Gimme a Little Quiche

It's Valentine's Day! I know, you don't care.

Today's great for shops selling greeting cards, chocolate, and sad, overpriced roses, but shouldn't we be showing our loved ones how special they are every day? So don't feel obligated to make this quiche right now. Make it tomorrow, or sometime in the Spring. Honestly, any time is a good time for a quiche. (No need to make it fancy, either, though the mushrooms are damn cute, aren't they?)

I like aged Gouda for its rich and nutty flavor, and its pleasantly crystalline texture. A staple on my cheese board, I've even grated the stuff over pasta. But mostly I just snack on it. 

Also: I'm lactose-intolerant, and aged Gouda is virtually lactose-free. And everyone knows lactose-free cheese makes a much better gift than supermarket flowers.

Gouda Quiche 

For the quiche

1 pie crust (homemade or store bought)

6 large eggs

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 tsp salt

Black pepper to taste

1 wedge of A Dutch Masterpiece Gouda cheese, shredded (rind removed)

2 (10oz) boxes frozen spinach, thawed, and excess moisture squeezed out

Optional decorations  

Pie crust scrap mushrooms (crust scraps, food coloring, sesame seeds)

Prosciutto

Pansies or other edible flowers

To make the quiche

Preheat your oven to 400°F.

Place the pie crust in a 9-inch pie plate. Trim off any excess and save the scraps for decorating. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, cream, and salt. Add black pepper to taste. Stir in the shredded Gouda and spinach.

Pour the mixture into the unbaked pie crust. Bake for 30–35 minutes, until the quiche is just set and the crust is golden brown.

Optional decorations: 

While the quiche bakes, use your pie crust scraps to make mushroom stems and caps. Shape them like you would clay or Play-Doh.

To color the caps, lightly paint the dough with food coloring, then sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake on a parchment-lined cookie sheet for 8–10 minutes. (I used toothpicks to hold mine together, which worked surprisingly well.)

You can also add edible flowers and prosciutto rolled into little roses for extra flair.

Optional option: Just shove the prosciutto directly in your mouth. Highly recommended.

Once the quiche has cooled slightly, decorate, slice, and enjoy.

A Dutch Masterpiece showcases the art of traditional Dutch cheesemaking through its collection of aged, specialty cheeses crafted in the Netherlands. Made with high-quality milk and patiently matured for complex flavor and distinctive character, each wheel reflects generations of expertise. From the caramel notes of Rembrandt Gouda to other bold, expressive varieties, A Dutch Masterpiece cheeses deliver gourmet depth, beautiful melt, and standout taste for entertaining, cooking, and everyday indulgence. www.adutchmasterpiece.com

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Pandemic Eats, Week 1-8, Home Edition

While we ate a lot of carry out and delivery food during the first 8 weeks of #stayhome, we also cooked regularly, too. Some of the food was completely from scratch, while other dishes repurposed restaurant leftovers. (I hate food waste, and you should, too.)

On the Tuesday of what would become Week One, I had tickets to The Band's Visit at the Hippodrome, and I had planned to take my friend Jeremy. The show was postponed pretty early on, so he and I made alternate plans. Those alternate plans were also changed by coronavirus. Plan C involved J coming over to make us Chinese dumplings, from scratch--wrappers and all. I was sous chef, and I am responsible for the horrible pleating on the dumplings. (I think we added too much water to the dough.) Still, they were delicious, particularly the fried ones.

I made gluten free apple pie for dessert, which we consumed with an Irish coffee on the side. Pierish coffee, as J calls it. It's not a thing, yet, but it should be.

My friend Laurie, @Baltimorehomecook on Instagram, started a project of making pasta and delivering it to folks. I can't turn down her homemade cavatelli, which I served with chopped up Italian cold cuts, spinach, parm, and fresh chives.

I was still attempting to continue Whole30 at this point, so these pancakes are made with Bob's Red Mill gluten free one-to-one flour.

Then I decided, since I wasn't losing anything, that I'd allow some gluten back into my life. Like the crust on this ham and brie quiche.

And the pumpernickel bread used for this toasted cheese sandwich served with a quick soup of canned tomatoes, cannellini, and stock, with fresh swiss chard.

Black bean soup with pickled watermelon radish yielded enough to stash a quart in the freeze for future eating.

Leftover pork tenderloin became an element on this salad, a riff on the classic nicoise, with a mustardy vinaigrette and potatoes. Cheese and nuts just because.

I found that beets make great lunch salads. I tried red, chioggia (candy stripe), and gold beets, and determined that the earthy flavor of red goes best with cheese (feta or bleu) and nuts (walnuts or anything else).

Turkey meatballs with creamy pesto were good for a couple of meals.

Ditto this pot roast, which we ate at least 4x.

I like changing up my daily lunch, so when I don't have leftovers to eat, I make something like this beet hummus.

I opened up a jar of Desert Pepper Salsa Rio and knew we wouldn't be able to eat the whole thing before it got funky, so I repurposed it as a soup with cannellini beans, leftover pork, and pickled onions. Cheese quesadilla on the side.

We've been eating a lot of potatoes, mostly baked. One time I got fancy and made Smitten Kitchen's cacio e pepe potatoes Anna. Pretty good, but next time I'll use butter instead of olive oil, for more flavor.

