16 Nov // bad habits and fresh eggs

I have a terrible habit of a little too often letting my feelings and cravings dictate my meals. Yesterday, for example, there had been a shithouse earthquake down South, and then a storm, and as I was ploughing through mountains of work I was thinking about my friends and family and, well, everyone in the affected areas and it was grey and raining outside and all I wanted for dinner was carbs. And maybe cheese. A creamy pasta, I thought, or maybe mac'n'cheese. Then I thought French toast could be good, or pancakes, or maybe just tinned spaghetti on toast, the ultimate in lazy comfort eating. I'd been to the Dentist in the morning which was not fun or cheap, so was really craving comfort. Very close to walking in the rain to the dairy to buy a tin of spaghetti, I thought, urgh maybe I'll just check the fridge. And there was: baby leeks with about half a day left of life in them, a bunch of cavolo nero (in surprisingly good shape for how long it'd been in there), a bottle of half'n'half cream/milk leftover from scone making shenanigans last week, and some fancy goat's cheese Farro Fresh had sent me. I had fresh eggs in the cupboard and some kumara sourdough, and thus, getting dinner into my lap in 15 minutes flat, a fridge frittata (fridgtata if you will) was born. 

The baby leeks were amazing sauteed in butter with a little salt, and alongside the gruntier cavolo nero, and then the eggs with the deliciously mild and soft goat's cheese, made for an absolute banger of a rainy Tuesday dinner. I mean it's nice in life to keep surprising yourself, but dear reader I was gobsmacked at how good this was. And I was embarrassed for thinking I could have gone and unnecessarily paid for something far less delicious and nutritious. It's not the first time this has happened: once I was so close to getting takeaways but again, opened the fridge, and managed to whip up an incredible soba noodle (always in the cupboard ) and rare beef (a random steak leftover from a photoshoot) warm salady-stir fry type thing, and again, was embarrassed I didn't think of it earlier.  

The idea for those ingredients becoming this frittata came from a recent excellent breakfast at Wellington's Nikau cafe, where there the frittata had been with nettle, charred broccolini done with chilli flakes, and also goat's cheese. They're much easier than an omelette, and infinitely more satisfying as a dinner than scrambled eggs, so I can recommend this for dinner, brunch or anything in between.      

Baby leek and goat's cheese frittata

Serves One

Ingredients

3 fresh free-range eggs

A splash of milk or cream 

Salt and pepper

Greens of your choice - I used: 

2-3 baby leeks, sliced, or half a large leek, sliced

Small bunch cavolo nero, cut into chunks 

Goat's cheese, a few dollops (i was sent a pottle of Drunken Nanny soft goat's cheese which was amazing)

1 tbsp butter 

Method

Heat the butter in a medium sized frying pan, on a medium high heat. Add the leeks and the cavolo nero (or whatever greens you're using) and sauté until just soft. /

Meanwhile, whisk the eggs with the milk or cream and a pinch of salt and add to the pan of veggies. Move the pan around to evenly distribute the egg mixture. Take a rubber spatula and shimmy it around the edge of the frittata to ensure it gets a good edge. Crack over some pepper as it cooks through. Cook for a couple of minutes, moving the pan around if necessary to move any uncooked bits of egg from the top - this shouldn't be too much of a problem though if your fritatta isn't too high. 

Once it's done, add the dollops of goat's cheese, then try, using your rubber spatula, to elegantly shimmy the frittata from the pan to your plate. Mine ended up a broken mess. A delicious broken mess, but still. 

Serve with toast or a green salad.   

 

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// Posted by Delaney at 3:28 PM // Labels: frittata, eggs, 15 minute dinners, vegetarian

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