10.3-From Tusc till dawn

Hosting a Mediterranean brunch over my friend Ruth’s house. Serving roasted Greek potatoes with lemon and feta, an Italian inspired fritatta with panchetta, sun dried tomatoes, ricotta and percorino, prosciutto wrapped cantaloupe with honey and pepper and a lemon ricotta coffee cake with toasted almonds on top and a drink bar with flavored liquored coffee and mimosas.

E it’s a Mediterranean brunch today in sorial kitchen KY thanks offit my Greek roed potatoes with lemon and feta then it’s an Italian inspired Frittata with manchetta sun drunk tomatoes and shaved aago on top and last but not least my lemon rotta coffee cake toasted alond so

And with me welcome back everybody you were in for a treat today because we are going to the Mediterranean for a fun brunch that I am hosting toasting over my friend rofs and I’m starting off with a lemon rotta coffee cake does that not sound good or what so I’ve already got a

Stick and a fourth of um softened butter in here I’m adding a cup of sugar starting with my wet ingredients first I always like to do that first and then I can control the dry I also need three eggs got them right here I’m want to be careful with these

Eggs make sure I don’t get any eggshells in here that would be terrible and one more now let’s mix this baby up let’s come here and pop the yolks and just cream everything together until you get a nice kind of start of the batter get that butter Incorporated to the sugar in the

Eggs and with it really good incorporate a lot of air into those eggs that’s going to really help this rise later all right that looks pretty good I think this just going to be a nice light refreshing cake I have a couple other things to add before we move on to the

Dry ingredients some flavorings here got some almond extract I’m going to do about a half teaspoon of that this is really strong so un likee vanilla you don’t want to use as much of it but um it’s just going to play really nicely with the lemon that we’re doing here and speaking of

Lemon I’ve got my lemon right here just one little lemon give it a good roll to release those juices cuz I’m going to be juicing it as well but I also want to catch some of that zest you know me when I’m uh working with lemons I always like to incorporate the

Zest and um need about a tablespoon of the zest so I’m going to go ahead and zest this whole thing that should be plenty and always when you’re zesting the lemon make sure that you’re just getting that little yellow outer part and not down into the pith which is really bitter and

Would ruin this cake all right that looks pretty good oh that zest is so fragrant I just I love it and then you always check the back for stragglers make sure that in here too and now we’re ready to to juice this baby just cut it in half if you want you

Can juice it by hand just make sure you watch for um the uh seeds we don’t want seeds in here but I have got a fancy little juicer here that I got for um Christmas and I only need half this lemon I think it’s pretty juicy I want

This to be nice and tarp and not overly a I and we’ll set that aside save this guy for myself and the rest of our wet ingredients some ricotta cheese you can’t have lemon ricotta cheesecake without ricotta cheese and I need a whole cup of this sounds like a lot but that’s going

To make this cake nice and moist and soft it’s going to be nice and flavorful and I love Rec of cheese about as much as I love lemon so okay that’s pretty good the rest of this I’m going to save um to do with my frittata

Later and I also need 2 tbspoon of sour cream and that’s just again going to add to the richness and make sure everything is nice and moist and that’s going to be not quite half this container but almost and plot that right in when I was planning the

Season this is the first episode that came to mind I went to do a tusen brunch I had this coffee cake in mind first off and then I kind of planned around that unfortunately we didn’t get around to getting together for this to be the premiere but we’re getting together now

But bunch of my friends are coming it’s going to be a fun little party and I’m just super excited so I’m going to go ahead and incorporate the rest of this oh just look at that color it’s a gorgeous kind of canary yellow oh that’s just

Beautiful yes okay I think we are ready for the dry ingredients all right on to my dry ingredients I’ve already got my handy dandy sifter out here I’ve gotten rid of my whisk temporarily and I’m going to come in here and get some flour I need a whole

Cup so I just kind of come in here you can um overfill the cup and then just level it off and then you’ve got a perfect measure and then I also need a/4 cup which is about one of my little Scoops here perfect oh yes I also need some baking

Powder so I’m going to make sure that this Rises beautifully a whole tablespoon of that just kind of level that off as well you want to be very precise with the dry ingredients where it’s really going to throw off your mixture and then I also need need a pinch of

Salt nice generous amount of salt salt and desserts very necessary the salt brings out the natural flavors of everything and then of course I just come in here and give this a little tap removes all the lumps from the flour and mixes all of our dry ingredients

Together oh so good now I switch from the Whisk to a spatula I like using a spatula for the dry ingredients as opposed to the Whisk cuz you um prevent over mixing the flour when you over mix the flour that gluten starts to overdevelop and then you get a really dense chewy

Product and what I do is I just kind of turn the bowl and I come underneath and get the wet and fold it over the dry until everything starts to come together and this is another reason I sift everything I don’t have a bunch of lumpy

Flour that I got to pound through I just have to incorporate what flour I have into my wet and literally once it comes together you’re finished and it’s not a bunch of um not a big mess make sure you come along the sides of the bowl as well and get all that incorporate

