I love to eat and to cook. Usually my favorite cooking is more on the simple side. I don't like to spend an entire day in the kitchen to get something ready for one meal. I prefer recipes that take less than an hour to make. Especially after a long day at work nothing is more soothing than cooking something for dinner. Cooking relaxes me. I usually don't follow recipes to the point, I use them more as an inspiration and then change them up. Creating yummy dishes out of whatever one finds in their fridge is a very creative task.
One of my favorite dishes to make are quiches. Those open faced pies can be filled with whatever is on hand, like vegetables, meats, cheeses, or even fruits with a twist. The most famous quiche is probably quiche lorraine which is a bacon and egg filling in a pastry crust. But anything goes when it comes to a quiche.
I often buy premade pie pastry from the freezer aisle and keep those in my freezer until I feel like making a quiche. Further below are also some typical dough recipies which take a bit more time. I love to make multiple smaller quiches in those little 4.5" Creme Brulee forms that I have. They are perfect for one person meals. Mini quiches can easily be stored in the freezer and warmed up quickly during the week. Other options would be using cup cake forms for 2 bite appetizer sized mini quiches or the typical 8 to 9" forms. The fillings consist of whatever I find in my fridge or have in the garden. Often it's just some mini tomatoes, fresh herbs and then topped with a mix of eggs, milk, salt, pepper, nutmeg and sprinkled with cheese. Bake for 20 minutes at 375F and voila, a yummy dinner is ready.
This week I made a quiche with some salami, a few last tomatoes from my garden, blue cheese and mini basil from my hanging herb garden.
The form was laid out with premade dough, slices of salami as the bottom layer, chopped tomatoes and sprinkled with some blue cheese and basil. The batter I usually use is a bit lighter than the typical cream-egg-quiche batter. I just mix an egg with some low fat milk, salt, fresh ground pepper and always add nutmeg. The cheese can be the classical gruyere, or any other shredded or crumbled cheese like parmesan, mozzarella or even blue cheese, feta or goat cheese for some different twist.
Some suggestions for unusual quiches:
Sauerkraut quiche recipe. Mix it up by adding some chili into the filling for some spice.
Pear and Gorgonzola quiche
Spinach, Olive and sun dried Tomato Quiche
The classic pastry is usually made from:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into little cubes
1 large egg
1 teaspoon cold water if required
Put flour into large bowl, mix butter with salt and egg. Add mix to flour and knead to a moist clump, add a bit of water if required. Transfer to a lightly floured work surface and gently knead until dough comes together (about 4 turns). Form into ball then flatten into a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 1 hour. Dough can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled.
Butter a 9 inch round tart pan. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 12 inches round. Transfer the dough to the tart pan. Press onto the bottom and up sides of pan. Trim any excess dough. Chill 1 hour.
An easier and faster version would be:
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil or canola oil
1/4 cup ice water
Mix the flour and salt with a fork. Beat oil and water with whisk or fork to thicken. Pour into flour and mix with fork. Press into 9″ buttered pie pan. Trim the excess dough.
Fill with whatever quiche mixture is used and bake at 400F until done (around 30 to 40 minutes).
Happy quiche making!
Please check out other food suggestions for Etsymetal Team members:
Inbar Bareket http://www.inbarbareket.info/blog
Cynthia Del Giudice http://cynthiadelgiudice.blogspot.com
kate jones http://www.katejonesdesign.blogspot.com
nova of sweden http://www.nova-designs.blogspot.com/
Beth Cyr http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com
Rebecca Bogan http://www.AdobeSol.com/blog
Panicmama Jewelry http://panicmama.blogspot.com
Evelyn Markasky http://markasky.blogspot.com/
2Roses http://www.jewelrytutorial.blogspot.com
Jenny Baughman (Gecko J) http://ridgeschool.blogspot.com/
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