We had the first meeting of our exciting new working group this week, and of course we wanted to provide enticing refreshments to ensure healthy attendance. Because I was too stupid (and, to be fair, too busy) to get started before 11:30 the night before, I was up damn late making my contribution, the always-popular buttermilk frittata I invented for the occasion of what was destined to go down in history as the Very Worst Birthday Ever--but that's a story for another day. The frittata was unmarred by the experience, and I make it for any occasion when I can't think of anything else, because it is just so good and it never, ever lets me down. And, hooray, it was a hit once again. Of course, there may be no group quite so easy to feed as grad students are; we're always hungry and ever so grateful.
If you have several PhD students or, indeed, even other, more discriminating people to feed, and you want something substantial yet compact and portable, this will do the trick. It sounds as if it would be completely weird, but instead it tastes shockingly right. There are a lot of steps, but it rewards you for every one of them, I promise. It is tasty as soon as it comes out of the oven, but best at room temperature. What I am trying to tell you here is that this frittata is very good. You won't regret it!
INGREDIENTS
1 bunch sorrel, washed, trimmed, and chiffonaded (i.e. chopped into thin strips)
1 tablespoon olive oil
butter for the pie pan
several fingerling or other small, nice potatoes, boiled and peeled
3 fajita size (that is, roughly the same size as your baking dish) flour tortillas
6 eggs
3/4 c. buttermilk
1/2 lb. tangy but not terribly aggressive cheese, such as Gruyere
salt
pepper
TO DO
1. Boil and peel and cool those potatoes. Slice them into nice rounds.
2. Take a saucepan and heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the sorrel. It will melt right down into a slimy, olive-green sauce. This looks a lot like something out of the Dark Lagoon, and if you are not expecting it, it can be alarming. Fear not, this is what is supposed to happen. Set this stuff aside for the moment.
3. Preheat oven to 375° F. In a medium bowl, beat together the eggs and buttermilk. Add about a teaspoon of salt and some freshly ground pepper. Grate the cheese.
4. Now you are ready to assemble and cook the frittata, which happens in three stages. First butter a fairly deep pie pan. At the bottom lay one tortilla. Smear this with half of the sorrel. Arrange half of your potatoes neatly over this. Pour over everything about 1/3 of the egg mixture. Tip the pan gently as necessary to get the egg evenly distributed. Pop the resulting thing in the oven and wait until it is almost set, which takes longer than you might expect. The other stages go much more quickly, as they are building on a hot base.
5. Remove the pan from the oven. Add half of the grated cheese and the next tortilla. Do as last time with the remaining sorrel and potato. Again, pour 1/3 of the egg mixture over all, get it even, and put the pan in the oven.
6. When this is almost set, remove the pan and make the last layer. This one goes: tortilla, egg (carefully, as the pan's probably pretty full by now), cheese. Back in the oven until everything is really fully all set and cooked through. Cook's note: If you can't find any sorrel, you can substitute fresh basil leaves tossed in lemon juice. In that case, don't precook the herbs. It won't taste the same, but it will taste good.
If you have several PhD students or, indeed, even other, more discriminating people to feed, and you want something substantial yet compact and portable, this will do the trick. It sounds as if it would be completely weird, but instead it tastes shockingly right. There are a lot of steps, but it rewards you for every one of them, I promise. It is tasty as soon as it comes out of the oven, but best at room temperature. What I am trying to tell you here is that this frittata is very good. You won't regret it!
INGREDIENTS
1 bunch sorrel, washed, trimmed, and chiffonaded (i.e. chopped into thin strips)
1 tablespoon olive oil
butter for the pie pan
several fingerling or other small, nice potatoes, boiled and peeled
3 fajita size (that is, roughly the same size as your baking dish) flour tortillas
6 eggs
3/4 c. buttermilk
1/2 lb. tangy but not terribly aggressive cheese, such as Gruyere
salt
pepper
TO DO
1. Boil and peel and cool those potatoes. Slice them into nice rounds.
2. Take a saucepan and heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the sorrel. It will melt right down into a slimy, olive-green sauce. This looks a lot like something out of the Dark Lagoon, and if you are not expecting it, it can be alarming. Fear not, this is what is supposed to happen. Set this stuff aside for the moment.
3. Preheat oven to 375° F. In a medium bowl, beat together the eggs and buttermilk. Add about a teaspoon of salt and some freshly ground pepper. Grate the cheese.
4. Now you are ready to assemble and cook the frittata, which happens in three stages. First butter a fairly deep pie pan. At the bottom lay one tortilla. Smear this with half of the sorrel. Arrange half of your potatoes neatly over this. Pour over everything about 1/3 of the egg mixture. Tip the pan gently as necessary to get the egg evenly distributed. Pop the resulting thing in the oven and wait until it is almost set, which takes longer than you might expect. The other stages go much more quickly, as they are building on a hot base.
5. Remove the pan from the oven. Add half of the grated cheese and the next tortilla. Do as last time with the remaining sorrel and potato. Again, pour 1/3 of the egg mixture over all, get it even, and put the pan in the oven.
6. When this is almost set, remove the pan and make the last layer. This one goes: tortilla, egg (carefully, as the pan's probably pretty full by now), cheese. Back in the oven until everything is really fully all set and cooked through. Cook's note: If you can't find any sorrel, you can substitute fresh basil leaves tossed in lemon juice. In that case, don't precook the herbs. It won't taste the same, but it will taste good.
