Recipes of the week

Quiche:

Though quiche requires some time and several steps each step is quite easy. The fun thing about quiche is that it can be made with practically any vegetable and many different types of meats or cheeses. Here are the basic steps

Make and role out the crust.

For 1 crust:

1 cup flour

1/2 stick cold or frozen butter (never use margarine or shortening)

1 pinch salt

4-6 tablespoons of water (sometimes a bit more depending on the moisture content of your flour)

cut the butter into small cubes (about 1/4 inch by 1/4 inch) don't worry about being too fastidious as you'll want a mixture of small and tiny pieces so they don't need to be even. Only, don't make the pieces much bigger. Add the butter to a bowl and add the flour. Mix with a pastry cutter or two knives, or even your hands (but carefully because you don't want to warm the butter), until some of the butter has been worked into the butter and some of it is still in biggish chunks. It will be these chunks that make your final crust nice and flaky. Freeze your bowl filled with butter laden flour to freeze the butter. You can do this while you are preparing the other ingredients and it will ensure that the butter is very cold and the crust is as flakey as possible. Once this mixture is very cold add the water and mix together with a fork, just to bring the pieces together. If the dough is still very dry add a few more tablespoons of cold water until it comes together in a ball. Roll out the dough to the size of your buttered pie plate and fold your crust into to quarters to move it into your pie plate. Unfold the dough so that it covers the pie plate and crimp the edges of the dough. Refrigerate until needed.

Filling: for the filling you will layer ingredients in the cold crust and then cover with an egg custard. You can basically put anything you like inside. Here are some of my favorites

For all of the recipes use a standard custard:

6 eggs

1/2-3/4 cup half and half or cream

salt and pepper to taste

#1: 

2 Roasted red peppers, peeled, seeded and sliced

Goat Cheese

Wilted spinach (1-2 small bags), squeeze excess water out

Tomatoes (optional), sliced

Layer the pepper slices alternating with the goat cheese and the spinach. Top the layers off with the tomato slices and pour custard over to cover. Bake for 40-50 minutes until the custard is set.

#2: 

Caramelized onions

Sauteed Mushrooms

Grated cheddar Cheese or goat cheese

Spinach

To caramelize onions I just slice the onions into about 1/4 inch rings and I saute them on low in half butter half oil with a few pinches of salt. It takes about 15-20 minutes for them to caramelize but it is worth the effort for their flavor is unparalleled. Stir them often especially when they start to brown. You will know that they are done when they are a rich caramel color. Taste to test for salt.

Layer the ingredients and pour the custard over. Bake as above.

Variation: make it whatever you like:

I normally stick to the combination of veggies, cheese and sometimes a meat. Try not to overwhelm the flavors by using too many ingredients. Any hard veggies or meat I normally cook before I add to the quiche.

Here are some ingredients that I like in quiche:

• goat cheese
• cheddar cheese
• monterey jack cheese
• fresh herbs
• tomatoes
• spinach, wilted
• tomatoes, sliced
• mushrooms, sauteed
• red peppers, roasted, seeded, peeled and sliced 
• potatoes, steamed whole and sliced
• broccoli, steamed and cut into small florets
• zucchini, sliced and sauteed
• sometimes I put sausage or chicken in. Just cook the meet and slice it before adding it to the layers.
• Put things like tomatoes and cheese on the top layer

cover with egg and bake in a 375 degree oven for 40=50 minutes rotating halfway through baking for eveness.