Thursday Tasters - Summer Herb and Ham Hock Frittatas

When I started this blog off, I often used to post new recipes I'd recently tried, or old family favourites. Not posted a recipe for ages, even though I do keep trying out new ideas when the mood is right.

On Tuesday afternoon I made these for our early evening light supper:

Summer Herb and Ham Hock Frittatas:

In truth, they're really picnic food. I made six as per the recipe in a muffin tin and they were just the right amount for the two of us with fresh on the vine tomatoes from the Isle of Wight (thanks Ocado, the best I've tasted for a long time!) and a garnish of parsley.

Ingredients:

Olive oil for greasing or muffin paper cases

4 large eggs, beaten

1 small garlic clove, grated (chopped very finely as I did or put through a garlic press would also work fine - and I used two garlic cloves BTW)

Handful of basil, finely chopped

Handful of chives, finely chopped

Handful of parsley, finely chopped

90g (or more if the packet is a bit bigger, don't worry too much about a few extra grammes) ham hock, which should have been diced/shredded before packaging

Handful of grated cheddar or parmesan (optional)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 190 degree C/ 170 degrees fan/gas 5 and grease 6 holes of a muffin tin, or use paper cases

Beat the eggs in a large bowl or big measuring jug (makes it easier to pour into the muffin tin/case later on!)

Add the garlic, chopped herbs, ham hock and cheese if using (and why wouldn't you - I adore a bit of cheese!?)

Season with salt (I omitted the salt) and pepper and mix well

Divide the mixture between the muffin holes evenly

Bake for 12 minutes, until the fritatatas are set and golden

Take out of the oven and leave to cool slightly before removing them from the tin

Once cool, store in a plastic container in the fridge until you're ready to hit the road (or eat them right away as we did!)

My lessons learned are:

This is a really delicious recipe and we both loved the results, especially in terms of flavour. I took  them out of the oven when they were nicely set and fully cooked but didn't want to risk them going too brown or burning - so they did look a bit pale, very much as an omelette would I guess.

I used muffin baking cases (I have enough muffin cases to last forever!) hoping it would make life easier. Peeling the cases off when the frittatas were still warm wasn't a great move so I would suggest leaving the frittatas in cases if you want them for a picnic but bake them directly in the muffin tins without cases if to be eaten right away whilst still warm/hot.

And, if you're going to eat them right away then why even bother making muffin tin sized ones? Another time, and we did love them so it will be on my list for a repeat performance, I'd do something differently.

I'd up the number of eggs to six and then just make one delicious omelette to halve and share. Yummy!