Zucchini Soufflé Casserole

If there is any ingredient I love to embrace the versatility of, it has to be eggs. I love everything about them. A few years ago, I experimented with seperating the eggs that went into a frittata, ending up with a thin rich omlette on the bottom of the dish and a fluffy pesto meringue on top. It took your average clean-out-the-fridge fast meal and instantly made it classy.

Tonight, on this verge of springtime in northeastern Ohio, I want eggs, and I want vegetables, and I want them now. Enter the zucchini soufflé attempt.

3 medium zucchini
5 cloves garlic, crushed or finely minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
3 tablespoons lemon juice
4 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1 tablespoon dried basil
Salt and pepper to taste

Grate zucchini and combine with garlic, butter, olive oil, several dashes of salt and a few pinches/grinds of black pepper in a medium saute pan and cook for about 5 minutes. Add lemon juice and cook until zucchini is no longer white, about 5 minutes more. Remove from heat and drain off liquid.

Separate the eggs into two large bowls. Beat the whites with a whisk until stiff, then whisk in dried basil, salt, and pepper. Beat the yolks with milk, salt, and pepper, then add the flour and whisk for a few more beats. Add zucchini and cottage cheese and whisk until just combined.

Add 1/3 of the beaten egg whites to the zucchini mixture and stir a few beats. Add another 1/3 of the egg whites and gently fold into the zucchini mixture. Repeat with remaining egg white mixture.

Pour into a greased 9x13" glass baking dish and bake for 40 minutes at 375 degrees, or until the top is browned and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.


Serve with a salad that most definitely contains cucumbers (mine was artichoke hearts, onion, and English cucumber).

Fiercegiving Leftovers: Triple Decker Sandwich

Ali and I are the masters of Thanksgiving leftovers. Today, Ali made a toasted sourdough sandwich with a fried egg, provolone, green bean casserole, and mustard.

I made this:

Triple-Decker Thanksgiving Sandwich
Serves 1, easily multiplied

3 slices pumpernickel bread, toasted
Cooked turkey, shredded (I prefer dark meat, but white will do fine)
1 slice pumpkin pie (or a single serving of extra pumpkin pie filling that has been baked in a mini custard dish)
Green bean casserole with caramelized onions (recipe below)
Cranberry sauce
Mayonnaise
Salt and white pepper

On the first layer of bread, thinly spread mayonnaise and top with shredded turkey, salt and pepper to taste. Top with a second slice of bread, with thinly spread mayonnaise on the side touching the turkey, and pumpkin pie filling spread on the top.

Next, cover the pumpkin pie with green bean casserole, and top with the final slice of bread, that has a thin layer of cream cheese and cranberry sauce coating it. Anchor with a toothpick or two and enjoy.

Green Bean Casserole
Fills a 9x9 square baking dish

1 pound fresh green beans, cleaned and snapped into 1-inch pieces
2 white onions, thinly sliced into rainbows
1 cup stock
1.5 cups milk
3 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Steam or boil green beans in salted water until tender. Strain into a colander and run under cold water to stop the beans from cooking.

Caramelize the onions in a large pan with olive oil, one tablespoon of butter and salt and pepper over medium heat. Stir every few minutes, until the onions smell sweet and turn a creamy brown, about 20-30 minutes.

Melt remaining butter in a medium saucepan. Add flour and whisk in until a thick paste forms. Begin gradually adding stock and milk and whisk until all the lumps of flour have dissipated. When the sauce becomes thick, salt and pepper to taste, and remove from heat. Add green beans and stir until combined.

Pour into a 9x9 glass baking dish and top liberally with caramelized onions. Bake in a 350 degree oven until bubbly, about 30-35 minutes.

Turkey Udon with Butternut Squash and Corn

Post-Thanksgiving: dealing with leftovers, and lots and lots of stock. With some of yesterday's ingredients and this morning's stock, I concocted this soup.

