egg recipes - grace grits and gardening

Morel Mushroom Frittata

March 24, 2020 By Talya Tate Boerner 4 Comments

I’m excited to show you this morel mushroom frittata I made yesterday. Or whatever day it was. AllTheDaysAreTheSame when you are trying to stay home. (Today is technically #StayHomeDay10 for me.)

Morel Season!

Like I said in my most recent Sunday Letter, it’s morel mushroom season in Northwest Arkansas. Since I foraged a bowlful, I wanted to make something special with them using what was on hand. Last year when I found morels, I added them to fettuccine. This year, I came up with a morel mushroom frittata inspired by a recipe from Farmer’s Almanac. I divided the filling between two small, individual ramekins, the perfect serving size for our breakfast.

I even tried my hand at baking a design on top. (More on this below.)Continue Reading

Healthy Egg Salad

April 18, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner 4 Comments

(This post is sponsored by Great Day Farms. All opinions are my own.)

Soon the Easter Bunny will come and go and then what? Once the novelty of dyeing and hiding and finding eggs passes, what will you do with all those eggs hanging around your house? They won’t last forever you know.

If you want to whip up a family meal using an entire basket of Easter eggs, I suggest this healthy egg salad recipe. Healthy because it’s made with Greek yogurt instead of mayo. (And let’s be clear, I’m referring to boiled Easter eggs not plastic Easter eggs, although you may have those hanging around too…)

Healthy Egg Salad

Print Recipe

Ingredients

5 hard boiled eggs I use Great Day Farms
3 Tablespoons Greek yogurt I use Fage
1 stalk celery finely chopped
3 green onions chopped
1 Tablespoon fresh dill chopped
1 teaspoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
dash ground mustard
sea salt
pepper

Instructions

Dice eggs and mix with yogurt. Add remaining ingredients and mix. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Add additional yogurt and/or lemon juice if you prefer a thicker or thinner consistency. Serve with crusty bread as egg salad sliders, on crackers or carrots as appetizers, or scooped on a bed of lettuce.

Great Day Farm eggs. Yum.

Look at all these ways to serve egg salad…

Grace Grits and Gardening

Musical Pairing: (because it wouldn’t be Easter without this song…)

Easter Parade – Fred Astaire, Judy Garland

How to make Creme Brûlée

March 22, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner 6 Comments

Last weekend I attended a cooking class at Sur La Table—Four Desserts Everyone Should Know How To Make… I would have signed up for the creme brûlée alone. Can we agree, creme brûlée is heaven sent?

I’m lucky to live smack dab between two great cooking schools (Sur La Table and Central Market), and I take advantage of this as often as possible. Here’s the thing about cooking classes—learning to make a dish hands-on with a chef is so much more educational than simply reading the recipe at home. Nuances and special tricks may not come across in print. Plus being surrounded by a chef kitchen and playing with all those cool utensils is a huge bonus.

Yesterday was my final exam as I attempted to recreate creme brûlée in my own kitchen with my (not so cool) utensils. I gave myself a solid B+. (I would have made an A, but I got a bit carried away with the final sprinkle of sugar ascribing to the more is better theory.) Overall the taste was spot-on, the texture creamy, the molten caramel crisp. Yes, I’m patting myself on the back.

This recipe really is simple. I can’t believe I waited so long to learn. (Recipe courtesy of Sur La Table.)

Creme Brûlée

Print Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy whipping cream
8 egg yolks
1/3 cup plus 2 extra tablespoons to top granulated sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla paste

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Move oven rack to the center.
Pour milk and cream into a small heavy saucepan and heat to scald over medium-high heat. To scald, heat until bubbles begin to form around the edge of the pan. Remove pan from heat.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, 1/3 cup sugar, salt and vanilla paste. While whisking, slowly pour hot milk mixture into the egg mixture. Do not stop whisking. Whisk until the mixture is smooth. (If you do this too quickly, the eggs will cook upon contact with the hot cream mixture.) Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a large measuring cup with a spout to remove any overcooked egg pieces. (There will be a few tiny bits.) This will also help accelerate the cooling down process.
Place 6 (4 ounce) ramekins inside a rectangular baking dish and fill the ramekins with the custard mixture.
Using hot tap water, pour enough water into the baking dish to reach half-way up the side of the ramekins. This hot water bath will insulate the custard and keep the eggs from cooking too fast.
Bake about 40 minutes until the custard trembles or wobbles when gently shaken. If the mixture doesn't appear to be set, continue baking a few minutes more while monitoring.
Remove ramekins from the water bath, place on a cooling rack for 30 minutes, then transfer to the refrigerator to set.
Before serving: Sprinkle the surface of each custard with 2 teaspoons of the remaining sugar. Shake the cup to gently distribute the sugar evenly—make sure it covers the custard completely. Any exposed custard will blacken under the torch's flame. Light the torch, move the flame over the sugar in a circular motion until most of the sugar has melted and looks like tiny water droplets. Continue heating until the sugar turns a deep golden brown. The molten caramel will bubble and smoke then solidify into a crisp surface as it cools. Refrigerate 10 minutes before serving.

Notes

If you don't have Vanilla Paste, buy it. The ratio is the same as Vanilla Extract, but Vanilla Paste leaves the vanilla bean flecks in whatever you are cooking.
If you don't have a torch for caramelizing, you can use a broiler. But a torch is fun.