Hakuna Frittata

If you’re in the mood for a great-tasting, light meal in the steak-and-eggs spirit, the Hakuna Frittata – an asparagus and roasted red pepper frittata with just the right touch of bacon, and a ground lamb (no lion or, worse, meerkat) and tomato topping - may be just what you’re looking for. Plus the name is really cool to say. (If the name, or the reference to lions and meerkats, has you mystified, people who had small children in the mid-90’s and can explain it are easy to find; it’s a small world after all.)


The real, and decidedly unglamorous, origins of the Hakuna Frittata arise from the fact that I like eggs, wanted to do something different with a frittata, and had a package of ground lamb in the freezer that I’d gotten with no particular recipe in mind but that I thought would make a nice ingredient in, well, something.


The frittata, of course, is Italy’s version of an omelet, with the vegetables incorporated into the eggs rather than being placed on them. It’s usually cooked in a pan and is more-or-less pie-shaped. In this recipe, I’ve taken a different approach and baked the frittata in a loaf pan in a larger pan of water for more even cooking (a kind of improvised bain-marie), a method presented in Michel Richard’s “Cooking with a French Accent” that I had the opportunity to learn in a class with Chef Renee at New York’s Institute of Culinary Education. (It’s a fantastic place for both full time and recreational classes if you’re in the New York area.)


A special note for new cooks: this recipe also uses a number of techniques – whipping and folding egg whites, blanch and shock, preparing roasted red peppers, the aforementioned bain-marie - that will be familiar to people who’ve cooked before, and that will be great additions to the skill set of anyone new to cooking. (Where appropriate, I’ve added some Cook’s Notes in the recipe to clarify certain points for anyone new to this.) Note that whipping the egg whites is not normally done when making frittatas and, in fact, isn’t even necessary if you’re using fresh eggs. As readers know by now, I look to reduce fat in recipes where I can, and use egg substitute a lot. It’s good for most things, but doesn’t fluff when cooking quite the way fresh eggs do. For recipes where that's an issue, I’ve found adding beaten egg whites to be the solution. It’s an example of how reduced fat cooking and baking typically require more than just substituting reduced fat ingredients, which can have a negative impact on texture. You need the proper items and techniques in your low-fat tool-box. More on that another day.


Ok, let’s cook! This recipe makes about 4 servings.
Place a large baking dish half-filled with water into the oven, and preheat the oven to 325 degrees.


To prepare the asparagus:
• Bring a pot of salted water large enough for the asparagus to a boil. 
• Make a salted ice bath in preparation for cooking the asparagus. 
• Cut the stems off of ¾ pound of medium-to-thick asparagus. Using a vegetable peeler, remove the tough outer skin from the back end and make the shafts a uniform thickness to cook evenly. Boil until tender but still crisp, about 3 – 4 minutes, then immediately place the asparagus in the ice bath. [Cook’s note: This method of stopping the cooking and preserving the nice green color is called, “blanch and shock.”] When they’ve cooled, remove the asparagus from the ice bath, and place them on a towel to dry.


Roast two red peppers in a skillet, dice, and place in a skillet with about a tablespoon of olive oil. [Cook’s Note: For tips on roasting the red peppers, see last week's recipe for Chicken Pasta Primavera.] Add ½ teaspoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar, and 2 minced cloves of garlic, and cook over medium heat until the vinegar has evaporated. Add salt and pepper to taste, and set aside.


Cook and finely dice one or two slices of turkey bacon, and set aside.


Coat the sides of a 2 pound loaf pan with butter substitute. Line the bottom of the loaf pan with parchment.


In a bowl, beat five egg substitute eggs together with one tablespoon of minced, fresh basil.



In a second bowl, add a pinch of salt to two fresh (not packaged) egg whites and beat until firm peaks form. [Cook’s note: Using fresh egg whites here, and not the packaged egg whites, is very important. I’ve found that packaged egg whites don’t form peaks the way fresh egg whites do.] Fold the beaten eggs into the egg substitute mixture. [Cook’s Note: When folding beaten egg whites into another mixture, there’s no need to make sure they combine completely. Some white streaks or bumps from the beaten egg whites are ok. Attempting to combine everything completely can result in the beaten egg whites losing their fluffiness.]


