After Easter: Asparagus Goldenrod Recipe

April 5, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Looking for another way to use all those boiled eggs from Easter?

I wanted to re-share part of this post from two years ago, when I made Asparagus Goldenrod while reviewing the book The Four Seasons Farm Gardener’s Cookbook. Although I followed the recipe and served it on asparagus on top of bread (be it traditional toast like this recipe or English Muffins or biscuits etc.), I believe you can really put Goldenrod sauce on anything, and the sprinkling of the grated egg yolk and perhaps a pinch of cayenne or herb is just beautiful.

Asparagus Goldenrod

Asparagus Goldenrod recipe

This recipe comes from Barbara Damrosch and her mother, and is named for the grated egg yolk that appears like goldenrod pollen. I chose to use two types of bread (paesano and seedy grain), but did not remove the crusts (and whoever styled the dish for the food photo did not either!).

Ingredients (serves 4):

  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
  • 4 ounces (1 cup) of shredded Gruyere cheese
  • 40 medium size fresh asparagus spears
  • 4 large or 8 small slices of whole grain bread, crusts removed
  • 2 tablespoons butter at room temperature
  • freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

  1. Hard cook the eggs by placing the 4 eggs in a saucepan and adding enough water to cover the eggs. Bring the water to simmer over high heat, then immediately lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain the hot water and fill the pan with cold water to cool the eggs for at least 5 minutes.
  2. Peel the eggs and remove the yolk carefully so they remain whole. They should be firm enough to now grate. Coarsely chop the egg whites and set aside for the sauce.
    The Four Seasons Farm Gardener's Cookbook review Barbara Damrosch and Eliot Coleman gardening farming recipes local produce Asparagus Goldenrod recipe The Four Seasons Farm Gardener's Cookbook review Barbara Damrosch and Eliot Coleman gardening farming recipes local produce Asparagus Goldenrod recipe
  3. Pour the cream into a medium size skillet and bring to slow simmer over medium heat, stir, stirring constantly, until it has thickened. Gradually add the grated cheese, stirring until it has melted and is smooth. Add the egg whites, and keep the sauce warm over low heat.
  4. Toast the bread and then butter (optional), putting them on the plate you plan to serve with.
  5. Trim the asparagus spears to about 5 inches in length, and steam until the asparagus is tender, 2-5 minutes. (Or, you can roast or grill the asparagus, whatever you’d like.) Distribute the asparagus spears over the pieces of toast, and then cover with the creamy sauce. Top with the grated egg yolk and some black pepper to taste, and serve immediately.
    Asparagus Goldenrod recipe

For most of the recipes in the cookbook, there is a “Try This Too” section that suggests some variations to try. Barbara advises that depending on the season, you can easily substitute broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, leeks, garlic scapes, etc for the asparagus. She also suggests a salad and a dessert of fresh fruit to serve with to make a complete complementary meal.
Asparagus Goldenrod recipe Asparagus Goldenrod recipe

As a bonus, if you still want another idea, although I don’t have a recipe… make egg salad, and then put them on baguette slices and take them as snacks to a party, like this. Just add a bit of paprika and a pickled beet to balance the creaminess of the egg salad with a bit of sour and spice.
Egg Salad Appetizers. Just add a bit of paprika and a pickled beet to balance the creaminess of the egg salad with a bit of sour and spice Egg Salad Appetizers. Just add a bit of paprika and a pickled beet to balance the creaminess of the egg salad with a bit of sour and spice

How are you using your boiled eggs from Easter?

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Breakfast Casserole Recipe

April 21, 2014 by 5 Comments

This Breakfast Casserole is a perfect way to whip up something hearty and savory for a brunch potluck, and this came to mind immediately when I wondered what to make for Easter, besides corn niblets in butter and mashed potatoes to go with some ham guests were bringing. This recipe has sausage in it so is not vegetarian, but you could substitute for it as long as it is something seasoned well.
Breakfast Casserole Recipe - cooked celery, onion, Aidell's chicken bacon pineapple sausage, a layer of Emmenthel swiss, and then roasted broccoli before adding the 3 eggs/1 cup milk.

I’m sad to report that my refrigerator/freezer seems to be dying a slow death. We hope that maybe we might be able to repair it, but since this came with the house when we purchased it, who knows how old it is and maybe it’s time to replace it.

One of the great things about this breakfast casserole recipe is that it’s really more of a guideline than rule. You can throw all sorts of things into it and it will still be great- which is useful when you have things chilled instead of frozen in your freezer and you want to start using everything you have before it goes bad.
Breakfast Casserole Recipe - cooked celery, onion, Aidell's chicken bacon pineapple sausage, a layer of Emmenthel swiss, and then roasted broccoli before adding the 3 eggs/1 cup milk.

