Fully Loaded Quiche
Breakfast for dinner. Whoever thought of such a wonderful concept has garnered my praise for years. Egss are extremely underrated in my opinion, if only for the fact that people have very limiting ideas of what to do with them. Toad in the Hole, scrambled, fried, sunny side up, boiled soft or hard, etc. There many wonderful things to do with eggs, the least of which is to serve them in a hurry at breakfast.
I find I enjoy eggs more for dinner because I savour them for a longer period of time. My husband and I, for economic reasons, used to have soft boiled eggs with toast soldiers as our Friday night dinner for a few months, about a year ago. We’d be exhausted from daily life with a 9 month old, the rigamorale of the day to day grind and just your basic personal upkeep of a household. It was almost my favourite meal of the week. 5 minutes to make (after the kid went to bed) and 10 minutes to savour one of my most favourite of childhood treats. There’s something very clean and simple about toast soldiers dripping in butter, being dipped into perfectly runny, golden yolks. From those hectic days, sprouted new found love for the humble egg.
I’ve always been more of a fritatta kind of girl, but I find the crustless factor and tendency to be a bit dry less appealing then the rather sexy, crust encased, quiche. Sexy? Quiche? Yes, that’s right. Eggs can indeed be sexy. When dressed up in lovely mushrooms, exotic soft cheeses and herb scented, flaky, all butter crusts, eggs can induce a certain amount of fervor in me.
Fully Loaded Quiche
For the Savory Crust
4 oz cold, unsalted butter
6 oz all purpose flour
1/2 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup fresh rosemary, minced fine
1/4 cup buttermilk
1. Cut into butter into 2 cm pieces and freeze for 10-15 minutes. Measure out buttermilk and refrigerate.
2. Sift flour, sugar and salt into bowl. Take cold butter and dump into flour, toss to coat.
3. Dump onto work area and roll butter pieces with rolling pin.
4. When all butter is flattened and it looks like a big shaggy mess, throw it back into the bowl and put it in the fridge for 10 minutes.
5. Remove from fridge, make a well and pour in buttermilk. Bring dough together with hands, making sure to moisten all of the flour. It will be a big shaggy mess.
6. Form into flat disc, wrap in plastic and put in fridge for 1 hour.
7. Preheat oven to 350°F.
8. Roll out dough on floured surface to about 12″ around.
9. Line a pie plate with dough, folding and crimping edges.
10. Line dough with parchment paper or tin foil and weigh down with dried beans, rice or baking weights.
11. Bake 15 minutes, remove weights and liner, dock dough with a fork and bake another 15-20 minutes more or until a light golden brown.
12. Remove from oven, set aside to cool. Meanwhile, make the filling.
For the Quiche Filling
1 recipe savory crust
2 Tbsp Butter, divided
1 large shallot, minced
1 large clove garlic, minced or grated
1 lb mushrooms, diced
6oz spinach, roughly chopped or torn
150-200g peameal bacon (if unavailable, try Canadian bacon)
150-200 g Brie, sliced
4 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup whole milk
salt & pepper
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried Greek oregano
1 large tomato, sliced
1. In large sauté pan on medium high heat, sauté bacon for 1-2 minutes per side, or until slightly browned. Set aside to cool, then chop into large pieces about 2cm x 2cm. Toss into a medium sized mixing bowl.
2. In same sauté pan, add 1 Tbsp butter, garlic, shallots and mushrooms. Sauté on medium high for 8-10 minutes, or until all liquid has been cooked out of the mushrooms.
3. Remove from pan and add to bowl with bacon in it.
4. In same pan (again), add 1 Tbsp of butter and sauté spinach until all liquid has been cooked out.
5. Toss in bowl with other ingredients and season with salt and pepper.
6. In separate bowl, mix eggs with buttermilk and whole milk. Season with salt, pepper, basil and oregano.
7. Line crust with half of Brie. Pour in the vegetables, then the egg. Top with slices of tomato and remaining Brie.
8. Bake in 350°F oven for 35-45 minutes or until center is just set.
9. Allow to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes prior to cutting into it.
This quiche is excellent heated up the next day in the oven for 10-15 minutes. It’s quite large, so there were a few pieces left over, though they only lasted a day. Very, very good flavours.
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