Rise and Shine- Cleaning Out The Fridge

So I haven't really touched on my favorite meal of the day- breakfast. I love eating breakfast and breakfast was the first meal I made well. Omelets, pancakes, waffles...I love them all. However the dish I make most often on weekends is an oven baked fritatta. A fritatta is an egg dish started on the stove top and finished in the oven typically with a carb base such as potatoes or cooked pasta. The best part is it's a great vehicle for leftovers from the weeks previous meals. I use it for leftover proteins, cheese, etc (veggies work great if you go for those things). It's a killer dish for 1 or 2 in the proportions we'll discuss here but it doubles and triples well. I've been known to break out the big ol cast iron skillet and crack a dozen eggs and make one for the family...anyway, this is another one of those where there are no real rules other then the egg base. Whatever carb you're using are best if they are already cooked but in a pinch potatoes can be cooked in the same pan first. As far as the fillings the sky is the limits just use common sense. The vessel for this is kind of important. You'll need a pan with fairly high, straight walls that has an oven-proof handle. A cast iron skillet works great. When I make it for myself I have a great little non-stick sautee pan that works great. Oh one last thing. On the video for this one I was experimenting with my point-of-view cam. Let me know what you think

Ingredients-

Egg Base-

3 eggs

1/4 cup of dairy (whole milk, half and half, whole cream, etc) I use whole milk as that's what I usually have in the fridge. Avoid 1 or 2% if you can

A pinch of salt and a couple grinds of fresh cracked pepper

Fillings-

My famous pan fried potatoes

My equally famous pulled pork

Left over ham

Left over cheese from my chicken fajitas

Step 1- preheat oven to 350

Step 2- Beat 3 eggs, dairy, salt and pepper and add half the cheese. Let the mixture come to room temperature

Step 3- Preheat pan over medium high heat. Add 2 tbs off butter and a drizzle of olive oil to the pan. When the fat is properly heated add enough potatoes to cover the bottom of the pan in a single layer. Keep the potatoes moving for a few minutes with a spatula. This is more or less further crisping the potatoes for a better texture on the final product

Step 4- Add the rest of the fillings except the cheese (in this case ham and pulled pork). As with the potatoes keep them moving around in the pan allowing the flavors to mix and putting a little carmelization on the fillings

Step 5- Add the egg mix to the hot pan. Let it set for a few seconds the using your spatula start pulling the cooked egg away from the sides allowing the raw egg to make contact with the hot pan. (see video) Do this around the whole pan. The middle will not be full cooked. This is a good thing

Step 6- Sprinkle the top with the remaining cheese

Step 7- Place in the preheated oven for 12-14 minutes or until the whole thing looks solid and the cheese on top has started to brown

Step 8- Carefully remove from the oven as the handle with be screaming hot. Extract from the pan, slice it in wedges and enjoy

The best part is you get your eggs, meat and potatoes all in one neat package and whatever your don't finish reheats really well so you can have leftovers of your leftovers fritatta the next day...errr or something