Oven frittata

OK, so maybe it's been almost a year since I continued my challenge to myself to cook my way through The Science of Good Cooking. Whoops... Time does get away from you.

Part of the reason is I've been going through some wacky stuff in my personal life. But probably a bigger part of the reason is that the next item in the list was a tough one to make for a person who currently lives alone most of the time - the choices were some 12-egg frittatas, or a rack of lamb, or a tenderloin. So I chose:

Concept 4: Hot food keeps cooking
Recipe: Asparagus, Ham, and Gruyère Frittata

The idea here is that you should take something off of the heat early, because it'll keep cooking as it sits. (Hence the two large meat cuts suggested by the recipes in this chapter.)

This was actually astonishingly simple.

1. Cut up asparagus; cook in pan.
2. Cut up ham and onion / shallot; cook in pan.
3. Whip up eggs, half and half, pepper, salt, and chunks of gruyère; cook in pan until eggs are slightly wobbly.
4. Put in oven and cook under broiler until puffed and brown, but still slightly wobbly and wet.

Results:

It was really tasty, nutritious, and not too unhealthy. I probably overcooked it a bit, but it was still good. No matter what the America's Test Kitchen folks say, there is a fair window between "totally runny and inedible" and "well cooked" and "ehh a little overcooked, but still delicious."

Funny story, too - I used farmers market eggs in this, and those eggs are always very robust indeed. Even after whisking for several minutes, several of the yolks were unbroken and I had to whack them multiple times against the side of my bowl to pop them. Love those free-roaming chickens.

I was a little worried about not using a nonstick pan, like the recipe suggests, but my aluminum pan was fine. I was able to cut a slice out without a problem.

Next time: "Some proteins are best cooked twice." Probably some meat will be involved.