Frittata with Fresh Herbs

Chef John McDermott prepares Frittata with Fresh Herbs

I'm going to prepare our frittata. Now first step, got my eggs ready. I got to whip my eggs together. Now, keep in mind, I like my eggs to come out fluffy. I want them to be light and fluffy. So I am going to really whip them, and if you had a whisk that could work really well. I have always done it with a fork and then you can know they are going to be fluffy when you whip it again. You see the bubbles are starting to rise from the eggs that I am beating., those bubbles—that is the air that is getting trapped inside the egg. So the more air you can beat into it. The lighter on the fluffier your fry is going to be later. So I am going to give them—I’m really going to give them a good time now. You can see here the bubbles inside the eggs. Again, let us make it really nice and fluffy, it is very pleasant to eat. You do not want to have something really heavy and dense. Okay, place it aside for a second. I will take my frying pan and we are going to put it on medium heat. And while this is getting ready, I have here, we are going to add the frittata, some fresh herbs, those are some fresh chives that I had cut. And I guess, I was in the market and I saw some baby arugula and I really like a arugula, it has a really nice deep peppery kind of scent and flavor that I really like. And the baby is really so tender also, so there is the stalk, the tube—the stalks are less softer. And I am going to take my arugula and just—on the arugula it will just get a rough chop. I am not going to be really precise about the dice on the arugula, I am just going to run a knife to it a couple of times, like so. I test to see if my pan is over my bare hand. I was—it’s not a good day, you see like I have a bandage on here today. That’s a test that something else was hot the other day. I really go and wait to see if your pan is hot. Put your hand with some more on and hit with the water. You can see, you know what you expected when you hear from the sound of the boils with a little drop with some water. I really do not want to get too—I want this to really sauté in slowly, so the low heat is good. So I am going to take some butter, and we are going to knock this in the pan first. Now it is good to be a little with the butter because after these vegetables are sauted, the eggs are going to get poured over the top, and I want to make sure it does not stick. So I need enough butter now to sauté my herbs but also, for my frittata later on. Okay my butter is melted. I am going to add the chives. Now in the frittata, you can really add whatever you like. If you got a lot of fresh vegetables in your refrigerator and you are really not sure on how to put it all together, you can just make a frittata. Leftover baked potato, dice them up, and put those in here. Mushrooms are great, mushrooms and the potatoes, fresh herbs are a must really, zucchini is nice. You can go on any direction you like. Okay. I’m going to let this sauté really slowly. I want the scent off of the chive. And soon as I can smell, I am going to put the arugula in. Now, I am going to make sure that my heat is really low, because I’m still going to—I have a few things to add into the egg. So I am going to turn the heat all the way down low. And let that saute very slowly, then come back over here. Now to the eggs, I am going to add a three-finger pinch of kosher salt. We are going to put some fresh ground black pepper. Here I have some fresh parmesan cheese. I just like to grate my own. I do not like to buy the stuff that is pre-grated. Things will always taste better—if you keep this fresh as possible, it is always going to taste a lot better later on. So, my parmesan cheese gets grated right into the eggs. To that also, I am going to add a touch of cream, just a few tablespoons, okay. And also to this mix, I am going to add a healthy—I’d say good pence of flour. I use whole wheat flour, I like the flavor better. When the flour, the way the flour is going to work, you will notice, that is the time you bake eggs in the oven, in France we call, it has an effect that we refer to as suffle but when the eggs are suffle, they rise up. Now a lot of times if it rises up, and I will just take it out. It is going to deflate also and then it gets really thick. And the flour we can—the flour will help the air to suspend our frittata. So just a little bit, it is going to help to hold the suffle once it cools off, I am going to beat this together. We’re going to add a good pinch of parsley also, fresh parsley. Now I have also pre-set my oven already on about 400 degrees, so now I will just take this mix here so pour right over the top of the arugula and the fresh chives. Now I turn my heat up a little bit, and soon as I know that is, I want to let it firm up a bit on the bar, because I want to get a nice brown golden brown color on trhe bottom of my frittata. And probably get most of it on top of the stove, so just a minute on the stove, we’ll turn the heat up high and as soon as I know that is getting nice and firm on the button of the pan then from that point I am going to put it right on the oven. So let us say, right that point now, I got my oven pre-set to 400 degrees. And I will take this, and put it right into the oven. Now another—people are always asking if we talk about recipe. Very simple, John how long it will take? I don’t know. As long as it takes, that is what I always say. You keep an eye, you see in the center of that frittata, it will start to rise. And you can use your hand. Just touch them again on my hands. We’re going to feel the middle, and you can feel that when it is not soft anymore at the center. And you see it is suffleing right around into the edges and you know it is cooked all the way through. Now when it is finally ready, this is going to come out of the oven looking something like this, okay. Now when it is done we obviously want to remove it into the pan. And the first thing I am going to do, I am going to use a knife, we go right down to the edge to loosen it away from the pan. If you do not have a nonstick pan, do not put it any further. I won’t buy Teflon pans anymore at home because that is basically will work. But no matter how much of a fuzz I make, do not use the metal utensils on a Teflon pan please. Somebody is going to get in there— So, I have listened to it away from the pan, and I'm going to use a spatula to get in and go around the pan, it is also good to keep in mind that Teflon really does not—when you scratch it like that, the pieces of it will flake into the food and we do not want to eat that stuff. It is not really healthy for you. Okay now we’re going to take a dish, we will line it up with some of these—some of these green leaf lettuce. It will be a nice presentation, I can put the arugula on there also, that would work. How is that, it is a Frittata with fresh herbs.