It this looks so good so good super excited for this yes I like that all right I think we’re good to go so I’ve got my little spring form pan here this is kind of a medium size I want this to kind of cook

Up nice and high so I’m not using my big one and I want to prep this a little bit to make sure that my cake is going to come out clean I’m just going to spray it down this is just a olive oil spray you can use whatever you have

And we are ready to dump in the batter all right my pan is greased our batter has come together and I’m just going to dump that right in make sure we scrape the sides of the bowl and get every last bit of this ah so exciting and I’m using the

Spring form pan so when it’s done I can just pull the sides the uh ring off and it’ll be easier to get out and it’ll be easier to serve on that little tray just want to make sure I’m not leaving behind any batter oh yes that’s gorgeous smells so good you really smell

That lemon and the Almond I’m just going to come in here with my spatula and smooth this out so it’s a nice even layer all the way across I want to make sure that this bakes evenly beautiful and then I have one more thing just to really J has up this

Baby and really play into that almond and that is sliced almonds and I’m just using some plain sliced almonds um I know normally you would like to use toasted nuts but this is going to bake off in the oven which is going to allow these to get

Toasted so I wanted to do the plane and I’m just going to kind of just kind of fan them out just a nice little sprinkling all the way around I’m going to start kind of outside and work my way in it’s going to look gorgeous on top

Too and these almonds get nice and crisp and the cake bakes up so exciting and it’s going to look fancy like you bought this from a fancy Bakery but you made it yourself s and just a few more for good measure perfect look at this doesn’t

That look gorgeous and then if you want you just kind of come in here I’m going to press them down a little bit just to make sure they’re actually in kind of that top layer of the batter and not just poking out on top beautiful yes yes

Okay now I’ve have already preheated my oven 350° this is going to bake for about 45 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and I will see you guys then all right everybody our cake is ready to come out oh yeah look at this m this has got

Nice and golden brown on top the sides have some good color to it those almonds are nice and toasted I’m going to set this on my rack here to let some of the air circulate underneath and it’s going to cool evenly while this was in the oven I have

Been wrapping up some Pudo and melon which I’m also taking with me and once this cools down I’ll pack everything up and we will head to Roose I will see you see you there guys we’re here I’ve got all my goodies and that cake that you saw me

Make earlier and I’m ready to Feast it up all right guys I’ve got some Panetta here in the skillet we’re getting started on our frittata I want to do that first cuz it’s going to take the longest so a fata it’s basically like an omelette but instead of trying to flip

It over you just bake it in the oven easy peasy so I’ve got my Panetta here rendering down listen to that sizzle so Panetta if you’ve never had it before it’s basically bacon but it’s how Italians do bacon they cure their pork belly a little differently it’s not

Smoked like um a lot of um American bacon is and it has nice bits of fat in there that’s just going to render down become a beautiful canvas for the rest of our fillers speaking of fillers I’ve got some onion here that I have begun dicing up

You’ve seen me cut onions before you’re going to see it again you know you just come through lengthwise and then you come down again and then a third time and you get nice little dices and I’m dicing this pretty small cuz I want to make sure that it all Cooks the

Same I’m going to use about half of this onion for the frittata and then I’m going to save some to do with my crispy Grecian potatoes very excited about that and I’ve also got some sundried Tomatoes here it’s going to be another one of our Ingredients there’s some very classic um kind of um Italian ingredients here and I don’t need a ton of these I’m just going to pull out um depending on how big they are about six or seven maybe and we’ll just kind of chop those up I think that looks

Good and I love the tomatoes um it’s just really like nice concentrated flavor you have that preserving oil these I’m just going to kind of cut into like little strips all right guys my bacon is rendering down I’m going to go ahead and start on these eggs

Here I’m going to get fancy here and double fist it you just want to be really careful that you watch for eggshells we don’t know when eggshells in our for Tata I’m using eight eggs here that will um be just plenty once I add some of my

Other ingredients here and kind of stir everything up we’re going to start here with um some salt and pepper eggs are pretty bland so you want to season them generously and some pepper here all right that’s good then I’ve got the rest of my ricotta cheese from the

Coffee cake I’m just going to plot that right in oo that’s going to make these eggs really moist and fluffy and tender and then just come in here I start by busting up the yolks first and then just give it a nice whisk and I really what I want to do is

Incorporate the whites and the yolks and make sure that Ricotta’s broken down nicely but I’m also whipping a lot of air into these eggs and that air is going to what is going to be what really makes this rise once we throw this in the oven it’s

Just going to puff up and get really big and beautiful and round on top and I think that looks pretty good all right I’m throwing in my onions now maybe just a little more the rest are going to be for the potatoes I’m going let these get nice

And cook down they’re going to pick up a lot of flavor from the uh fat of The Panetta and they’re just going to get really succulent and delicious and we’re going to season these as well some little salt and a little pepper I start with The Panetta because it takes a

Little longer to render down and then the onions they’ll just get um nice and soft now lastly we thr on our sundried Tomatoes the sundried tomatoes they’re already ready to eat so I’m not really cooking them much at all I just want to kind of marry them with some of these

