Platinum Chef 13: Loaded Tortilla Espanola and Fruit Filled Brie en Croute

I am SO EXCITED to be doing another Platinum Chef challenge. As I near the two year anniversary for my blog, I think back, fondly, on my previous challenges. Getting involved in Platinum Chef was the inspiration for starting a blog of my own. Though I am freakishly only able to create new dishes when locked into 5 randomly chosen ingredients, I have enjoyed cooking and baking for this blog and being able to share recipes and ideas with whoever wants to read. For a trip down memory lane, here is my first Platinum Chef post. Ok, enough mushy stuff (that really belongs it the anniversary post, anyway).

This challenge brings us 5 ingredients, as always, and is hosted by Workout-then-cook.
Garlic
Mushrooms
Asparagus
Cheese
Strawberries

When I first read the list and saw asparagus, I thought UGH. I HATE asparagus. I almost instantly decided I'd have to hide the asparagus inside of something else. No plain eating asparagus for me. It must be buried to be edible. That negating anything I could come up with that involved strawberries. But garlic, mushrooms, and cheese? No problem! I decided on a loaded Tortilla Espanola, which I have been wanting to make for a long time. The results were fabulous, and my husband, loves eggs and actually likes asparagus, would have eaten the whole thing in one sitting if I let him. Sadly, I discovered that I just don't like asparagus, even when hidden in a potato tortilla. I totally picked mine out.






Loaded Tortilla Espanola

olive oil
3 large white potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, grated or minced
1/2 cup diced white onion
2 large white button mushrooms, thinly sliced
7 large asparagus spears, blanched and sliced into 1.5" pieces
1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach
10 eggs, lightly beaten
salt and pepper
goat cheese

In a large skillet, heat enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the skillet. Add the potato slices, onion and garlic, cook over medium low heat without browning until tender, about 15 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook an additional 5 minutes. Remove potato mixture to a large bowl. Wipe out skillet with paper towel, then return to head. Add asparagus and spinach to potato mixture, mix thoroughly. Season eggs with salt and pepper. Add vegetables back to pan, then pour egg mixture over vegetables, shaking pan to ensure all space is filled by eggs. Cook 10-15 minutes, or just until set. Finish in broiler, or use a baking sheet or large plate to flip tortilla over and return to skillet to cook the other side. Serve with goat cheese.


As I said before, this left me with strawberries as the lone ranger. The easiest pairing seemed to be cheese, and as soon as I said that to my husband, we both said, "Brie." We LOVE baked brie and decided to punch it up by filling with fresh fruit and honey. This is easy to throw together, and no real measuring is needed!








Fruit Filled Brie en Croute

~handful of sliced almonds
~honey or agave nectar
~2-3 ripe strawberries, thinly sliced
~1 ripe pear, thinly sliced
~8 ounces brie, rind trimmed and sliced in half
~1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed

Lay out sheet of puff pastry on a baking sheet lined with non-stick foil. Place a small round of sliced almonds in the center and drizzle a little honey. Lay down half of the brie. Layer sliced strawberries, then pear, then drizzle with more honey. Top with remaining half of cheeses. Fold puff pastry up and over the brie, pressing gently to secure. Flip pastry wrapped brie so folds are on the bottom. Bake at 400 degrees F for about 20 minutes. Serve with crackers.

Turkey, Brie, and Apple Sandwiches

On a recent trip to LA, I had the delight of enjoying a turkey, brie, and apple sandwich at the airport. It was SO good, that I decided to recreate it at home for my husband. I probably should have asked the shop what went into the sandwich, but it seemed pretty straightforward so I just winged it.

I picked up a long french baguette from the bakery, and sliced it into medium sub sized pieces, the sliced in half. I layered some chicken (the original sandwich had turkey deli meat, but I didn't have any of that... I think some leftover carved turkey breast from Thanksgiving would go great in these!), slices of brie, and slices of granny smith apple. I popped sandwich (open faced) in the toaster oven to broil for a few minutes, until the bread started to brown and the brie melted a bit.

YUM! The chicken I had cooked the night before on the stove, just with salt and pepper, and it was a little to peppery for me, but my husband loved it. I can't wait for leftover turkey at thanksgiving to make this again!

Baked Brie

We are HUGE fans of brie, and typically I just wrap it up in some puff pastry and bake it. I got a different recipe for baked brie at my bridal shower from the famed Linda. Since we wanted to celebrate my certification exam victory (I passed!), we decided to give this recipe a try while we enjoyed a good bottle of wine from our trip to Door County a few months ago.

The recipe is quite simple, it just calls for topping the brie with apricot preserves and slivered almonds, then baking at 350 degrees for 15-20 min. Since I love it wrapped in puff pastry, I still wanted to incorporate that. Unfortunately, I didn't realize until too late that my one sheet of puff pastry in the freezer was no longer worthy of consumption. But, I did have some roll out pie crust, so I used that instead.

I started with rolling out the pie crust, and spreading with apricot preserves and slivered almonds in the center.



I layed down the brie (with the rind cut off), then wrapped the pie crust up around the brie, cutting away a few triangles so as not to have an excess of crust.



I flipped it over, and layed it down on a parchment lined baking sheet. I used some of the leftover dough to make little leaf cut outs for the top (Hi, fall!).



In the oven it went at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes (I left it in a little longer for the pie crust. Mine happened to crack, and I suppose I could have saved it from the oven before that if I had been watching more closely.


This was absolutely delicious, as I expected! We served with crackers.