Place about 1/3 of the asparagus on the bottom of the loaf pan, alternating tips and bottoms, being sure to leave space in between each stalk. Place 1/3 of the cooked peppers on top of the asparagus, then sprinkle with 1/3 of the diced bacon. Repeat with another 1/3 of the asparagus, peppers, and bacon, and then with the remaining asparagus, peppers and bacon. (Leaving space between the asparagus stalks is critical; if there is not enough space between them, the egg mixture will not get in between the asparagus and the finished frittata will fall apart when cut.)


Gently pour the egg mixture over the asparagus and peppers, making sure all of the asparagus are covered. After the loaf pan has been filled, tap it gently to distribute the liquid evenly.


Cover the loaf pan with foil, and place it in the oven in the pan of water to form a bain-marie. Bake until the eggs are firm and a knife or skewer inserted comes out clean (45 – 60 minutes).


While the frittata is baking, make the topping as described below.


In a bowl, combine the one pound of ground lamb, 3 chopped sprigs of fresh oregano, 3 chopped sprigs of fresh rosemary, and 1/3 cup flat Italian parsley.


In a large pan over moderately high heat, and add the lamb mixture, 1 diced medium onion and 2 minced cloves of garlic. Cook until the onions are soft and the lamb is well browned. (If possible, drain some excess fat as you go.) Add a pinch of red pepper flakes and cook for another minute.


Add a 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes with juice to the lamb mixture. Simmer, partially covered and stirring occasionally, for 15- 20 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.


When the frittata has finished baking, remove the foil and let it rest for about 15 minutes. (If any water has formed on top of the frittata, dab it up with a paper towel.)


Run a knife around the edge of the loaf pan, and turn the frittata out onto a platter, dabbing of any excess liquid. Slice the frittata into portions; after plating, top each portion with the lamb topping, garnish with parsley, and serve immediately.


And with that, the recipe’s circle of life is completed, and you’re ready to feel the love of a good meal tonight! If you'd like a cookbook-style, notebook-ready copy of this recipe, drop me a line or a comment and it shall be yours!


That's it for now. There'll be a new recipe posted here next Saturday, so please come by! Till then, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)

Apricot Molten Lava Cake with Lemon Glaze

Welcoming new subscriber CatherineK to the Kissing the Cook family: it’s great to have you!


Molten lava cake: if you like delicious, whimsical desserts that are easy to make and fun to eat, it's one of the best.


There are many recipes for this classic dessert, and every I've looked at uses chocolate. Since my wife is allergic to chocolate, even to the smell of chocolate, I’m unable to cook with it. And so I took the lack of any recipes that weren’t chocolate as a personal challenge to create one, and a low-fat one at that. I decided on Apricot Molten Lava Cake with Lemon Glaze.


This was not done without a bit of trepidation. It’s one thing to put your own twist on an established food concept; it’s quite another to want to do something that’s unheard of. Jerry Seinfeld once said, “The road less traveled is usually less traveled for a reason,” and I’ve found there’s a lot of truth in that. (An earlier ill-advised attempt at another chocolate work-around - rice-krispy treats coated with butterscotch - comes to mind as just one example of what Mr. Seinfeld was referring to.) Still, the lava cake challenge was alluring, and somehow I knew it would work, and that adding the lemon glaze would give a nice contrast to the natural sweetness of the cake. I’m proud to report the delicious dessert below.


The ingredients, and the method for making the batter, are simple. (In overview, you’ll see that there are certain key substitutions for the usual lava-cake ingredients involved: apricot preserves instead of chocolate; fat-free Greek yogurt for egg-yolks; egg-substitute eggs for regular eggs; and butter substitute for butter.) The trick to making any lava cake work – moist cake on the outside; hot, tasty liquid filling on the inside – is in the baking time. Since this will vary somewhat from oven to oven, there’s a chance you may overcook these the first time, getting a nice, moist cake that tastes great but that is not liquid in the middle. Don’t be discouraged; eat them anyway and just remember to bake them a little less next time. (Remember, though, try to resist the temptation to eat them all. These are low-fat, not low-calorie.)




This recipe makes 6 large-muffin-size servings.


While preheating your oven to 425 degrees, melt 1-1/2 tablespoons of butter substitute, and use it to grease 6 ramekins or large muffin tins, then coat each with granulated sugar.


In a double boiler, melt 6 ounces of apricot preserves and 8 tablespoons of butter substitute, stirring gently and frequently. When they are melted and smooth, gradually stir in ½ cup of all-purpose flour, ¼ cup fat-free Greek yogurt, and 1-1/2 cups of confectioner’s sugar. When the mixture is combined and smooth set it aside.