We've had Chinese carry out a few times, from Red Pepper Sichuan in Towson and Asian Kebab and Hot Pot in Lutherville. (They are owned by the folks who operated the late, lamented, Hunan Taste in Catonsville.) A ton of rice meant fried rice one night. I also repurposed some crazy spicy pig ears into this dish, and the avocado mellowed that heat out nicely.

I broke out my recipe for sriracha bouillabaisse one evening to use up a pack of frozen TJ's mahi mahi. With some rouille-coated toasts, it made a fine light supper on two evenings.

What have you been cooking at home?

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!



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Pasta Frittata with Roasted Vegetables

Sometimes simple is best.

There are times that I beat myself up over what to make for dinner on the weekends. Should I make something interesting or fancy? Something I've never made before? Something blog-worthy? Needless to say, everything we concoct in our kitchen is not blog-worthy, but we do try. And while I'm usually tinkering with a new recipe at some point during the week, there are plenty of times when I just do not want to think about it. I want to open the fridge and have something jump out at me, screaming, "I AM DINNER!" That never happens, of course, and damn good thing--screaming food would be pretty scary.

See? Scary.

But there was that bag of leftover spaghetti. Definitely not enough for two servings, and not quite enough for one serving (well, one serving for me, ok, but not one serving for Mr Minx). We also had a nearly-full carton of eggs. Didn't I just read something on Facebook about pasta frittatas? Why yes, yes I did. A giant omelette- or quiche-type thing with pasta in it...why the hell not?

I found a recipe by Gabrielle Corcos, hubby of actress Debi Mazar, and her co-star on the show Extra Virgin. It was easy peasy, and included only 2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese. Other recipes I found called for half a cup...holy moly, that's a lot of money cheese! I decided to use Corcos' recipe as a base, and would add some veggies to it, onions and garlic, maybe green beans, corn, and tomatoes, since those were left from the CSA box. I roasted the green beans and tomatoes with a bit of oil and salt (balsamic vinegar and brown sugar on the tomatoes, too), then changed my mind. The corn went in though, as did onions, garlic, and freshly snipped chives and basil from the garden.

Did I mention that this was my first-ever frittata? Look how pretty it was! Even if the spaghetti does kinda resemble worms....

We also ate those roasted beans and tomatoes, after tossing them together and letting them come to room temperature. Definitely a filling vegetarian meal that didn't miss the meat.

Pasta Frittata, adapted from a recipe by Gabriele Corcos and Debi Mazar

3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
Kernels from 1 ear of corn
Small handful of basil, julienned
1 tablespoon minced chives
2 cups leftover cooked spaghetti, roughly chopped
5 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat your broiler.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a 10-inch nonstick saute pan over medium heat. Cook the onion until lightly browned, add the garlic, corn, and pasta and stir until warmed through, 2 to 3 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat the eggs with the milk in a large bowl. Add the Parmesan and season with salt and pepper.

Add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil to the pan of veg and pasta. Pour the egg mixture over. Cover pan and cook until the edges of the frittata start to brown and the center is only slightly runny, about 12 minutes. Transfer pan to the broiler and cook until the center is set and top is nicely browned.

To serve, slide the frittata onto a cutting board and slice into wedges.

Serves 4.

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Quiche and Tell

We had refrigerated pie crusts. We had eggs. We had mushrooms. We had half a gallon of half & half (Mr Minx and I each put one in the shopping cart and didn't notice until we were unpacking the groceries at home). It seemed like a good time to make quiche.

I haven't made quiche in a long, long time, and I can't even remember if my last attempt was successful or a big disaster. This attempt was somewhere in between.

My first mistake was to forget to line the pie shell with foil before pouring in the rice I use as a pie weight. I discovered my glaring omission when I attempted to pour the rice out of the crust and found a goodly portion of it embedded in the bottom. As I was rubbing the (hot) rice out of the (hot) crust while attempting not to burn myself on the (even hotter) pie pan, a couple of pieces of side crust decided to break off and fall onto the counter.

At least the actual blind baking portion of the program went well. The crust was browned and didn't shrink much at all.

I replaced the crust as best as I could, then filled it and baked it. It looked lovely when it came out of the oven (as evidenced by the photo above) but it was impossible to slice neatly. The beaten egg and half & half mixture had seeped through the crust and glued it to the pan.

No worries. I just scooped it out with a big spoon. It still tasted pretty great.

Mushroom Quiche

Pie shell of your choosing
1/2 cup sauteed onions
1 1/2 cups sauteed vegetables (I used mushrooms, asparagus, and jalapenos)
3/4 cup shredded cheese (I used cheddar jack, with some leftover bits of mozzarella and feta)
5 eggs
3/4 cup half and half
pinch salt
freshly ground black pepper
pinch freshly grated nutmeg

Prebake pie crust, with pie weights (and foil!), for about 20 minutes at 375°F. Remove weights and allow shell to come to room temperature.

Put the onions and vegetables in the shell, top with the cheese. Beat the eggs and half and half in another bowl until well-combined. Season with salt and pepper and nutmeg. Pour egg mixture over vegetables.

Bake at 375°F for about 45 minutes, until custard is set.



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