Episode 74
October 30, 2011
Quiche
This is one of those episodes that could also be called, “I was too hungry to double check the ingredients.” Next time, I have to make sure I eat something before I shoot the episode! You all have no idea how many times I dive into an episode before eating breakfast and lunch! I have to admit, I have a not-so-secret love for quiche (good quiche that is) and when my friend Josie over at the food blog All in the Name of Noms made her Farmer’s Market Quiche I had to get in on it!
A standard quiche has two components: The crust and the custard. In the episode I mention that there are many options for a crust – and there really is! You could use biscuit dough and press it thinly into the shell (though I would suspect the crust could get soggy faster than other crusts), a savory tart dough, or pie dough. I prefer using pie dough for a few reasons. For one, it’s what I was taught to do so it just comes naturally! Two, I almost always have pie dough in the freezer so it’s easy. Three, a very thin pie crust holds the custard in place without distracting from the custard’s flavor. Four, pie dough is pretty good at staying flaky even when the filling is fluid. That being said, even pie dough will get soggy after a while. One trick I learned after I recorded the episode is that if you line the crust with shredded cheese before pouring in the custard, the crust will stay crisper for longer. I got that tip from America’s Test Kitchen which you can see on PBS – I highly recommend it because you learn so much so quickly on that show!
The custard is even simpler than the crust. The custard is a simple egg and dairy custard consisting of eggs, milk, and heavy cream. That’s pretty much it! Whisk them all together and pour it into your shell. Now of course that barely scratches the surface with what you can do with your quiche. The best part of a quiche is the filling! I’ve made all kinds of different quiches including:
- Spinach, Mushroom, and Swiss
- Spinach, Garlic, and Swiss
- Roasted Red Pepper, Roasted Garlic, Onion, Sausage, and Colby Jack
- Mushroom, Onion, and Bacon
And now, for this episode, I’ve made sausage, onion, and roasted red pepper!
The filling for this quiche is still pretty simple. Brown about 8 – 10 ounces of spicy sausage
Sausage, chicken, fish, and lamb are some of my favorite meats. I like my sausage a little on the crispy side, so I tend to blacken the meat.
on the stove and add in about half an onion and cook until the onion softens. Meanwhile you want to roast your red bell pepper.
Roasting a red pepper is easier that it sounds. Pre-heat your oven to broil (usually 500 degrees F will work if your oven doesn’t have a broil setting) and place the red bell pepper directly on the rack in the upper third of the oven (place an empty sheet on the rack below it to catch any juices that may leak out). As the skin blackens, rotate the bell pepper using tongs so each of the sides gets blackened. You will mostly likely need to rotate the pepper 4 times. If you have a grill it goes even faster since it blackens the entire pepper evenly at the same time. As a busy mom, my sister prefers to use a grill – but as a pastry chef without a grill I have to use the broil setting in my oven.
A good roasted red bell pepper will be blackened all the way around
Once the skin is completely blackened take the bell pepper and place it in a bowl. You want the bowl to be fairly deep because you’re going to wrap the bowl with plastic wrap and you don’t want the really hot pepper melting the plastic wrap, sticking to the plastic wrap, or tearing the plastic wrap. My chef from school uses a plastic bag – like a grocery bag or one of those bags from the produce section – but I’ve had bags melt on me so I’ve switched to using bowls. Allow the pepper to cool completely in the bowl. While it’s cooling the steam from the pepper is creating a really humid atmosphere which helps soften the blackened skin so after it’s completely cooled off the skin literally rubs right off. If you’re roasting a pepper make sure this is one of your first steps since it’s not labor intensive but takes a lot of time. Try roasting other kinds of peppers too – my sister likes to roast those long yellowish or light green peppers. I think they are called Anaheim? Getting a little side tracked – once she peels those peppers she purees them, strains the seeds, and stirs the puree into a salsa or cheese sauce. Delicious!
