Monday, July 27, 2009

Quiche



Quiche isn't my favorite brunch food (that would be home fries). It's not even in my top three favorite egg dishes (poached eggs, egg salad, egg sandwich). But it is a really handy recipe to have in the repertoire. 1) It's French, so you look fancy. 2) You can serve it for any meal. 3) You can empty the contents of your veggie drawer.

You can make a quiche in an hour, and most of that time the little egg pie is just hanging out in the oven. The hardest part is making your own crust, but as my mom says "Why would you make your own crust?" (I did this time, but I've bought them premade in the past.)



This recipe is infinitely adaptable, so I wrote a few of my favorite combinations below. This pretty little piece here is tomato, basil, mozzarella, which couldn't be more perfect at this time of year.

And even though quiche isn't my favorite, me and two friends managed to take down almost the whole thing for lunch yesterday. We left a little in the pan, for good measure.



Quiche, Several Ways
Serves 6...or 3 hungry

I use 2% milk most of the time in this recipe, and I think it gives the quiche a lighter texture. You can use whole milk or even cream if you prefer, for a richer more decadent quiche. I would not recommend skim milk. For the crust, I usually parbake my homemade crusts for 15 minutes on 350. With a store bought crust I usually don't.


Ingredients
one pie crust
6 eggs
1/2 cup milk or cream
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
vegetables and/or meat
1/2 cup cheese*

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 450.
-Whisk together the eggs, milk, salt and pepper.
-Stir in the cheese.
-You can either stir the vegetables and/or meat into the egg mixture and pour the mixture into the pie crust, or you can layer them in the crust and pour the egg mixture over them. It all goes to the same place in the end.
-Bake on 450 for 10 minutes, reduce the temperature to 350 and continue to bake for about 30 minutes or until done. (The quiche will be set in the center and golden brown on the top.)
-Cool for 15 minutes and serve.
Variations:
-1/2 cup mozzarella, 2 tbs. fresh basil, one medium tomato sliced or chopped.
-1/2 cup gruyere, 2 tsp. fresh thyme, 1 cup mushrooms lightly sauteed.
-1/2 cup sharp chedder, 4 pieces cooked bacon, 1/4 cup chopped green onion.
-1/2 cup feta, 1/2 to 1 cup lightly sauteed spinach, 1/4 cup chopped tomatoes (optional).

*This makes a lightly cheesey quiche. For more ooey gooey cheesiness, up the cheese to 3/4 cup or 1 cup, but be careful. I wouldn't recommend increasing the cheese for certain strong flavored types, like feta.

6 comments:

Dewi said...

Hi Kate,
what a pleasure to have you coming over to my blog and leave me a comment. Thank you so much. Do come over again.

Your quiche sounds amazing. You are truly a fabulous cook.
Cheers,
elra

Michele said...

That looks sooo good! I actually really like quiche but I usually make a crustless one because I'm not really a crust person. Talk about easy!

muddywaters said...

It's good to have you back. I've been devouring tomatoes, and I've been looking at different ways to use them. This sounds great.

Kotecki said...

This quiche is awesome. I was one of the 3 very hungry people who put it away.

Kate said...

It's good to be back! Thanks for all the comments.

Carrie Johnson said...

Kate,

Alex and I are trying your quiche recipe this snowy Saturday morning! It looks great, and I'll be sure to report back to you to tell you how it turned out.

Carrie