Most folks know that I don't cook. I mean, I can follow a recipe and I can cook stuff if really necessary, and I'm particularly fond of a hot breakfast, but all in all, cooking is simply Not My Thing. Now, baking, on the other hand, is definitely my thing, though it tends to lead mainly to cookies and cakes and pies and other stuff that is not the sort of stuff one should be consuming tons of. So a few days back I decided to wield my special culinary skill in the pursuit of healthier food. I made quiche!
Well, okay, it has half-n-half (fat!) and lots of cheese (fat!) and eggs (protein! oh and maybe some fat...) but it also has BROCCOLI. I'm quite sure the presence of broccoli counteracts everything else going on. Plus, of course I made my own crust to avoid the transfat in store-bought ready-made crusts (don't use these! They all have partially hydrogenated oils! Badness!).
Really, making the crust yourself is so simple -- messy, yes -- but so simple -- here is my effort:
Perhaps it has a few more finger dents in it than is acceptable in finer dining establishments but by golly, it is handmade and proud of it. To fill it, I took a recipe from my Pillsbury cookbook for quiche lorraine and instead of the spinach and bacon, which I don't like, put in mushrooms and broccoli. It called for 1-1/2 cups of half-n-half and four eggs, which I kept the same. It also called for 8 ounces of Swiss cheese, which I didn't have and didn't want anyway -- what I did have was 4 ounces of cheddar and 4 ounces of parmesan-romano mixed. In that all went:
That's what I like about quiche -- how versatile it is. Other than the eggs and cream and crust, just toss in whatever veggies and cheese you like. Or smoked salmon or ham if you eat that sort of thing. Anyway, it came out looking quite appetizing:
And I'm happy to report that it tasted great, too!
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Yum! I wonder if the grandkids would eat it. I know I would. I must try this sometime. I like to cook, but don't really like baking. However, this is more like a deep dish pizza so maybe it's OK. Thanks for the idea!
ReplyDeleteA post about quiche! What an excellent idea!
ReplyDeleteI am pretty sure that the higher the number of finger indentations, the more authentically rustic and handcrafted the dough is; in short, the more the better. And since you then fill the crust with filling, who's to know anyway?
See, the thing I think is different between cooking and baking is that baking is more structured; there's less need for independent thought. It's the free-form "as long as you have eggs and cream and cheese you can add what you want" aspect of quiche that I find so challenging, though clearly I am adapting. Yours looks delicious. And I understand we're supposed to be eating more eggs these days and some of the fat in eggs is "good fat" according to the three seconds of Google research I've just completed.
Also, I like the way the knife and plate have matching blues.
I think I just like the products one gets from baking better than those from cooking. DESSERT, for one. But yeah, I'm not a free-form cook by any means. That way disaster lies. Unless it's free-form with something I'm really,really comfortable with, like egg dishes. Or cookies.
DeleteThere's another quiche I've made that gattagrigia gave me the recipe for but I lost it, so now I just wing it but basically it's smoked salmon and minced scallions, or something along those lines, and some sort of lemon-pepper seasoning. There's cheese involved of course -- I suspect it's parmesan. It's kind of like making a pizza, or as 7Dewey pointed out, a deep-dish pizza. I don't think you can go too far wrong if you just put it what you like!
Well done! And like Mary sez, finger dents don't matter unless the dough is so thin the filling leaks. You might look for a fine little book called Ratio by Mark Ruhlman. He gives you the ratios of ingredients for several basic dishes, rather than recipes. Quiche is a custard, for example, and once you know the basics you can make any kind you desire, sweet or savory.
ReplyDelete