In a bowl, use a hand-mixer to beat together 3 egg-substitute eggs and 1 teaspoon of vanilla until they are thick, about five minutes. Once that’s done, gently whisk the preserves mixture into the beaten egg mixture until they for a well-mixed batter.


Pour the batter into the ramekins or large size muffin tin. (The batter doesn’t rise much so you can fill them nearly to the top.) Bake them for 10 – 14 minutes (depending on your oven), turning half-way, until the tops are firm and the edges are just starting to brown. The first time you make these, you’ll want to be sure you keep an eye on them in the oven so that the inside of the cake stays liquid. As with any molten lava cake, the bake time is critical.


After removing the cakes from the oven, let them rest in the ramekins or muffin tin for 3 – 4 minutes. While the cakes are resting, combine 1 cup of confectioner’s sugar with 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice to form a glaze.


After the cakes have rested, run a butter knife around the edges of the ramekins or muffin tins to loosen them, and turn them out, as in the photo at right. Drizzle the tops and sides with glaze, and serve while warm.


I hope you enjoy this special treat. If you prefer a cookbook-style, notebook-ready copy of this recipe, just send me your e-mail address (if I don’t have it already) and it will be done!

(You can also find this and many other yummy desserts at  http://sweet-as-sugar-cookies.blogspot.com/, a great forum for all things sweet!)


See you next week! Till then, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)

The Raviolo and I

Raviolo: a word so obscure, even Microsoft Word's spell-checking software doesn’t recognize it. Its better know plural, of course, is ravioli. By either name, though, this wonderful cheesy-stuffed pasta pillow is not only delicious to eat; it’s also easy and fun to make. If you’ve never made it (or any other fresh pasta) before, I invite you to try now; you’re in for a real treat, not to mention a real sense of accomplishment once you’ve seen and tasted what you made. And you won’t need a pasta machine. (I didn’t even own one until earlier this week, but that story’s a future post.)


My introduction to home-made ravioli was a pasta class I took several years ago at the culinary arts school of a local community college.  The pasta chef teaching the course excitedly brought out the school’s brand new restaurant-grade pasta machine, an impressive multi-gadgeted electric device only about the size of a household toaster but costing a couple of thousand dollars. Or at least it was impressive until the machine started shutting down from the motor overheating every time someone tried to use it. A few in the class decided to stay with it, enduring a continuous cycle of press, overheat, wait for it to cool down and then try turning it on again. I opted for the other type of pasta maker, the round wooden kind that never overheats or breaks down, also known as a rolling pin. That’s one of the most encouraging things about making pasta; people did it centuries before any of the fancy kitchen equipment we have today was invented.


Both the pasta dough and the filling are easy to make. The dough described follows a traditional recipe. The filling features Fontina cheese. I wasn’t familiar with it until recently, when I heard Bobby Flay make an off-handed remark on a Throwdown rerun about Fontina being one of the best cheeses there is. Once I heard that, I had to get some and find out what he was talking about. My first taste of its wonderful Italian aura immediately screamed ravioli.


The dough for about two dozen ravioli (more or less, depending on how big you make them) begins in a large bowl into which you put 2 cups of all-purpose flour and ½ teaspoon of salt. Mix them until they’re combined and then form a well in the middle of the flour-pile. Into the well, put three egg-substitute eggs (or, if you like, three real eggs), and a teaspoon of olive oil. Mix them together using your hand, first combining the wet ingredients with the inner-most part of the flour pile, and gradually working your way outward until all the flour is incorporated to form a dough.

[Before we go further, I must add the following remark. There’s a good chance you’ve seen someone make pasta dough as described above, except without the bowl; in other words, with the flour piled directly on the kitchen counter. That’s the most authentic way, but it’s hard to do with only two cups of flour without making a mess once you start mixing in the wet ingredients. If you really want to try it, I suggest waiting until you’re making at least a double-batch of dough.]

Knead the dough for four to five minutes until it’s smooth and elastic, flouring your work surface as necessary during the kneading. After kneading, cut the dough ball into quarters. Wrap each quarter in plastic wrap and let them rest for 20 minutes while you mix the filling.
The filling, though delicious, couldn't be simpler to make.


Just put the following ingredients into a bowl and mix well until they’re combined: 1 cup of Ricotta cheese, 3/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese, 3/4 cup of fresh grated Fontina cheese, 1 egg-substitute egg, 2 tablespoons of fresh chopped parsley, ½ teaspoon of garlic powder, and salt and pepper to taste.

