A Tale of Two Frittatas

Matt invited us over Friday night for dinner.  This was the furthest into Queens either of us have ever traveled before.  Isn’t that funny?  The directions lead us on a 10 minute walk from the subway (turn left at the Bear with One Eye…if you reach the Burning Man you’ve gone too far), and we were greeted by the smell of a homemade frittata awaiting our arrival.  Hash browns, peppers, sausage & bacon – yep, delicious.  Followed by shortcake with fresh berries – and everything was lubricated with vodka Seabreezes.  Sigh…lovely Friday evening.  Thank you Matt!  And here’s the fluffy frittata before we carved it up.

But then on the way home, I couldn’t stop thinking about frittatas.  So the next morning as I was shopping at the farmers market in the rain, I concocted my own frittata in my head.  Yes, we had a frittata for dinner and then a frittata for breakfast.  So what.  J  But I was intrigued by the “hash brown encrusted” idea, so decided to take my own stab at it.  Turned out great – and it was fun to build this frittata.  I took a very different approach than Matt – I used my hash browns as a literal crust, giving the frittata a crunchy base.  Quite tasty – and I didn’t mind having back-to-back frittatas at all!!

Chris’ Hash-Brown Encrusted Frittata

2 large Russet potatoes

1 large sweet onion (1/2 for shredding, ½ sliced)

1 ½ cup chopped Shitake mushrooms

4 pieces thick-cut bacon, fried

Olive oil

Butter

Salt

Pepper

6 eggs, beaten with 1/3 cup milk

1 tsp. fresh thyme

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

I used a food processor to shred the 2 potatoes and ½ of the onion.  Heat some olive oil in a non-stick pan, and spread the potato/onion mixture out evenly.  Sprinkle with salt & pepper, and allow to cook over medium heat until the potatoes brown completely on the bottom.  Once browned, use a plate (or another pan, or some other flat surface) to help you flip the potato mixture over all in one move – you want it to stay together so that it forms a crust.  I put a plate over the pan and inverted everything so that the potatoes plopped down onto the plate in one motion.  Then I slid the potatoes back into the pan to cook the other side. 

At the same time, cook the bacon and then once done chop into ½ pieces..  And in another pan, heat up some olive oil and cook the onions for 2-3 minutes (with a sprinkle of salt), and then add the sliced mushrooms.  Cook for about 6 minutes, until the onions are tender.  Set aside.

Once the potatoes begin to brown on the second side, it’s time to build the frittata.  Spread the onions & mushrooms out evenly over the potatoes, then do the same with the bacon.  Finally, pour the beaten egg mixture over top of everything and then evenly distribute ½ of the cheese.  Cook on the stove for 3-5 minutes until the sides of the eggs begin to cook through.  Then put the entire pan under the broiler for 5-7 minutes or until the egg in the center is cooked through.  Remove from the broiler and spread on the remainder of the cheese.  Slice and serve.