Turkey Udon with Butternut Squash and Corn

Serves 4

6 cups turkey stock
1 medium sized butternut squash, cubed
1 cup corn
3 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
1 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon dried lemongrass
3 bunches of udon, cooked to package directions
1 cup cooked turkey, shredded (I prefer dark meat, but white is also delicious)
Salt and white pepper to taste

Chopped green onions

4 eggs, optional

Bring 3 cups of turkey stock to a boil with an additional cup of water. Boil squash until fork-tender and remove with a slotted spoon. Add remaining turkey stock, ginger, garlic, and lemongrass, and simmer until fragrant (10-15 minutes). Add corn and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and white pepper.

Divide the udon into four large, deep bowls and top with butternut squash and shredded turkey. Cover with boiling turkey soup and garnish with green onions and a hard boiled or poached egg, if desired.

My moody squash, posing.

Bacon, Cheddar, and Pear Grilled Cheese

Partially inspired by Home in Disarray's grilled cheese post from yesterday, Ali and I decided on a sandwich to accompany our asparagus salad.

This is Ali, with our asparagus salad. She's wearing the best hat.

We ended up making a bacon-cheddar-pear grilled cheese sandwich as our second course.

Bacon, Cheddar, and Pear Grilled Cheese:

For two sandwiches:

2 pieces of wheat flatbread, cut in half-moons
4 piece of turkey bacon
1 Bartlett pear, cut into slices

1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated
White pepper

Lime juice

Toss pear slices in a bit of white pepper and a squeeze of lime juice.

Cook the bacon until brown and fragrant, peppering each side lightly. Remove from pan to a paper towel lined plate, reserving the fat. Once cool, chop the bacon finely into pieces.

Place half of each flatbread in the pan over medium-low heat, top with some grated cheddar, then pears, then more cheddar, then top with bacon and the remaining halves of flatbread. Flip over sandwiches carefully and cook for another 2-3 minutes, until the bottom later of cheese has melted.

Slice, serve, and know that if you're taking classy photos, the other diner will finish their food in the span it takes to take all the pictures. It was really freaking good.

Zucchini Frittata Sandwich

I'm reading Tom Colicchio's 'wichcraft book. I am all kinds of inspired. So, sandwich day!

Zucchini frittata sandwich with spinach and tomato

For the frittata:

Grate 1 medium zucchini and saute in olive oil, a clove of minced garlic, salt, and pepper until cooked through. Equally divide cooked zucchini into a well-greased muffin tin (a six-piece pan). Sprinkle each cup with 1/2 oz of grated swiss cheese each and top with a mixture of three beaten eggs, salt, white pepper, a tablespoon of half and half and a tablespoon of water. Bake at 325 degrees until eggs are set on top. Run a thin knife around the edge of the tins to loosen. When you plan on putting the frittata on the sandwich, you'll probably need a spoon to scoop out all the creamy eggy and zucchini goodness.

Lightly toast two slices of whole wheat pane bread (it's a mildly sour Italian loaf that I got at Trader Joe's). Ideally, 'wichcraft toasts only one side of their bread, but I'm not that magical or skilled (or maybe I'm lazy and don't want to figure out all the details with my toaster oven).

On one side, thinly spread a thin layer of mayonnaise and top with 6 slices of very thinly sliced roma tomato. Salt and pepper the tomatoes, then add a three-leaf thick layer of baby spinach leaves. Top the spinach with two of the frittata pieces. Spread a thin layer of Grey Poupon on the second piece of bread and top off the frittata with this piece of bread.

**

So, this sandwich isn't really perfect since zucchini is a pretty juicy vegetable and as soon as I put the frittata on the sandwich, the weight of the egg made the zucchini juice out all over the sandwich. While this doesn't bode well for looks and cleanliness, the juiciness soaked through the bread, tomato, and spinach, which wilted the spinach and softened the toasted bread nicely.

The flavors were stunning, though. Wow.