a bit more carefully about the food we eat. While I'm looking forward to switching back to oatmeal and other whole grains for my morning meal once this very limited carb phase is over, I've also been enjoying making egg cups for our breakfasts.
These muffin-sized egg bakes (even when not following South Beach, I've made similar recipes in a larger baking dish for brunch potlucks and holiday morning buffets) are essentially portable omelettes that, once cooked, make breakfast prep a snap in the morning. Just grab one and reheat it for a morning meal that contains lots of protein and one healthy serving of vegetables.
The recipe I'm following this week is after the jump.
Most food songs give you some satisfaction. Not so with this undated gem from a local morning program in Tupelo, Miss. The gospel singers envision a heaven without orange juice, biscuits, maple syrup and sadly, bacon. I'd like to think foodie heaven has all that and more.
What food-song favorites do you have on your kitchen playlist?
Put me in a good bagel shop, and my normally adventuresome spirit will take its leave and wait outside for me to finish my perennial order of an everything or egg bagel, lox, and scallion cream cheese. This salty breakfast leaves nothing to be desired, and very rarely do I pass it up for more novel but potentially less reliable fare.
This morning, though, curiosity got the better of me as I studied the menu of Goldberg's Deli and Bagels, by a long shot the best bagelry in Atlanta and probably the best one south of the Mason-Dixon line. The cinnamon-sugar matzoh brei almost tempted me, but I wanted savory, so I decided to try kippers and onions for the first time. I'm so glad I did.
Think of kippers and onions as a more hardcore cousin to lox and scallions - similar flavors, but more concentrated. A kipper is a herring that has been split down the back, brined, and hot or cold smoked (in the photo, the kippers are about to be smoked). At Goldberg's, a few kippers are grilled (probably more like griddled) alongside some diced onions. This is nothing like Scandinavian-style pickled or mustard herring. It's definitely still fishy and briney, but for me, that's hardly a deal breaker.
If you like anchovies on your pizza or your salade nicoise, you ought to give kippers and onions a sporting try. Also, the word "kipper" is pretty fun to say.
The breakfast sandwich market gets a little more crowded with Dunkin Donuts' newest creation: The Waffle Breakfast Sandwich. Yes. I know. Calm down. The sandwich consists of egg, cheese and bacon between two maple syrup-flavored waffles.
The composition evokes memories of Junior's Restaurant's brisket-on-latke sandwich, but the DD sandwich's taste overkill is more reminiscent of the famous Jimmy Dean sausage-in-a-pancake-on-a-stick. And, like the sausage-in-a-pancake-on-a-stick, the bacon-egg-cheese-maple-waffle sandwich possesses a dubious deliciousness.
The mix of artery-clogging morning cholesterol with the sweetness of maple syrup is almost too much to bear, yet somehow you cannot resist devouring the last sticky crumb. Devouring, wishing that the waffle was truly waffle-sized and not English muffin-sized. And hating yourself for wishing that. And swearing to go straight to the gym as soon as you are done. And craving another one.
So how are your New Year's Resolutions going? Still making it to the gym, cutting down on the carbs, repurposing your Starbucks addiciton to a fix of regular joe from the deli? Good luck with all that. You can never let it be said that one of the world's leading suppliers of premium carbohydrates isn't in your corner.
Saturday was the fifth running of what has become a tradition in Raleigh, North Carolina: the Krispy Kreme Doughnut Challenge, in which the power of a mountain of doughnuts is harvested as motivation and fuel for a four mile race whose midpoint is not a shot of some namby-pamby sports drink but the scarfing of a dozen glazed. Finally, a sport everyone can support, and athletes everyone can identify with: carbo track and field.
Here's how the doughnut triathalon works: registrants gather at the belltower on the North Carolina State campus as early as 6:30 a.m., pre-doughnut-run doughnuts optional but not exactly wise. These finely-tuned thoroughbreds warm up in anticipation of the 9:30 a.m. start time for a run to the Krispy Kreme doughnut shop on Peace Street, where will be awaiting one dozen warm glazed doughnuts. These have to be scarfed (coffee optional but allowed), and then the journey repeated to the belltower (barfing optional but presumably allowed). The runner does not have to eat all of their doughnuts but has to weather the resulting humiliation if they don't. They have to complete the entire triathalon in one hour or less.
For my entire life, I've believed that two things should always go together -- eggs and bread. (Unless, of course, we're talking about deviled eggs.) In fact, I'd rather go without breakfast, or eat something less desirable, than attempt to partake in eggs without some kind of bread or bread-product. (I've even been known to dive for the bread crumbs when desperate.) Bread and eggs just go together. They're Tom with Jerry, Sonny with Cher, Simon Pegg with Nick Frost. Alone, they're just not the same.
And then I found myself eating brunch at the Park Hyatt Toronto. I ordered an egg-topped green salad, and an ordering mishap left me without my side of bread. Reluctantly, I began to eat my salad -- for the first time ever, I could eat eggs without the bread. Diced chunks of cheese and meat balanced the light and airy lettuce, and the runny yolk became a delicious extra hint of dressing to the salad.
Best of all -- it's easy to make. The above salad is just a bunch of romaine hearts tossed with olive oil and red wine vinegar, then topped with some diced tomato, finely diced onion, and chunks of kielbasa, cheese, and avocado. Two poached eggs went on top, and then a good grind of salt and pepper. It's delicious, easy, quick, and hugely filling.
*Note: The eggs are red because they were poached in some left-over red wine that has sat too long in my fridge. It offers s a nice extra hit of flavor.
Those long and lean cereal boxes we've all grown accustomed to might soon be a thing of the past. Advertising Age reports that Kellogg's is testing a new "space-saving" cereal box design that will still give us 12 oz. of crunchy breakfast, but come in a much shorter and fatter box. They think this new design will fit more easily in pantries and on shelves.
What is most interesting, however, is how they're talking about the change, citing improvements to their "footprint," as well as "efficiency and effectiveness." Sounds like using environmental terms in shifty ways to me. What footprint are they speaking of? The space a box takes up in your kitchen? Methinks that hurdle has already been passed. I mean, we've had the same shape for eons.
Tropicana, Corn Flakes ... breakfast will never be the same! What do you think of their new boxy scheme?
So how are your New Year's Resolutions going? Still making it to the gym, cutting down on the carbs, repurposing your Starbucks addiciton to a fix of regular joe from the deli? Good luck with all that. You can never let it be said that one of the world's leading suppliers of premium carbohydrates isn't in your corner. 
Those long and lean cereal boxes we've all grown accustomed to might soon be a thing of the past. 
Second Helping of Slashfood - June 19
Competitive-Eating Contest to Pit Humans Against Elephants
The Backyard Boom - The Hungry Bride
