Dangling Conversations

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Quiche

Posted 27 Oct, 2005 at 07:56 by wendy in /FoodDrink | Permanent link

As a result of a long series of mishaps, mostly involving a grocery store and their lack of pizza crusts, I wound up making quiche the other day, entirely at random, which turned out really well, so I thought I'd share.


Make a pie crust: use a pastry blender to cut together 1 cup of white flour, 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour, and 1/2 cup of butter until all the bits of butter are smaller than a pea. Then add cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until you can get everything to stick together. This usually takes me about 4 tablespoons...but the goal seems to be to use as little as possible. Roll the dough out on a well floured counter top. Alternatively, the freezer section of your local grocery store probably sells premade crusts. While these are easier to work with, they are much less fun. However you got the dough, use it to line a 9 inch pie plate.

Grate some cheddar cheese into the pie plate. Enough to cover the bottom of the plate, more if you really like cheese. Rip up a bunch of baby spinach. Take off some of the longer stems if you have the patience. You want to loosely fill the pie with spinach. Chop up a tomato and a few mushrooms. Toss them in with the spinach. Add some lumps of goats cheese or feta. The pie should look pretty full, but don't worry...there's lots of space for eggs. Start with about 4 eggs in a mixing bowl. Beat them and add enough milk so that it looks like it will pour nicely. Add salt and pepper the way you would if you were making an omelet. Throw in some basil and oregano, or herbs de provence if you've got them. Pour the mixture into the pie plate. You want all the vegetables to be covered with egg mixture, so if there wasn't quite enough egg...just crack a few more, add more milk & stuff and try again. You really shouldn't need more than 6, if you do...you probably could have crammed in more spinach. Eat your greens! They're good for you! Sorry. Put the pie in a 375 F oven for about 45 minutes. Long enough for the eggs to set. Yum.

Comments (2 comments so far)
Huh?
Sorry, I must be hallucinating. I thought I read that this recipe uses cheese.

Seriously, though, sounds good. One thing I've heard (and keep in mind, I'm not generally into things pastry related, so this is not my own personal experience) is that it's easier to work with the butter in pie crust dough if it's been chilled. I've even heard of one chef who goes so far as to freeze his butter, then uses a cheese crater on it to get it to the appropriate size.

Hmmmm. I might even try this next week.

Posted 2005/10/27 08:42:38 by Kael
Yes, absolutely use cold butter. Warm butter just doesn't work at all. The cheese grater actually sounds like an interesting plan. Pastry is fun. I was intimidated by it until Patty pointed out that it takes her less than 10 minutes to do the whole thing. Just use lots of flour while rolling it out (on the counter, on the rolling pin, flip the dough over periodically and put more flour both under and on top) to keep it from sticking to things. And yes...while living with a certain somebody who doesn't like cheese has reduced my cheese consumption dramatically...I find myself unable (or just plain unwilling) to eliminate it entirely :) Yummy cheese :)
Posted 2005/10/27 13:14:40 by Wendy
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