Other flavors here real quick before we throw in our eggs just kind of get them coated in that lovely fan Panetta fat as well and then some of the oils from the preserved Tomatoes kind of get in here and just makes a nice flavorful little mixture here all right that smells Del delicious

All right time to throw in the eggs and I do this on the stove while everything is still hot make sure we get all the egg out of here beautiful and then I just kind of um I’m going to stir this around just a little real quick just to make sure we’re going

To get a nice bite of everything in each piece of frittata and come along the side here just to make sure we get a nice little lip on this and There She Goes we’re going to throw this in the oven I’ve already preheated it to 350°

It’s going to cook for about 45 to 50 minutes until the egg is cooked through we will check on that shortly and until then we will move on to our potatoes all right guys potato time the Pata is cooking it’s got about half an hour left we’re going come in here with our

Potatoes I’m making some crispy Grecian potatoes it’s going to have lemon and feta it’s going to be so good and I got these little baby potatoes I like them the skin is thin so you can leave it on and they’re different colors so it’s going to be visually stunning and then

I’m just going to kind of um half these I think some of the bigger ones you can kind of cut smaller if you want all right guys the last of my potatoes Here our oil should be good and hot but if you’re not sure take just a little water and there we go I’m going to be very careful dropping these in I do not want to splice oil all over myself And I’m going to immediately come in here with some salt and pepper potatoes are naturally Bland and they need all the help you can get but I love how they’re very sponge like they can taste take a lot of different Flavors I may be seasoning these again at some point but I just want to get them started I’m going to come in here with my spoon I’m going to stir these around I just want to coat make sure all of these are coated in my oil and this is a shallow fry I

Literally just did enough oil to cover the bottom of the skillet and that’s just to keep this from sticking and that’s about it and then we’re just let these go the trick to really crispy potatoes a lot of people they just keep stirring and stirring and stirring no leave them alone it’s almost

Like a steak let them go on one side for a little while and then turn them over and that’s exactly what I’m going to Do [Applause] We got our drinks the food’s about ready to come out this is a lovely little flavored coffee some half and half some shanies which is a butterscotch whiskey Bottoms Up Oh yeah I don’t do coffee a lot but when you have beautiful things like this to flavor it with M and I love butterscotch all right guys I’m ready to throw these onions in they’re a lot smaller they’re not going to take as long to cook

So I have waited on those to go in and then I’ve got my garlic here too but that’s takes even less time so I did not want that in just yet that garlic is minced and it literally takes a minute any longer than that and it burns and there’s nothing wor some burnt

Garlic and I’m just going to swirl this around I want this onions to kind of reduce and these potatoes are getting nice and crispy I am super excited all right guys woo check this baby out oh it’s beautiful beautiful beautiful golden brown I’m going to shave I’ve got some nice

Peino I’m going to shave on top this is going to be the last little thing here for this for Tata I just wanted to have a nice little cheesy crust on top oh yeah that looks so good and then I’m going to pop this back in the oven it’s

Got about 5 or 7 minutes left and we will be ready to dig in all right time for the garlic just about a um teaspoon I love my garlic this is my preserved garlic my minced garlic and I’m going to turn this off this is already hot enough that it’s

Going to cook my garlic through and I don’t have to worry about it burning and then I mentioned my lemon I’ve got that right here I’m going to zest this right into the potatoes and I want it to get into that oil and everything and when that zest hits the

Oil it’s just going to become nice and fragrant it’s really going to fill this room with a just burst of sunshine and I’m only going to zest about half of this zest is pretty strong I just wanted to really give these potato is a nice thing and the zest too the lemon and

Everything really cuts through the fat and richness of all of this just really lightens it up and then of course we always check for stragglers beautiful all right let’s finish stirring these around just to get that zest Incorporated and I would say these guys are ready to come off I’ve

Got a little dish here already and we’re just going to plop these right in make sure we get all the onions and garlic out of here and then I have one last thing for these potatoes to really bring home the Greek of it all that is feta and this is just crumbled

Feta and I’m just literally I’m going to take some while this is still hot and I’m just going to crumble it right on top just one nice little Dusting and I think our frittata is also ready to come out and I think we are ready to played Up All right guys I finished plating up everything looks so good I think I’m going to start with the frittata I’m most excited about about that I just want to make sure I get a nice big bite here look at that nice and golden brown M so definitely I get the creaminess from the

Ricotta the petta it’s nice and fatty and flavorful the sundried tomatoes a little sweet a little acidic so good now these potatoes M nice little bit of crunch you really pick up that Lemon the feta just kind of melts in your Mouth now of course my coffee cake I’m most excited about that and you can see the sponge is nice and soft and moist M nice little crunch from the on almonds on top it’s nice and soft you get a little bit of that almond and the lemon so

Good my uh Pita rat melons I just drizzled with a little honey and some black pepper just to really add a little Savory note yeah I love the Pudo it’s nice and salty the honey and the black pepper everything just kind of marries together nicely but um I’m going to leave you

Guys for now and finish up here but I thank you for joining me as always please like And subscribe if you haven’t already and until next time Bye