Brunch Week kicks off with a Frittata that leans on leftovers for ingredients, plus a French Toast Casserole. Grab the recipe at http://www.DinnerDeeAs.com and if you make it, send us a picture! E-mail us at DinnerDeeAs@fox.com or @DinnerDeeAs on Instagram. Watch Dinner DeeAs every weekday at 1p on Fox 13 Tampa Bay and 7a on FOX 35 Plus in Orlando.
all week we’re bringing you brunch ideas. It’s the lazy person’s breakfast
or the hungry person’s lunch. And today we have sweet and savory covered as we make a frittata
that leans on leftovers as ingredients and grab your maple sirup
as we’re doing a French toast casserole. I’m Jeff Philbin,
and this is Dinner DeeAs. Joining me to explore the food frontier between breakfast
and lunch is chef Sean Ryan. He’s starting our week off right,
with a duo of dishes. And my friend.
Welcome to the Devious Kitchen. This is an honor and a treat to see you.
It’s been a long time. You have been a part of my culinary
journey. In the media world, part of it
all with you and your wife for so long. So it is an absolute joy to have you here
right now with me today, my friend. Thank you so much. Sean is also with the J.W. Marriott and not just a friend of mine,
the mayor and Tampa, that is. And he’s here today to share recipes for a spring vegetable
frittata and also French toast. But in a casserole, we can have some fun
with a casserole for breakfast and brunch. And both dishes uses
everyone’s favorite cost conscious ingredient leftovers. It’s very important these days. It really is. I mean, the price of groceries
is really, really expensive. But more than that, you think about
the increase that you have for that dish, only just that dish and you throw it away. Food waste is real. But when you can find a new way to kind of
bring some light to those ingredients, that would have gone just to the garbage,
you can make a great dish. Yeah. So what are we making? So today we’re going to do a spring
vegetable frittata. These are some of the vegetables
that I had in my refrigerator. We had some melting leeks. Right now, we’re going to add some,
zucchini to that. A couple other vegetables,
some cheese and egg, and then I’m
just going to put it in the oven. So we’ve got the leeks already
starting over here. They smell fantastic. When did you know was the right time
to start layering more flavors in? So the links will start,
become translucent. You know, you start to be able to see. See through it, see through them. And then that’s when you know that
they’re, they’re cooked well enough. You don’t want to get too much color
in them. Because then it’s
going to change the flavor of them. And what do we haven’t cooked in
right now? Just a little bit of olive oil. Just a little bit of a very clean, smells already fantastic. All right, so what was what’s coming next? We’re going to add our zucchini
that we’ve already cut up. And again if this is leftovers
they might already be cooked okay then. But for our purpose. I had some just
that were getting old in the refrigerator, so I wanted to use them up.
I love it. Okay. And so then what we’re trying to do here
is just to cook them to just get them a little tender,
a little soft, little tender, not really trying
to get a hard sear on them. Nothing. No. We’re just using very low temperature
medium temperatures here. Yeah. Because we’re going to put this
in the oven. It’s going to cook even more.
The whole process is going to be exactly. To grab Chef Sean’s recipe
for this frittata and the French toast we’re about to do go to dinner, discard. It’s there for you and ready to print
with all the ingredients, the amounts and directions to make it tonight
or tomorrow morning. Use the camera on your phone
to find us with the QR code. Just point the phone at the TV
and when you have that box in frame and in focus, a link to us will appear
right on your phone. Okay, so if these are just going to just,
you know, do their thing for a little bit and stuff
a little bit, what else can we do. So we’re going to start the process
of our French toast casserole okay. So we’re going to grease up our pan,
which we have right here. I’m just going to do a little pan
spray in there. Real simple. And then we’re going to make basically
almost like a little bit of caramel to put on the bottom of it. So we’re going to melt some butter,
all right. With some brown sugar. And we’re going to incorporate that. And we’re only going to just melt the butter
and get the sugar incorporated into it. And then we’re going to pour that
into the bottom of the casserole. Oh. So that’s just going to be like
a nice little bit of like that sirup that’s just going to take everything back. So when it cooks up
it’s going to bubble over the top. And then oh when we serve it
we’ll be able to spoon it out and put it on top. Oh. And season this with a little bit of salt and pepper. We’re going to take a quick break
back with more brunch right after, as we turn stale bread into a fancy French
toast feast, add on the energies. Welcome back to dinner, Deus. Where it’s not dinner time or lunch time. Even as we’re bringing you
brunch ideas all week long, getting underway is chef
Sean Ryan from the J.W. Marriott in Tampa, who showed you
how to make a spring vegetable frittata and French toast,
but in casserole form and casserole. Let’s go. Before the break. We start at the frittata, cooking leeks slowly until they soften,
then add a zucchini and lift that cooked well. We got our French toast
casserole up and running, greasing a baking dish
and then heating brown butter. Or excuse me, a heating brown sugar
in the butter together until it’s dissolved here. And it’s really just like a smooth
caramel. Yeah. Exactly. And that’s going to go into the baking
dish. And as the bread bakes
it’s going to come up and just envelop the whole
oh so is this ready here. Is this to your liking. Yep. It’s perfect okay. Now you want to put it right here
into the bottom of this is perfect. And then we’re going to get our custard underway. We have our eggs and our heavy cream. I’m going to start whisking this together. Now with the heavy cream, the egg, the bread, sugar. It’s not the lightest breakfast over here. No, but it’s also going to be the tastiest part
of that whole, like, sweetness thing going on here. Exactly. So
you get a little sweet, a little savory. All right.