While we are talking about roasting vegetables, one of my other favorite vegetables to roast
Cover the red bell pepper immediately after roasting to make it sweat and make it easier to peel the skin. Allow it to cool completely before attempting to peel the skin. The skin should rub right off easily.
is garlic. I love roasted garlic. The old school way to roast garlic is to cut off the top of the bulb to expose all of the cloves. Place the bulb in aluminum foil and cup the aluminum foil. Before you close the foil like a teepee, drizzle in some olive oil and sprinkle in salt and pepper and cook the garlic at a very high temperature (like 400 degrees) for about 10-15 minutes or until the cloves soften up. That method is antiquated and is labor intensive. A faster method I learned from watching Sara Moulton’s show on PBS is placing peeled cloves of garlic in a shallow dish with olive oil. It should be enough that they are surrounded in oil but not submerged. Cook the same way! So much faster and since they are pre-peeled less mess afterward. Plus it is easy to check if the cloves are roasted because you can easily pierce them with a knife. Keep in mind over cooked garlic gets hard again. Roasted garlic is great because it can be easily turned into a paste and stirred into just about anything including custard, spread, marinades, salads, and salsas. I’m getting really hungry just thinking about it!
Now you’re probably wondering what I referred to when I mentioned that I forgot a few
Oooo Parsley! Pretty!
ingredients in the episode. Well for one I forgot to sprinkle in the colby jack and pepper jack cheese. Because I love cheesy quiches I sprinkled the cheese on top of the quiche after it baked for over 15 minutes. This made a nice crispy bubbly cheesy crust which I made even cheesier by adding more shredded cheese after it came out of the oven. I also forgot to sprinkle on some flat leaf parsley to make the quiche look classy before I took a slice out of the baking dish.
I know they are some naysayers who don’t like quiche and to be honest I used to not like quiche either – but that was because I didn’t have good, decent quiche. What does this mean? Well people have a tendency to over cook eggs. By A LOT. Eggs should not be rubbery no matter what form they are served in be it poached, scrambled, omelet, custard, fried, or over easy. Just like a flan, a quiche should still be creamy and soft while being firm enough to hold its shape – not curdled like scrambled eggs. An overcooked quiche will be tough and rubbery and the texture is so off-putting. The smaller a quiche is the easier it is to over cook it – caterers I’m looking at you! One of my first quiches was at a party where they had mini quiches. Awful. The egg was tough and over cooked and the crust was thick and bland. I understand that the crust is used to hold the quiche in place but add some flavor to your crust! Try kneading in fresh or dried herbs or using more butter rather than shortening (or even a little cream cheese or neufchatel) – especially if you are using a tart shell.
A layer of cheese prior to filling it with custard should help prevent your crust from getting soggy - a least for a little while longer. Arrange your vegetables in the custard in a nice design as you can often see the design after it is baked.
While we’re on the subject of cooking eggs, if you’re interested let me give you some tips on how to not over cook eggs on the stove. For scrambled eggs, cook your eggs on a lower heat – medium to medium low – and just as the eggs are coming together and scrambling remove your pan from the heat. Stir for a second or two then place on the plate right away. The residual heat will continue to cook the eggs (similar to carry over cooking for cookies) even after you take them out of the pan. The scrambled eggs should still be shiny and just barely runny when you take them out of the pan. By the time you get your fork they’ll have set up perfectly. For over easy eggs the concept is similar. Cook your egg over medium heat until it is just firm enough to flip carefully. When you flip the egg, do not return it to the heat! Let it cook for a second or two longer and you’re done. Granted, this will result in a runny yolk – which apparently not many people like – so if you want a firm yolk cook it for a little longer when you flip the egg.
So if you hate quiche, try these tips and give it another go! I promise you will love quiche when it is made properly. Quiche is also great as another breakfast option especially since it freezes well – just wrap it up tightly to prevent freezer burn!
Here is the recipe for the quiche which includes some tips on some of my favorite variations. Here is the pie dough recipe if you would like to use that as your crust. Below is the video for the quiche, and below that is the basic pie dough video. Thank you for watching! Enjoy!
Pie dough episodes:
