I know summer is pending when the kitchen gets unbearably hot over suppertime cooking. Summer again, already?! When the temperature's this hot in April, I cringe at what's to come and wonder how I'll weather another muggy season without air conditioning. At least I'm not pregnant this time around.
On the bright side of summer's advent, there's the green stuff showing up at the market and the CSA bags promising to be filled and waiting for me a mere two weeks away. And, invariably, vegetable quiche gets on my mind. It's perhaps not the most common sensical turn of heat-involved culinary events in my home, but for this dish, even in 80-degree weather, I am willing to turn the oven on, yea, and also the gas range, to bake up a quiche-y bed for a good seasonal sautee.
Today's quiche was redone according to new health demands - fewer grains. And it included the current queen of the farmer's market, asparagus. Also roasted red pepper, but let's just let that out-of-season bugger slide by, eh? Pretend I roasted them up after last year's harvest and kept them in the freezer, a la Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. No need to mention last week's visit to Kroger or anything.
This time last year saw me sick and on the sofa with a little Ella inside me and a host of cracker and ginger ale options on the coffee table; no quiche. So this update to my old standby recipe has been waiting in the wings for two years. It performed par excellence tonight, so share I will. (And don't think the real motivation here isn't getting the recipe down where I know I'll be able to find it again.)
Crustless Veggie Quiche
Adapted, then readapted, from Recipes from America's Small Farms, with a little input from Simply in Season
Serves 4 as a dinner entree
- 4 bacon slices, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 1 cup chopped onions: tonight, 1 small white onion plus several chopped green onion whites
- 2-3 cups prepared vegetables: tonight, 2 c. asparagus (one thin-stalked bundle) cut into 1-2 inch pieces and 1/4 c. roasted red peppers (about 1/2 a bell pepper), plus the green parts of the green onions
- 3 T all-purp flour
- ½ t salt
- 1/8 t dried thyme, scant
- 1/8 t freshly milled black pepper
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 cup grated Swiss and 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
Preheat oven to 375. Butter a 9 or 10-inch pie dish.
Place Swiss along bottom of pie dish.
Sautee the bacon in a medium skillet over medium heat until cooked but not crisp; remove to paper towels to drain. Reserve 2+ T of drippings in the skillet. Add the onions and asparagus and sauté until transparent, about 5 minutes. Stir in prepared onion greens and roasted red peppers. Stir in flour, salt, thyme, and pepper. Layer veggie mixture on top of Swiss in pie dish. Layer Parmesan on top of veggie mixture and bacon on top of Parmesan.
Beat eggs in medium bowl until frothy. Beat milk into the eggs. Pour the cream mixture over all in pie dish.
Bake for about 30 minutes, until center appears set when pie plate is gently tapped. Set aside for 5 minutes before cutting.
Note on Vegetable Mixture from cookbook: "Almost any vegetable or mixture of veggies can be used. Slice or julienne larger veggies. If using asparagus, broccoli, celery, eggplant, fresh corn, bell peppers, summer squash, mushrooms, or zucchini, they should be added to the skillet raw, and sautéed with the onions. Carrots, green or yellow beans, fresh peas, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and winter squash should be parboiled and drained thoroughly before adding. Greens such as arugula, beet greens, collards, kale, mustard, spinach, swiss chard, and turnip greens should be steamed, simmered, or stir-fried until wilted, thoroughly drained, and coarsely chopped before adding."
No comments:
Post a Comment