So what did you just add in there. So that was the cinnamon okay. And then this is a little bit of vanilla. I’m just going to add that to it as well
okay. And then we’re
just going to incorporate this all. Oh so looks like it’s coming along
really well. And incorporate now that’s going to mix
with the bread over here. What type of bread do you have. So today I used brioche. I had a little bit of stale brioche
that was in my, my my pantry. Okay. And instead of throwing it away, I just
cut it up into some bite sized pieces and was able to bring it here today. Now, what other breads
could you use for this? You can use anything. I don’t know about you, but in my house
we always have bread around. Whether it’s French bread
or if it’s sliced white bread. Yeah. Any kind of bread.
You can use anything you want. I mean, you’re
just basically making French toast, but just in a casserole form, and we’re just going to incorporate it. And this can be done overnight, too. If you wanted
to put this in the refrigerator so that you didn’t have to worry about it
in the morning, you could do this overnight. That’s pretty cool. So like, someone on the go
can already kind of start this whole process, have it ready to go
and still feel like a rock star. Yeah, I just pop into the oven. Exactly. You can put it all all together
in your in your, in your casserole and then wrap it
and then just pop it in the oven. And the next morning I love it. Work hard
and smart here for my friends. So we are incorporated as much as we can. Okay, you know what? You’re
just going to pour this in here and. You just batch and just move it around, make sure it’s all. And that’s it for the French toast
casserole. That’s it. Simple and easy.
Simple and easy. And just for you, my friends, to grab Chef
Sean’s recipes for his French toast casserole
and the frittata. We’re finish. Up next. Head to dinner discount. Just get the QR code
in the corner of the screen. Now this is done,
you say yes, but we can’t just eat this like this right now.
So this has got to go into the oven. What are we looking at for the oven? About 350 degrees. Roughly 30 to 40 minutes. Come on now,
I’m putting this bad boy in for you. Oh, I can’t wait. And in the meantime, what
can we do to finish off this frittata? So we’re going to have the rest
of our vegetables. Okay. Which we have some asparagus
and some spinach. We’re just going to add that right in and incorporate that. Again, this is just a a spring vegetable,
whatever I could find in my refrigerator,
I just chopped up and brought it in. And, I mean, it’s just it’s just fun. It’s easy,
and it’s using all those leftovers. It’s using everything. Ready to go in special? Yes, sir. You know, we were just saying to Michael
before we start it back, frittatas are really great
because, like, yes, we’re using vegetables that we had in the fridge, but like,
if you had a protein from the night before from dinner or something,
that’s like, hey, what am I going to do with the leftover
steak? Or the chicken dish? Like a frittata is a great way to fold
in anything, anything, anything at all. I mean, meat,
you know, proteins of any kind. It’s just. It’s just that versatile. I love it. And again, because everything is leftovers,
everything was already been cooked. You know what I mean? So you don’t really have to cook
too much on the stove. And it’s also going to cook
in the oven as well. So it’s real quick really easy. We can add the potatoes okay. And these were already cooked potatoes
as you saw. Yeah I just chop them up
from the night before. They were just roasted potatoes
that we had for dinner. And we’re going to season
this again is super important to season every time. Very cool. While we finesse our frittata
we’re taking another quick break. When we come back, we finish it up
and get it into the oven ahead on dinner dishes. Welcome back to Dinner Ideas, where we have ideas for dinner
that also work for a morning meal. As we kick off a week of brunch ideas, starting today with a spring vegetable
frittata and a French toast casserole. Well, courtesy of our friend, Chef
Sean Reagan from campus J.W. Marriott Hotel. Before the break, we finish melting brown
sugar and butter, pouring it into a greased baking dish, then made a custard
whiskey, eggs with heavy cream, cinnamon and vanilla, pouring it all over
some cubed day old brioche. Then got all of that in the dish
and into the oven while we add it to our frittata,
throwing in some asparagus, spinach, and finally some cooked potatoes. And these are all leftovers
that you had on hand. But folks, you can use whatever you have
that’s on your hand okay. All right. So what’s next then. So we’re going to, get our eggs and our heavy cream together to basically make just our, if you will,
a custard for the frittata as well. So we have our eggs, we have our heavy
cream a lot of things like that my friend. That is
this is good for probably 5 or 6 people, you know, to enjoy a piece of frittata. You know, you to balance this out. You could put so many different sides
with it too. So you want the French toast casserole. Fantastic. Yep. Sweet and savory. You want to do a nice salad because,
you know, hey, I’m going to save this recipe
for the next time. Beautiful. Healthy. For a little healthy.
