Green and Brilliant Yellow Frittata

Asparagus, potato and eggs all produced in this yard combined to make a gorgeous frittata for supper the other day.

We ate asparagus for most of May but during the summer an occasional spear of it emerges which I cut to add to salads or a stir fry. The odd potato missed last fall during harvest has sprouted, signaling its presence deep in the ground where I dig and pull it out to use right now. The chickens are out and about all day, avoiding eagles by dashing under the barn or into bushes, and scratching for bugs and worms, followed by their idea of salad from clover and grass in the yard. The reward is brilliant yellow yolks.

The glory of eggs is that they will glue together miscellaneous ingredients to create a whole dish, in this case grated and hash-browned eggs, chopped spears of asparagus, and shreds of onion. Also, because eggs come in handy one-each portions, we can easily expand a dish according to however many persons are eating it. Actually, the potatoes are like that, too: in this case one medium potato per person. Sometimes it is a lot easier to cook if we don’t have our nose in a recipe, feeling all anxious about level teaspoons or how many onions do you need for one cup.

For fun, I’ve been growing micro-greens. Potting soil with a mix of superannuated lettuce, scallion, kale, radish and cabbage seeds sprinkled on it, kept damp and in a sunny location has yielded a fun addition to salad or as a garnish. It’s pretty sprinkled on a frittata or even a plain old fried egg.

Fully sprouted greens, top, and shorn greens below which will sprout one more time.

If you have never hash-browned a potato, the method simp0ly requires grating it, and dropping the shredded potato on a greased frying pan over a medium-high heat, until it is golden on one side then flipping it over to brown the other side. Easy-peasy.

We ate this for supper but it makes a good breakfast or lunch. It goes together very quickly and easily.

Potato and Asparagus Frittata
 
Ingredients
  • Olive or vegetable oil
  • 1 medium potato per person
  • 2-3 spears of asparagus per person
  • Chopped onion or scallion to taste
  • 2 eggs per person
  • Grated cheese, optional
  • Optional add-in or garnish: chopped parsley, dill, micro-greens
Instructions
  1. Grate the potato and chop the asparagus into bite-sized pieces.
  2. Heat a pan over a medium high heat and add oil.
  3. Brown the potatoes on both sides, breaking up the mass to create a lot of crunch.
  4. Add the asparagus and onion or scallion and heat until they are just tender.
  5. Beat the eggs and pour over the potato and asparagus, swirling the pan to cover the bottom. Reduce the heat, sprinkle the optional cheese over the top and cook until the eggs are set. Put under a broiler briefly if you wish.
  6. Take it off the heat, distribute the optional garnish and serve.

 

Sandy Oliver

About Sandy Oliver

Sandy Oliver Sandy is a freelance food writer with the column Taste Buds appearing weekly since 2006 in the Bangor Daily News, and regular columns in Maine Boats, Homes, and Harbors magazine and The Working Waterfront. Besides freelance food writing, she is a pioneering food historian beginning her work in 1971 at Mystic Seaport Museum, where she developed a fireplace cooking program in an 1830s house. After moving to Maine in 1988, Sandy wrote, Saltwater Foodways: New Englanders and Their Foods at Sea and Ashore in the 19th Century published in 1995. She is the author of The Food of Colonial and Federal America published in fall of 2005, and Giving Thanks: Thanksgiving History and Recipes from Pilgrims to Pumpkin Pie which she co-authored with Kathleen Curtin. She often speaks to historical organizations and food professional groups around the country, organizes historical dinners, and conducts classes and workshops in food history and in sustainable gardening and cooking. Sandy lives on Islesboro, an island in Penobscot where she gardens, preserves, cooks and teaches sustainable lifeways.