So now you’ve got your dough, and you’ve got your filling. Next stop: home-made ravioli!


Beginning with the first quarter-portion of dough (and keeping the remaining portions covered to keep them from drying out), roll the dough out on a well-floured surface into something as close as you can to a square about 12” on each side and 1/16” thick. Using a cooking cutter, cut out as many pieces as you can. (Remember, each raviolo will require two of the pieces.) Place a generous teaspoon of filling on the centers of half of the pieces; using your finger, coat around the edges of those pieces with egg-substitute (or a real egg, beaten) and place an identical dough shape on top. Press the edges down onto the egg with your finger, then with a fork to seal. Done right, the egg will keep the ravioli from opening up later in the cooking water.
And that's it! As you finish the ravioli, either put them aside (if you’re going to cook them right away), or place them on a baking sheet covered with parchment for freezing later. In either case, cover them to prevent drying out while you repeat the above with each of the remaining pasta quarters.

Remember that fresh pasta generally cooks faster than the packaged kind. The ravioli will generally cook in about 7 minutes, but check them often for doneness. If you choose instead to freeze them, put the ravioli in the freezer on the baking sheet first; once they’re frozen, put them together in a plastic bag for storage. (If you put the ravioli together in the bag before they’re frozen, they’ll likely stick together.)



Once the ravioli are cooked, all that remains is to top them off with your favorite sauce and some parmesan, and to enjoy the taste of fresh-made ravioli – and the fantastic feeling of having made them yourself!
For a cookbook style, notebook-ready copy of this or any other recipe from this site, just drop me a line and I’ll get it right off to you. (I also hope to get a video of this recipe finished and available on You-Tube soon...stay tuned!)


Thanks for visiting! Till next week, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)

Oh Crepe!

Ok, I admit it. I messed up.

Normally I'm fairly rigorous about my mise-en-place, that French cooking term which translates, roughly, to "Exactly how dumb would you have to be to start cooking without checking first if you have all your ingredients?" (It does lose something in the translation.)

A couple of weekends ago, my vision of a perfect-50's-television-family Sunday morning breakfast of freshly made peach crepes came crashing back to reality when, part way through mixing the batter, I found I didn't have the milk called for in the recipe. Rummaging through the refrigerator, the closest thing to milk I could find was sour cream. Hardly an ideal substitute, but it's my firm belief that if an idea is the only one you have, it doesn't matter much if it's good or bad. (MacGyver would be so proud.)

As you might expect, the sour cream made for a much thicker batter than would the milk. If you've ever made crepes, you know that, while they're not at all hard to make, the thickness/thinness of the batter is critical. I found that increasing the amount of water called for in the original recipe brought the batter back to its intended thickness, while still allowing the nice flavor added by the sour cream to come through. The disaster for which breakfast was originally headed was, I am happy to report, avoided. It turned out so well that the sour-cream version has now become my go-to crepe recipe.

Crepes, of course, are one of the great, versatile foods. Fill them with fruit for breakfast, with meat for dinner; I've even heard of filling them with lunch meat and cheese, similar to a wrap, for lunch. Remember, it's your crepe. Have fun with it! (My son did try using peanut butter and it was terrible. Even crepes, it would seem, have their limits.)

For the filling, a peach-compote of sorts was easy to make using an approach that will probably seem familiar to anyone who has ever made fruit jam.


To make about 8 crepes, combine 1 cup of all-purpose flour, ¼ teaspoon of salt, 2 tablespoons of butter substitute (melted), 2 egg-substitute eggs, 1 cup of low-fat sour cream and 1/2 cup of water in a bowl and mix well with an electric hand mixer on high. Add additional water, ¼ cup at a time, until the batter is the consistency of heavy cream. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.

After the batter has finished resting, heat a non-stick sauté pan over low heat. When it's heated, remove it from the stove, melt about a teaspoon of butter substitute in it, and add about ¼ cup of the batter. (Unlike pancakes, crepes are very thin.) Swirl the batter around to cover the surface of the pan, put it back on the stove and increase the heat to medium. (I recently saw one of my favorite tv chefs, Michael Chiarello, add a teaspoon of toasted chopped hazelnuts to the batter at this point. What a great idea!) When the crepe is browned on the bottom and firm enough to be flipped (usually about two minutes, but keep an eye on it), flip the crepe or use a spatula and your fingers (carefully!) to turn it over and cook it on the opposite side until it has the desired brownness. (If you're new at flipping, don't be discouraged if the first few flips don't work out. It's really the only challenging part of making a crepe, and it does get much better with just a little practice. The first time I made crepes I had to throw out the first three or four attempts. Stay with it. And this is a case where a good pan really does make a difference.) Repeat the process until all the batter is used, rebuttering the pan after each crepe, and stacking the cooked crepes as they finish. Keeping the stack covered with a clean towel to prevent them from drying out.