You could do that. Part two is perfect for any time. We’re going to season this as well. So we’ve already seasoned
all the vegetables in our sauté pan. And we’re going
to season the eggs as well. You know actually chef, many people are curious to know
the difference between a frittata quiche. So a frittata is a
is a basically a crustless quiche. And I thought it was appropriate for,
for this segment because, you know, a lot of people have, you know,
gluten allergies and stuff like that today, you know, I mean, so I wanted to, you know, give somebody the opportunity
to be able to enjoy something like this. I love it. So we have our eggs and cream incorporated
with a little bit salt and pepper. We’re going to add this to our eggs. And then while we’re doing that
we’re also going to add some of our cheese
about three quarters of the cheese because we want to save a little bit
for the top later. Okay.
What type of cheese you have right there. This is a crumbled goat cheese
that I chose to use. Okay. Just again, this is all things
that were in my refrigerator that if I didn’t use
up, I’m probably going to go bad. It’s perfect time to make a frittata. It is. And it’s a perfect time to grab Chef
Sean’s recipe for this fine frittata. Not forgetting the French toast
casserole cooking over there in the oven at to dinner discount. Or just scan the QR code
in the corner of the screen to find us. So are we going to let this just be here for the rest of it,
and just let him know we’re going to cook and we’re going to cook it a little bit, and then we’re gonna get it
right into the oven. And how do you know when it’s right
to take it from the stovetop to the other? So usually when I do it at home,
I want to kind of cook the eggs a little bit
so that I know that the placement of all the vegetables is proper
before I put it in the oven, you know, because sometimes when you put something in the oven,
if it’s still loose, a lot of it will settle. Okay. You know, I mean, so it’s important for me that I, you know, kind of incorporate it,
make sure that it’s everything is okay. It’s a little quality control
at that point to make sure that you’re going to have that nice plate,
because it’s just exactly right. I’m just going to pull it all down. But that doesn’t mean, you know, I mean then everybody gets a bite
of something specific, you know, like, so you get a little potato, a little spinach, a little, you know, now. And it’s
a perfect way to be able to celebrate, you know, that savory, that sweet
that’s going on over here. So I gotta ask you, my friend, like,
which one are you more savory, more sweet. Oh, my God, I love it together. You know, because I love something sweet,
but with a hint of salt. Okay. I mean, so, I mean,
even if it’s French toast, I might want to have a French fry with it,
you know? I mean, something silly. Oh.
All right. Okay. Yeah. You’re going with that one here. See,
I like the savory. I’ve always been that savory. But then when I do have a sweet tooth,
I got a sweet tooth. Like, that’s like, it’s like if I’m going
for, like, I’m going all in for it. And I just absolutely love that. I love the good blend. You have to have balance with it. You have to have balance with it. I’m going to ask for that rubber spatula. Yes, sir. I’m going to
just give it a pull from the side. You can see that
it’s already starting to set up. And this is where we know we feel comfortable where everything is. And we can get it right into the oven. And it’s 350 degree oven for about 15,
20 minutes. I love it. I love it. And that’s it. We’re going to pop that in and we are. Let’s go for it. If you make either of Chef
Sean’s dishes for your dinner or brunch, take a photo
and let us see how it turned out. Email us. Dinner [email protected]. That’s what Cindy did.
She watches this on Largo every day. Hi, Cindy. She’s at home on her lunch hour
watching dinner ideas. She made the spaghetti Altman and pork
chops recipe shared by chef Vinny Andreotti. The Vinny of Tampa sandwich shop
cousin Venice. Cindy tell us. Made this one tonight. Didn’t have cherry peppers so I use fresh
jalapenos and roasted red peppers. It was amazing chef. It looks amazing right? I wish I would have been invited
I see like what? I see the extra plate over there
to split everything up. She did like
have the serving platters for us. So maybe like the next time. Sydney
I think, the two of us were coming over. It sounds good. Okay.
Because we’re bringing the brunch. Yeah, we got it.
