Saturday, April 17, 2010

Rosie Makes Quiche.

$$$$ shot:

Rosie has broccoli and lots of asparagus. 
 What to make?
What to make? 
 QUICHE! 
 For the crust:
 If you had a frozen pie crust in the freezer, 
that would be just fine. 
 My 2 cents worth on that: 
You have two options. 
1) Pie crust in an aluminum pan, ready to fill and bake, or 
2) Pie crust packaged by itself, rolled up. Go for the Pillsbury Pie Crusts.
 They're a tad larger than the pan crusts so you can make a deep dish pie.
But I'm making my own crust.
 You already knew that, didn't you? 
  Ingredients for my pie crust: 
 1 1/2 cups flour 
1 tsp salt 
 1 tsp sugar
  1 stick chilled butter 
 1 large egg
  1 TB + cold water
  Mix dry ingredients. Add butter a few pats at a time, working it in with a pastry blender until you get a coarse meal. Add egg and water. Knead and form into a ball. (If you need to add more water, do so a teaspoon at a time.) Flatten into a disk and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for one hour. Roll out and place in pie pan. Refrigerate for another hour.
I mixed the dry ingredients. 
Two kitchen utensils that are indispensable to me:
 my pastry blender and my scraper.
I put chilled butter in little pats along the rim of my bowl ...
... and worked them in with a pastry blender a few pats at a time.
You don't want a homogeneous mixture.
 You want small, medium, and large meal.
 Makes for a flakier pastry.
Add in egg and 1 TB water. 
Mix well. 
Try to form into a cohesive ball. 
And turn out onto a floured surface.
 Obviously, this is not cohesive.
 This needed a bit more liquid, 
so I added cold water in a teaspoon at a time
 until I could gather it into a nice ball and knead it a few turns.
Thusly.
Flatten into a disk, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for one hour.
Roll dough out on floured board - about 1/8 inch. 
 I roll one side a bit, then flip over, flour, and roll the other side.
 Continue rolling and flipping. 
Roll up the dough over the pin, lift, and ...
... unroll over the pie dish.
Press into pie dish.
Trim. And for heaven's sake, save the trimmings.
 Stay tuned for my next post, 
when you will see what I did with my Moreover (not leftover) Trimmings.
 Refrigerate for one hour. 
 Ingredients for my quiche: 
6-8 slices cooked bacon, crumbled 
1/2 cup or so mushrooms, sauteed
 about 1 cup Swiss cheese, chunked 
maybe 8 asparagus spears
 some broccoli florets 
1 cup heavy cream  
1 cup 1% milk (because that's what I have on hand)  
1 egg white for wash
 4 eggs and the extra 5th yolk, beaten 
1/2 tsp salt sprinkling of cayenne pepper 
sprinkling of freshly grated nutmeg
 maybe 1/4 cup cheddar cheese, grated, for topping
 maybe 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese, grated, for topping 
1 green onion 
 
Pretty little eggy-weggies.
Beat well.
Separate a fifth egg, beat the white, and brush over the crust.
Add in the fifth yolk to the four beaten eggs ...
... and the rest of the white.
  And what's up with the color of my eggs?
I've never seen them dark like this.
They looked fine when I started (See eggs two pics back.), 
but after they sat for a while, they turned this color. 
On to my quiche filling:
I sauteed sliced baby bellas in butter and extra light olive oil.
Here are my quiche fixin's, waiting to be assembled. 
12:00 and clockwise: 
bacon
 cream/milk
 cayenne 
beaten eggs
 egg white
 nutmeg 
pie crust 
broccoli florets (I peel my stems.) 
asparagus 
 Swiss Cheese 
 scallion 
leftover dough from my Moreover Trimmings
I added this much broccoli and crumbled bacon.
Added the sauteed shrooms and cubes of Swiss.
Whisked in the cream/milk to the eggs.
Pour mixture into pie.
Artfully arrange asparagus spears on top.
 Grate nutmeg ... 
and sprinkle cayenne over top. 
Drop sliced greens onions. 
Mr. Hawthorne was kind enough to grate some Mozzarella ... 
... and Cheddar cheese. 
I cut a star out of that Leftover from the Moreover Trimmings,
 thus making another Moreover.
I cut the rest of the pastry into little triangles. 
Waste not, want not!
 And be sure you brush egg wash on the star and triangles.
 I forgot. : ( 
 I put this little pretty into a 425 degree oven 
and baked for 15 minutes.
 Reduced heat and cooked for 30-35 more minutes. 
Inserted knife should come out clean.
 Let sit about 15 minutes before cutting. 
Ta daaaaaa! 
 Rosie, you shoulda remembered
 to brush the egg white on the star and triangles. 
Other than that, it was good.
 Very good. 
I had it for this lunch and the next two breakfasts.
 Youngest Hawthorne ate about half the first night.

Nice custard.


The nice thing about quiche is the texture and flavor only get better. 
  Bon appetit!

6 comments:

Marion said...

Hey Rosie, next time you're bored and thinking you're just not spending enough time in the kitchen, try the quiche from Bouchon. Takes FOREVER. Made it, but only once.

Anonymous said...

YUM!!

Maryakatortietat said...

Your pastry decorations are beautiful, but I follow tradition and do what Mama did with her dough trimmings. Gather them into a lose clump and bake....the pie dough biscuit is the cook's treat.

Marilyn said...

Looks divine, Rosie.

Kathy said...

Being a fan of neither cooked broccoli nor asparagus, I'll have to take a pass on this one. Nothing personal, you know.

Phyllis said...

Yum. That's all I have to say about that.