Thursday, January 03, 2008

A simple and really good Christmas dinner
by Ollie

It's funny (as in huh not ha) that I'm posting recipes. 'cause lately I take a back seat in the kitchen.

One of my favorite food books is "like water for chocolate". Know the book? The recipes in it contain ingredients like (paraphrasing) two leaky wooden buckets full of salty tears and blood stained handpicked petals from 150 roses, that sort of thing. The recipe below is not labor intensive but still theatrical enough, because beets have a certain lasting effect.

Beet Fritata

1 cup beautiful red purple beets, chopped into small pieces and steamed until tender
1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
6 eggs (yay for the ladies bridget and beverly simone who had stopped molting!)
1/3 cup piima cream
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon rind
pinch dried oregano
pinch dried rosemary
sea salt and pepper
1 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese

In a well seasoned glossy black cast-iron skillet, saute the onion in 1 tablespoon each of butter and olive oil until soft then remove with a slotted spoon. Beat eggs with cream and seasonings. Stir in onion and then beets. Melt the remaining butter and olive oil in the pan and pour in egg mixture. Cook over medium heat about 5 minutes until underside is golden. Sprinkle cheese on top and place under broiler for a few minutes until the fritata puffs and browns. Cut into wedges and then serve with wine sauce.

Spiced Apple Fig Wine Sauce

1/2 cup wine (we used the spiced apple fig wine because it tasted like Christmas)
4 cups beef stock or broth (add gelatin if from can)
2 tablespoons arrowroot mixed with 2 tablespoons water

Add wine and stock to the cast-iron skillet you just slightly scraped out after making the fritata, bring to a boil and reduce to about half. A spoonful at a time, add the arrowroot mixture until desired thickness is obtained.
And i forgot to mention the bottle that the wine comes in must be handsome.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am in possession of one of those handsome bottles. I wonder who I will invite to enjoy a beet fritata.

Anonymous said...

me, me, me! please chose me!

Anonymous said...

hey azucar,

ok, i haven't told oliver that i posted the above post. it wasn't oliver, i was just using his computer when i commented and was surprised when my comment went to blogger apporoval and then thought it was funny and approved it. longwinded la dee da.
if it had been oliver he would have said something like, "raquel, get azucar to invite us to dinner." and i would have answered, "ok, but what are you going to make when we invite her over first?" and...as soon as he wakes up on this fine saturday morning we are going to have this conversation for real.

Anonymous said...

You also forgot to mention who gave you that fabulous book.

Anonymous said...

sue that was YOU! You bought me the book! That's right! Thank you! such a great book.