She’s got already the dinner for us. One last break to take while we wait on these brunches
to bake and pop this one into the oven. We’ll see how they both
look when done ahead. And dinner days. Welcome back to Dinner Ideas, where it’s the beginning of brunch week with ideas for mid-morning meals
coming your way every day, starting with a duo of delightful dishes,
a spring vegetable frittata and French toast casserole, both from chef Sean Ryan,
executive sous chef with the J.W. Marriott in Tampa. Before the break, we finished off frittata
by whisking eggs with heavy cream, a little salt and pepper, and then poured it over our vegetables in the skillet, stirring
in some goat cheese, and then got that all into the oven where we let it bake
for about 15, 20 minutes. Yeah. That’s right. Okay,
now we got this bad boy over here, though. This is the French toast casserole. Okay, sweetness,
coming out first over here. This looks absolutely fantastic. But how do you know that it’s done? You could shake it, you know? And if it’s still a little wishy washy,
you know, it’s got a little longer to go. But really, it’s
just about incorporating the, the custard into the bread
and getting it all absorbed. We’re just going to cut it
just like a, like you would a brownie or anything like that. Yeah. Just. Slice. Really pretty easy. Look at that. I mean, but my friend, like,
that’s that’s portion control right there. I mean, right there, that is. Let’s see that one one’s got my name
written all over it. I think it’s got the words deliciousness. Look at all that. Like that brown sugar. And that’s the color that Carmel
right there coming out like that. Oh, you went back for it. Oh of course, got to put it on top. Oh, yeah. That looks so good. All right. So that is brunch item one down. That’s number one.
And then we’ve got the frittata. We do have the frittata. We’ve got brunch number two. So. Oh yeah. This is the dynamic duo
I’ve been waiting for. So we baked this.
Whoa there kid out of the oven. And then like I said, we reserved some of the cheese earlier
for a little bit more on top. You could broil this if you wanted to,
or just the heat of it alone will, will melt it. But look at how beautiful that looks. And then, this
as long as it sets up properly, you can just slide your
of a spatula around in there and then just loosen it up,
and then you can just pop it right onto a cutting board.
Oh look at that. And that way then like no one
slicing into there and damaging anything like that, you know, make sure you put it
on a cutting board and rest it. How do you make this look pretty? So it’s just like a pie, you know? I mean, we can slice it
as big or as little as you care. But as long as we cooked it properly. Oh, look at that. Yeah. Beautiful. Even amounts. Now how many with this serve? I mean, this is a 12 egg frittata. I mean, it was in a ten inch pan. I mean, this we could cut even small
and that you talking about 6 to 8 people. You could get a nice slice out of it. I mean, it just really depends
on what you want to serve it with. I mean, it’s great to serve with a salad. Yeah, a crusty bread. You know, I mean, you could do it. Or French toast. French toast
and your loved ones. Because literally, like, this is truly a
means to be able to do something in bulk. So you could bring everyone together.
Yeah. This is great for friends and family. You know, invite them over on Sunday
morning, my friend. Which one you going for first? I, I’m going to probably do
a little bit of each okay. And maybe mix it together
because I’m a salty sweet kind of wait, I mean, you were saying that before
for choosing a French fry, but you’re saying like, oh,
okay, frittata. I love a little salt,
but a little sweet, you know? I mean, it’s just with the same with the same fork
for the same bite and everything. Yeah. Okay. Jedi master, show me the way. Okay. Let me be. So I’m going to take right off the edge
right here. That’s the one I’m. I’m following your lead, and then I’m
just going to scoop a little piece of it. I got a little bit of the potato
on that one too. Yeah, I did too. Oh. So you’re going
you really are going for that one. I want to taste this on some. You know,
it was beautiful how you did this to. Oh on every step of the way, you kept seasoning. You kept bringing more salt and pepper,
making sure that, yes, sure, the potatoes might have been cooked
from a time before. And leftovers for it. Yeah, but no, it needed
to have that purpose within this dish. You know,
I always tell the chefs that work for me, you know, cooking and and building
flavors, you know, I mean, it’s always important that every ingredient
that you use, you know, you season because then when you put it all together,
it’s just that much better. Talk about being better. I don’t think there’s
anything better than that. But right now, I mean, entire world. That is so good. It is so sweet, but not overly sweet. No, because it’s really the only sugar
that was in. It was the bottom, you know,
and it just enveloped into it. And, you know, the rest of
it was just regular French toast. We didn’t add any extra sugar or anything. And you’re not hiding behind the warmth
on the cinnamon behind it. Oh my gosh, that is so good. thanks to chef Sean Reagan. A link to his daddy
empire over at Tampa’s J.W. Mira is at dinner dotcom
along with both of the recipes he shared today with us, I’m Jeff Gilbert,
thanks for watching and see you next time with more ideas for dinner
or brunch for the rest of this week here. And dinner this.
Dining and Cooking