quiche

I love quiche. It is a great way to use up leftovers, sneak in some vegetables, have a meat free meal, have pie, get creative with your cooking. DH loves quiche. DD, DS and BG loooove quiche. It can be time consuming or a quickly whipped up meal. Really, how can you go wrong?

I tend to make several at a time, because I am lazy and prefer to buy my pastry instead of make it myself, and the pie shells come in either a smallish size or in a box of two. I buy the ones made with veg shortening instead of lard. I know, I know, higher in bad fats, blah blah blah but I frequently make them for vegetarians, so I like to make sure they'll eat them when all is said and done.

3 pie shells
10 large eggs
1 c milk
1 1/2 c older cheese (cheddar, swiss, whatever you have that will melt) diced
1 T butter. mmmm butter
1 head of kale cleaned, or frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained (lots easier, more bland)
1 onion med fine chopped
1/2 c mushrooms prepared the way you like them
1/3 c cooked ham(per quiche for omnivores)
salt and pepper to taste

I'm a weirdo and I dice my cheese for quiche. I find the flavour and appearance of the quiche when cut are enhanced by something bigger than a grate and smaller than cubed. I don't get a cheese layer in the quiche-I get this beautiful look of orange and yellow marbling.

I preheat the oven to 375, prick my thawed pie shells all over and put them in the oven for about ten minutes-when they look about half done. They aren't pasty looking anymore and you can start to see the bubbles of flakiness. I avoid the worry of a mushy crust this way, and the quiche filling is more likely not to leak into my crust. blech.

I grab my nice big cast iron pan, turn on the stove to medium or so,throw in the pat of butter and let that melt. I toss in the onions for about two minutes, just until soft and hot, add in the kale(if I'm using it). I stir it some, put the lid on and let it cook while my crust is browning. If I'm doing the spinach,I let the onions brown a bit more before adding the spinach. The quiche cooks much faster if the veggies are hot as it goes into the oven.

I crack the eggs into a medium bowl and add the milk, salt and pepper. I whisk it all together and put it to the side. I check all of my hot spots to make sure nothing is burning.

I pull out the precooked pie shells and put them into a shallow, lined cookie pan. I have had a few overflow issues, so using a tray like this keeps the mess from burning to my oven. Lining the tray means I don't have to try and scrape off the nasty burnt egg stuff. In general, I can fit two shells to a cookie tray.

First in are the vegetables-onion, greens and chopped mushrooms. then the ham and cheese. Depending on who is at dinner will determine how many quiche get ham. Usually at least one for my omnivores. Then doing my absolute best at being careful and fair, I pour the egg mixture into the filled shells. I give the filled quiche a gentle shake to make sure the egg mixture goes all the way to the bottom. If I have leftover filling, I make an omelet. If I see I need more filling, I mix an egg and a T of milk to top up the less full one.

Carefully, so as not to spill the quiche, I put them in the oven. I use the middle racks, and do two up, one down. I close the oven and set the timer for thirty minutes. When my timer dings, I check for doneness with a knife. The cheese may melt to it, but it shouldn't be goopy and jiggly. Think of a nice soft omelet; like that, fluffy not tough; moist not dry. Take it out and let it finish setting.

The beauty of quiche is all the different temperatures it can be served at, making it perfect for dinner, lunch, breakfast and brunch, or for those days when getting the kids to the table takes forever.

Fillings I have used instead of kale:
leftover roasted vegetables
broccoli
cauliflower
asparagus
odds of frozen vegetable medley bags
corn
bell peppers
leftover sweet potato and parsnips