Of course, even good crepes need a nice filling.


For the filling, combine in a medium saucepan 1-1/2 cups of sugar and the juice and zest of 1 lemon. Heat it over very low heat, stirring often, until the mixture is melted. (This should take a few minutes.)

Once the sugar mixture is melted, add 6 peaches, sliced into eighths, ¼ tsp ground nutmeg, and 1 tablespoon of butter substitute, and increase the heat to medium. Cook until the peaches are soft and the liquid is reduced. Turn off heat and let the peach mixture rest to allow the liquid to thicken. Fill the crepes, roll them up, sprinkle them with a little confectioner's sugar, and serve warm.

(An equally nice apple filling can be made by using apples instead of peaches, and 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon along with the nutmeg. I used golden delicious and it was delicious, but experiment with whatever your favorite apple is.)


After you've filled and folded over the crepe, don't forget to sprinkle confectioner's sugar on top!

Till next week, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)

Impossible Pie Crust

I've heard it from experienced pastry chefs, and you probably have too: it's impossible to make a good reduced-fat pie crust. It's what they learned in culinary school, taught to them by people who, themselves, learned it in culinary school from people who learned it in culinary school. It's so obvious there was never a need for anyone to waste time or ingredients trying it.

Not having a real, formal culinary education, however, I confess to not having been aware of this. And so, in my ignorance, I went ahead and made a reduced-fat crust that has gotten many compliments over the years from friends to whom I've served it. (Apparently, a lot of people I know didn't go to culinary school either.)

The key to making such a crust successfully is managing the fat in the eggs and the butter. The eggs are simple enough; egg-substitutes are an easy one-for-one swap when making dough. (They don't work quite as well for batters or other things that depend on the eggs getting fluffy.) It's the proper use of butter substitute that took a while (not to mention several not-very-good pie crusts along the way) to figure out; let me share with you what I learned.

First, and as most people probably already know, butter substitutes have lower fat than butter because they have a higher moisture content, so in recipes it's not a simple one-for-one substitution. It's more like three-quarters-for-one. In other words, if a recipe calls for a cup of butter, use three-quarters cup of butter substitute.

Moisture, of course, is not the only potential obstacle to a successful crust. Texture is another. I've found some butter substitutes have the right taste but are too soft, while others have a nice firm texture but not a good enough taste. For baking I solved this by making a mix; a blend of Smart Balance and I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, in equal parts, has worked well for me in baking projects. I recommend you experiment to find the combination you like best. An important factor to remember is that most brands of butter substitute are available in a variety of fat contents, some high enough to be suitable for baking, and some not. Check the package to make sure the manufacturer specifically says it's ok to use for baking. Remember, we're going for a crust that's reduced-fat, not one that's fat-free. Even I'm willing to admit that last one really is impossible.

Temperature is another key to making dough using a butter substitute. Dough, regardless of whether it's made with real butter or butter substitute, must be kept cold for easy handling. If you're using real butter, this means the refrigerator. For doughs made with butter substitute, think freezer instead. Not to freeze it solid, but to make it that much colder.


To make two 9-inch pie crusts, mix 1/2 cup of water, 1/4 tsp lemon juice and 1 tsp of salt, and put the mixture into the freezer until it's almost icy.

In the bowl of a mixer, combine 12 ounces of all-purpose flour, 4 ounces of cake flour, and 3 tablespoon of sugar. (For a real treat, use vanilla sugar instead of the plain kind. Oh baby!) Blend 8 ounces of butter substitute into the mixture using the paddle until it looks like a coarse meal with a few larger pieces of butter substitute. Add the icy water mixture and blend until the dough holds together. Divide it in half, wrap each in plastic and chill for at least 1 hour before using as you would any other pie crust.

 If you'd like a cookbook-style notebook-ready copy of this recipe, just send me an e-mail and I'll forward it to you as a Word file.


Thanks for visiting - be sure to share your comments and suggestions!

Till next week, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)