A Most Exquisite Quiche.

I love quiche and have been wanting to try my hand at it for a while, but, cooking for myself these days, have never had anyone to feed it to. I decided to make one for a Mother’s Day brunch a few weeks ago – a classic spinach, cheese, and mushroom combo – which was so good my mom and I ate half of it in one sitting (I realize this is becoming a trend with us regarding foods that are in round, mass quantities). The only thing I would have done differently is the crust. I had some pate brisée crust frozen for a few months, which may have given it a little freezer burn that wasn’t as easy to work with. I also rolled it out a bit too thin at the top, and should have either made a thicker fold-over layer or have pressed it into the pie dish high enough so that the filling just covers it. It was a little burnt on top because of this (and I didn’t even par-bake it), but still delicious nonetheless. Here is the recipe for a most stellar spinach and mushroom quiche…

 

Spinach, Mushroom, and Cheese Quiche (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

 

Ingredients:

• recipe for an all-butter pastry crust (this one works great and makes only a half portion, which is all you need for this recipe)
• 1 tsp. oil or butter
• 1/2 yellow onion, finely diced
• 1–2 cups mushrooms (I used shittake and procini), finely chopped
• 3 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/3 cup milk
• 4 eggs
• 1 10 oz package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
• 1/2 cup grated cheddar (gruyere works great too – I used a mix of the two)
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan
• salt and pepper to taste

 

Directions:

(1) Roll out the pie crust and press firmly into the bottom of your pie dish/tart pan/whatever, pressing it up the sides but not to stretch it too thinly. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

(2) In a skillet, heat oil over medium heat and sauté the onions until soft and translucent. Add the mushrooms and cook a few minutes longer, until everything is soft and browned, seasoning with a bit of salt and pepper at the end. Take off the heat and set aside.

(3) Preheat the oven to 425 F. Beat the cream cheese in a medium bowl until smooth, and then gradually beat in the milk and eggs. Mix in the spinach, cheese, and mushroom/onion mixture, reserving some of the parmesan cheese.

(4) Take the crust out of the fridge and pour the egg mixture into the dish. Sprinkle a bit of the leftover parmesan on top of the pie, then bake until the crust is brown and the filling is set, about 20–25 minutes. Cool a few minutes before serving.

Quiche, in miniature form.

With all the soups I’ve been making, I’ve been getting into the habit of freezing things, since cooking for yourself amounts to copious amounts of leftovers.  It’s a perfect solution for what to do after making foods of massive quantities!  Another huge food item I’ve been wanting to make for a while is quiche, which is only really good for parties, brunches, and whatnot, since I can’t imagine eating an entire quiche to myself (unless it’s THAT good).  Well, since eggs are also very freezable apparently, I decided to put the muffin pan to use and make MINI quiches, which would require about the same amount of eggs and whatnot for a regular quiche or large frittata recipe, and would be perfect for freezing individually to defrost later as single serving snacks or even a meal, if I defrosted like 3 or so.  It worked out so nicely!  I refrigerated some too to test if they would be good in the fridge for a few days… turns out they were! I just microwaved them for a few seconds to warm them up and then broiled them in the toaster oven to give them a nice crisp, compensating for the lack of crust that a real quiche would have.  I basically just used whatever veggies I had in my fridge, but I’m sure you can add whatever mix-ins you want, which is the beauty of the egg!

 

Crustless Mini Quiches

 

Ingredients:

• olive oil, for sautéeing
• cooking spray, for greasing the muffin pan
• 1 sweet onion, diced
• 8 oz. fresh spinach
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• 6 eggs
• about 1/4 cup of milk
• some parmesan cheese, to your taste
• salt and pepper to taste

 

Directions:

(1) Preheat oven to 350 F and lightly spray a 12-count muffin pan with cooking spray. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over med-high heat.

(2) Once oil is hot, add the onions and sauté until tender and caramelized, about 15 minutes.  Add the bell pepper and cook for another 5 minutes, then add the spinach and cook until it just wilts, about a minute.  Turn the heat off and set aside.

(3) In a bowl of some sort, whisk together the eggs, milk, and a bit of cheese.  Add salt and pepper, then stir in the veggie mixture from the skillet.

(4) Pour your quiche mix into the prepared muffin pan, being careful to leave some space by NOT filling it to the brim.  This is very important because the egg will rise, so if you fill them to the top, the quiches will overflow and form one giant mess!  Cook for about 20 to 25 minutes, until the egg sets and they don’t jiggle when you move the pan a bit.  Let them cool a few minutes, after which they should look like this:

After cooling, the egg actually deflates a bit, so they are back to the size of where your mixture was when you poured it. Note the browned edges… yum.

Like I said, with the leftovers, I would sometimes just take one out of the fridge, sometimes a few depending on whether they were a snack or a meal. The best thing to do is to microwave them just until they are heated through (like 20 seconds maybe?) and THEN put them in the toaster oven to get that nice crispness back again (I even found them better this way as opposed to right out of the oven the day I made them). If you want the tops browned, just broil them!

I’m sure these guys would make great party appetizers too. Too bad I didn’t care about the Superbowl…