When I did the inventory of my freezer, I knew that by doing a breakfast casserole besides using the eggs, cheese, and milk in my refrigerator section, I’d be able to get rid of one of the frozen half loaves of bread I tend to squirrel away because I can never eat a whole loaf. I added in some frozen Aidell’s chicken bacon pineapple sausage (yes, egg AND chicken together!) and a partially used bag of frozen broccoli. I also used some leftover parsley and celery from a DIY 3 day juice cleanse from last week, and the other half of onions and a jalapeño from a guacamole recipe (I’ll be sharing that at the end of the month in anticipation of Cinco de Mayo post on a guacamole bar!).

Topped with green onions and parsley, this hodge podge of getting rid of misc things was still really tasty and all came together! You can use any combination of vegetables and meats you’d like (such as ground meat or bacon).

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 loaf of old bread (a few days old so it is a bit harder), chopped into 1 inch cube pieces
  • 1 cup diced onions
  • 1 cup diced celery
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 3 diced large chicken sausages or 1 pound ground sausage or seasoned meat
  • 1 diced jalapeño
  • 3 stalks of green onions, chopped
  • 2 cups chopped broccoli, cooked. I roasted mine in the oven with simple salt and pepper at 400F for 40 minutes
  • 2 cups shredded cheese of your choice, divided in half. I often use cheddar or pepper jack but this time I used Emmentaler Swiss
  • 6 eggs
  • 1 cup milk (I used low fat)
  • 1/4 cup chopped parsley

Directions:

  1. Grease a 9×13 casserole dish and distribute the cubed bread.
    Breakfast Casserole Recipe, starting with as base of some bread, nice and seedy and a few days old
  2. In a large sauté pan, sweat the onions and celery in the olive oil until the onions brown slightly. add in your meat and finish until the meat is cooked and browned. Pour the contents of the pan over the bread and let absorb the flavors. This is when I roasted my broccoli and chopped the green onions and jalapeño and shredded cheese…
    Breakfast Casserole Recipe - sweating the cup of celery and onion Breakfast Casserole Recipe - cooked celery, onion, and the diced Aidell's chicken bacon pineapple sausage
  3. Top the dish with the jalapeño and a big handful of the green onion. Then add in a layer of 1 cup of the cheese, followed by the broccoli. You can fold everything together, but I left it in layers.
  4. In a mixing bowl whisk the eggs and milk together and then pour into your casserole dish. Cover and let refrigerate overnight (or at least as many hours as you can) so all the flavors have a chance to marry.
    Breakfast Casserole Recipe - cooked celery, onion, Aidell's chicken bacon pineapple sausage, a layer of Emmenthel swiss, and then roasted broccoli before adding the 3 eggs/1 cup milk. Let refrigerate overnight to marry flavors Breakfast Casserole Recipe - cooked celery, onion, Aidell's chicken bacon pineapple sausage, a layer of Emmenthel swiss, and then roasted broccoli before adding the 3 eggs/1 cup milk. Let refrigerate overnight to marry flavors Breakfast Casserole Recipe - cooked celery, onion, Aidell's chicken bacon pineapple sausage, a layer of Emmenthel swiss, and then roasted broccoli before adding the 3 eggs/1 cup milk. Let refrigerate overnight to marry flavors
  5. When it’s time to bake, preheat the oven to 375 F. Top with the remaining 1 cup cheese and bake for 30-40 minutes until the egg has risen and a skewer through should come out clean.
    Breakfast Casserole Recipe - cooked celery, onion, Aidell's chicken bacon pineapple sausage, a layer of Emmenthel swiss, and then roasted broccoli before adding the 3 eggs/1 cup milk.
  6. Remove the dish from oven and top with the parsley. Let cool for 15 minutes at least for it to firm up before cutting to serve.

I love that the breakfast casserole has your breakfast egg, but is also packed with lots of veggies here.

Breakfast Casserole Recipe - cooked celery, onion, Aidell's chicken bacon pineapple sausage, a layer of Emmenthel swiss, and then roasted broccoli before adding the 3 eggs/1 cup milk

You can add color by using red and orange bell peppers, squash, your call. You could use spinach or kale or cauliflower or any number of vegetables. Depending on how many veggies you put in, you might adjust your egg/milk ratio- this had a lot of veggies so I used 6 eggs, but other versions have called for 8 or even 12, which also means that this is easy to scale up for a big group.

I used sliced up sausages, but you could easily used browned ground meat instead, or even a lot of crumbled bacon! As I said, this is a great, very adaptable recipe once you know the basics of the bread (and you can use any kind of bread you’d like- including croissant bread!), eggs, milk, and then meat and vegetable additions per your taste.

For instance, below I made it with some leftover Easter ham with some leftover cauliflower and broccoli and bread I had- just threw it all together because I had old bread, aging meat and veggies… ok, buy some eggs, casserole time!
Ham and Cheese and Broccoli and Cauliflower Egg Casserole Ham and Cheese and Broccoli and Cauliflower Egg Casserole Ham and Cheese and Broccoli and Cauliflower Egg Casserole  Ham and Cheese and Broccoli and Cauliflower Egg Casserole Ham and Cheese and Broccoli and Cauliflower Egg Casserole

What would you put in your egg casserole?

