WE MOVED TO OUR NEW HOME!

All recipes posted on this blog will be transferred to our new home. Follow our journey there, and more stories on travel and life....  See  you  at LaMaisonVan.com and thank you for checking in!

#178 Italy's Frittata with mushroom and spinach

This is so good to eat for breakfast! It has eggs, vegetables and fats in one baked dish. :) I love heavy cream and so I added it in my newly discovered Italian breakfast dish: the Frittata. This egg dish requires a little bit of work than simply boiling or scrambling your eggs in the morning, but it is beautiful and very tasty. I do not regret spending more time learning and cooking this awesome dish that the whole family enjoyed for a nice Sunday breakfast. :)

FRITTATA WITH MUSHROOM AND SPINACH 

Ingredients: 

6 large organic eggs
1 1/2 cups heaving whipping cream
salt and pepper
olive oil
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
2 tbsp sliced onions
2 cups fresh spinach, chopped or you can use baby spinach whole
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
2. In a pan, heat olive oil, sauté onions and mushrooms until cooked, then add spinach until wilted. Drain the water that comes from the cooked vegetables, set aside.
3. In a bowl, beat eggs, add heavy whipping cream, salt and pepper, 2/3 cup of mozzarella cheese. 
4. Bake for 30 minutes. 
5. Open the oven and add 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese on top of the frittata. Close  the oven and let it bake for another 5-10 minutes or until the mixture is set.
6. Enjoy! 

An italian expression: "hai fatto una frittata", means I made a mess. This comes from the fact that in Italy, a frittata is made from left overs at the last minute when nothing else is available in the fridge. Now I also learned one more Italian sentence! I also learned that in Italy you will rarely see Frittata in its restaurant's menu, because to the Italians, Frittata is a dish that is commonly  made at home, nothing special and can be made with any meat or vegetables from left overs. It's funny how I thought it is some kind of a fancy national breakfast food in  Italy and I can order it anywhere in Rome when I visit this year. Good to know. :) This dish is good, it's very healthy, the cream is optional so you can remove it from the recipe. 

I love my Frittata! It tastes great and very satisfying! 

Hope you enjoyed this post! If you did, follow this blog as we will be posting 187 more recipes! 187  recipes to discover, learn to cook, take pictures and share to complete the goal of 365! 

#177 Classic Ceviche

I finally learned how to make Ceviche! It's really easy, a first grader can prepare  it easily! It is similar to one of my most favorite Filipino dishes, the Kinilaw which is also featured in this blog almost 4 years ago. Like Ceviche, Kinilaw is a dish that uses raw fish as the main ingredient and it is "cooked" not by the use of heat  but with the acid from the lemon or vinegar, and then mixed with vegetables: cucumber, daikon radish, fresh ginger, onions and spicy chili pepper. I can say now that the two are actually very different dishes. The difference is in the flavor. This is due to the avocado, cilantro, lime and orange juice sweetness in the Ceviche and it's lack of what makes Kinilaw tastes great: the intense flavor of fresh ginger and chili with every bite. I also learned that there are many variations of the Ceviche from the Americas, and I made what is considered the "Classic Ceviche", the same way it is made in the country where it originated from: Peru. I used Tuna fish, because I am a tuna girl. Haha! I am just really loyal to tuna because I am very familiar with it, I grew up in a Philippine island where  Tuna was my main red meat, and so I know how to play with its flavor...oh how I miss eating tuna at fresh catch! Good old times. Here in California, I get my tuna from the Whole Foods Market, it is wild caught and imported therefore it is a little pricier, however, you can also use sea bass, halibut or snapper. Ready to make it? Here's how.

CLASSIC CEVICHE

Ingredients:

ocean fish, cubed (tuna, snapper, seabags or halibut)
1 1/2 cups lime juice
cilantro
onions
green olives, chopped
jalapeño or serrano pepper, seeded and finely chopped
3 tablespoons orange juice
salt
pepper (optional)
ripe avocado, cubed

Directions:

1. In a small but deep bowl, add lime juice and cubed raw fish, mix gently to coat fish evenly. Cover and set aside in refrigerator for at least 4 hours.
2. Using a colander, drain the lime juice from the fish.
3. In a big bowl, add the cilantro, onions, green olives, jalapeño or serrano peppers, orange juice and salt, mix well. Add the fish then mix. 
4. Before serving, add the avocado, gently mix. Add pepper to taste (optional). 
5. Enjoy!

It's very different from  what I expected but  is now also my favorite! I love it!

Hope you enjoyed this post! If you did, follow this blog as we will be posting 188 more recipes! 188 recipes to discover, learn to cook, take pictures and share to complete the goal of 365! 

Will I finish this task? Check back often to see my progress! xo Van