You need quiche

 QUICHE!!!  It's so good.  Do you know how to make a good one?  It's easy, really.  I love them, and I think I make a good one.  So if you want to see how, read.

I'm going to make a spinach quiche with onions, bacon and cheddar cheese.  You can leave out the bacon and it's still good.  You can use other ingredients too, but this is my favorite.

Making a quiche... while it may be easy... it is a little time consuming.  But it makes something that keeps for a few days and is great to make the day before a party.  It can freeze well, and makes good lunches for the week.

The crust recipe:

I like to start by making my crust.  Of course, it's great if you have some in the freezer already.  Whenever I make it, I make 2 crusts, and freeze one.  Here is the one I use, it's from Ann Kaufman, Cheryl's mom.  I've modified it a little.

2 pie crusts

• 2 cups flour (up to half of that whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup cold butter, in small cubes
• 3/4 cup cold water (ideally, about 1/2 of the volume is vodka)

In your food processor (please tell me you have one because it makes it all so much easier), add flour and salt and pulse to mix.  Add all the butter, and pulse repeatedly until it's all crumbly.  Now pour in your water/vodka until it comes together in a moist ball that just rolls around the bowl.  I prefer mine a little on the wet side at first.  Now put all this in a tub with a lid and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, but up to 24 hours.

Now start prepping the fillings... (at the end of this post, I've written the whole recipe out)

Slice a whole onion in half, and slice thin half moons.  Heat a skillet with some oil and/or butter and fry your onions on med-low heat with about 1/2 teaspoon salt.  Stir them every 3-5 minutes to prevent burning.  You want them at LEAST this carmelized.  Maybe a little more.  Set aside.



BACON!!  So, if you don't do pork... or any meat... you can skip this.  The quiche is really very good without it.  But like most things, it's better with bacon.  I just use a little bit... 2 ounces plus or minus... for flavor.  I like to use a little bit of bacon in a lot of my cooking.  So I always have an open package in the freezer that I can bring out and chop off a few bits while frozen, and put away the rest.  Brown it, but not too much.  Drain on paper towels and set aside.  Oh, and remember to save the bacon fat to cook some greens or other veggies that need a a little something.


Grate some cheese now.  I use 4-5 ounces of Dubliner Cheddar cheese (or other nice aged, imported cheddar).  I really dislike the American 'cheddar' cheeses which are rubbery and orange.  It's more traditional to use a Gruyere cheese (Swiss).  And you could do that.  I'm just partial to this flavor.  This plate shows you the 3 ingredients all together and gives you an idea of the amounts needed.  Have this ready before you start the filling.

Now while your onions are carmelizing (as this will take 20 minutes or so) you can roll out your pastry.  I turn my blob of slightly too wet pastry onto a well-floured board and just dust it all over lightly in the flour, kneading ONLY ENOUGH to make it smooth and easy to handle.  Like 15-30 seconds.  Cut it in half.  Put half in a zip lock bag or tupperware, lable and into the freezer it goes.


Roll the other out until it is the size of your pie plate, lay it in your pan, trim the edges and pinch the edge.  I didn't show you all this, because you can find it on Youtube somewhere and, honestly, if you don't already make your own pastry, you're probably skipping this part and buying it pre-made.  But the SECOND time you make this, please try your own.  It's easy and better.  It also might take a little practice, but you'll get it pretty quickly.  If you'll be a while now, put your beautiful crust in the fridge until you're ready, and preheat your oven to 375.

Now, the filling.  Use your clean food processor or a blender.  The first things to put in are your 5 eggs and about 5 ounces of frozen spinach.  If you use fresh, blanch it first.  Blend this up REALLY well.  If your food processor is like mine, the total volume of ALL the liquid ingredients (just over 4 cups) will cause an epic overflow in your bowl and make a terrible mess.  So I blend this in the machine, and mix the rest by hand, if need be.

Now add the rest of the ingredients: 1 cup whole milk (you are buying whole milk now, right?  If not, just add a little more cream, little less milk), 3/4 cup cream, 1/4 tsp salt, few grinds black pepper, some generous grinding of your nutmeg, 3/4 T arrowroot powder or cornstarch (it really stabilized the custard nicely... try it).  The spice quantities are pretty forgiving.  You can also add cayenne, if you like.  I don't.  Mix this up and set aside.

So you now have:

1. A lovely crust in your pie plate
2. Your plate of cheese, onions and bacon (yum)
3. The spinach-egg mixure (eggs, spinach, milk, cream, spices, arrowroot)

Now, time to put it together.  Here is your visual...

First cover the bottom with about HALF the cheese.

Then sprinkle your onion and bacon over that.

Now pour egg-spinach mixture in.

Top with ramaining cheese.  If this looks too boring to you, this is where you could dot the top with some roasted red peppers.

Bake in 375F oven for 45-50 minutes, or until internal temperature is 170F (Use an instant-read thermometer stuck in the center for about 20 seconds... OK, not so instant.  If you don't have one, they're cheap and really helpful)

When done, cool on a rack for at LEAST and hour.  I like to let it sit a few hours or wait until the next day to serve it.

When I'm having friends for lunch or brunch, I like to serve it.  I serve it with my stand-by green salad, and that can be enough, especially if followed by a nice dessert and tea.

After it has cooled completely, you can freeze it.  It's nice to make a couple of smaller quiches (by modifying this recipe) and baking them in smaller, disposable (but highly reusable) aluminum tins.  Regardless of the size or the tin type, wrap your quiche in plastic wrap first, then in foil.  Label and freeze.

That is it!  I'll put the recipe below here if that is helpful.  Let me know if you make it.  I love this quiche.  I hope you do too.

Spinach-bacon Quiche

Ingredients:

• 1 pie crust (recipe earlier)
• 1 onion, sliced in half moons, carmelized
• 2-3 ounces of bacon, cooked (optional)
• 5 ounces of good cheddar cheese (I like Irish and English cheddars), not the rubbery American stuff
• 5 good eggs
• 5 ounces frozen spinach
• 1 cup whole milk
• 3/4 cups cream
• 1/4 tsp salt
• few grinds black pepper
• generous grinding of nutmeg
• 3/4 T arrowroot powder or cornstarch

  Directions:

1. Preheat over to 375F.
2. Make crust, refrigerate.
3. Caramelize onions, cook bacon and grate cheese.  Set aside.
4. Roll out pastry while cooking onions.  Refrigerate again.
5. In blender or food processor, mix eggs and spinach well.  Can add the remaining ingredients in the food processor or hand mix, depending on the size of your machine. (Milk, cream, arrowroot, nutmeg, pepper, salt.)
6. Put it all together in your pie crust: Half the cheese, then onion and bacon, pour in the egg/spinach mixture, sprinkle remaining cheese on top
7. Bake 375 for 45-50 minutes or until 170F internal temp.
8. Cool for 1+ hours before serving!