Ham and Cheese and Broccoli and Cauliflower Egg Casserole

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Easter Strata: A Recipe for Baby Bell Peppers and Swiss Strata

April 1, 2013 by 3 Comments

This was an egg-cellent Easter hearty brunch dish layered with a seedy bread (I used Fressen Artisan Jogger bread with Unbleached White Flour, Yeast, Sea Salt, Pumpkin Seed, Flaxseed, Sesame Seed, and Sunflower Seed), an Italian seasoned colorful mix of sweet baby bell peppers in a cheerful variety of colors,  savory Swiss Emmenthaler cheese, and bacon. As with any strata, the key to this recipe is to let it sit overnight. This makes it great for any brunch, be it a holiday or anyday, as you just have to pop it in the oven in the morning.

The seasoning for the baby bell peppers is similar to one for marinating bell peppers Italian style- the only difference was I was using less bell pepper (but the seasoning could then help the bread/strata), I diced instead of cutting into slices, and I didn’t use any vinegar along with the garlic, basil, and parsley. Otherwise, you could easily just stop at step 1.

To make this strata a little more health friendly, I used egg whites and skim milk. You can also substitute turkey or veggie bacon: I like to bake mine in the oven. Don’t forget to use towels to soak up any extra (though I confess I always pour leftover bacon fat after removing the bacon from the pan into a Corningware container for cooking use later…). To keep it crispy, I added it at the end, but if you want to use other meats, such as diced ham, turkey, sausage etc. you can do so by adding it into the strata at the same step as the sauteed veggies.

The original recipe calls for sourdough, but I continue to feed my addiction and love of the Bavarian bread from the artisan bakery, Fressen Bakery. Here’s a glance of their various baked bread that they offer at the Portland Farmers Market on Saturday…

Fressen Bakery at Portland Farmers Market Fressen Bakery at Portland Farmers Market

Ingredients (serves 8):

  • 1 cup of chopped onion
  • 3 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 2 cups of red, orange and yellow sweet baby bell peppers, seeds removed and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
  • 1 clove of minced garlic
  • 1 tablespoon of chopped basil
  • 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley
  • 6 slices of 1 inch thick slices of bread
  • 4 tablespoons of softened butter
  • 2 1/2 cups, or 10 ounces, of shredded cheese (I used Swiss Emmenthaler, but you can choose cheddar or what you’d like)
  • 6 eggs (I used egg whites only)
  • 2 cups of milk (I used skim)
  • 1/4 teaspoon of salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon of ground cumin
  • 1/4 teaspoon of dijon mustard
  • 1 cup of cooked and crumbled/chopped bacon (this is equivalent to about 5 slices)

Directions:

  1. Saute the chopped onion with the 3 tablespoons of olive oil  on medium high heat in a pan until translucent and caramelized. Add the sweet bell peppers and saute for an additional 4-5 minutes, or until the peppers begin to soften. Turn down the heat to low, and add the garlic. Saute for 2 minutes more. Turn off the heat and add the basil and parsley, toss to combine.
    Baby Bell Peppers done Italian Style Baby Bell Peppers done Italian Style
  2. Butter the bread with the 1/4 cup of softened butter and then cut the bread into cubes.
    Baby Bell Peppers and Swiss Strata Fressen Jogger bread Baby Bell Peppers and Swiss Strata Fressen Jogger Bread
  3. Grease a 13×9 inch 4 quart baking dish. Place the bread inside, and then distribute the chopped onion pepper mixture, and then top with some of the cheese- about 1 3/4 cup of the cheese.
    Baby Bell Peppers and Swiss Strata recipe Baby Bell Peppers and Swiss Strata recipe
  4. In a bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, salt, cumin, and mustard together. Pour over the bread mixture in the baking dish. Cover and refrigerate the mixture overnight.
    Baby Bell Peppers and Swiss Strata recipe
  5. When ready, remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake (uncovered) for 45 minutes.
    Baby Bell Peppers and Swiss Strata recipe
  6. Uncover the dish and sprinkle with the remaining cheese and the crumbled bacon. Bake 10-15 minutes longer- a knife inserted into the center should come out clean. Let stand at least 10 minutes before cutting.

Baby Bell Peppers and Swiss Strata recipe

Besides the strata, friends brought ham that she glazed with brown sugar honey and mustard mixture, and I also made a Dill and lemon butter carrot dish and some Crispy Smashed Potatoes using red potatoes (and I always like to keep the skin on)  for our Easter meal.
Baby Bell Peppers and Swiss Strata, Ham, Easter dinner, Smashed Potatoes, Dill and Lemon Carrots

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