Cooking: Quiche and Soup

Anticipating a busy work week, I spent my Monday afternoon grocery shopping and cooking a mushroom quiche and a cream of cauliflower and broccoli soup.

I chopped cauliflower and broccoli, freshly harvested from the garden and then drizzled olive oil and sprinkled salt to roast in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.

While the vegetables were roasting, I chopped and minced an onion, a few cloves of garlic, and a fennel bulb.

And diced a couple of slices of bacon because....

I needed some fat to sauté my onion, garlic and fennel bulb.  However, the bacon was rather lean, and so I added some pasture-raised pork lard to the sauté.  

I also poured myself a glass of Chardonnay and set out a homemade chicken stock because the soup called for those ingredients.

My cauliflower and broccoli had finished roasting.

And into the soup pot went the roasted vegetables and my glass of wine until the alcohol evaporated followed by the chicken broth.

While my soup simmered for about an hour before pureeing in the blender, I had also collected sprigs of thyme and marjoram from the herb garden and diced a shallot and sliced brown crimini mushrooms as well as grated leftover Emmenthaler and Gruyere cheeses which had made for some tasty grilled cheese sandwiches.  I had also pressed a frozen pie crust into a glass pie plate, crimping and poking holes all over it before baking in the 400 degree oven for twelve minutes.  Sauté the mushrooms and shallots and herbs--the leaves will fall off the branches which you can pluck out--until soft and caramelized.  Sprinkle the vegetables and the grated cheese into the  bottom of the pre-baked pie crust, but don't forget to reserve some of the cheese like I had forgotten to sprinkle on top of the custard.  Beat six eggs with heavy whipping cream and pour into the pre-filled pie shell.  Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes, and  then turn the oven down to 350 and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of the quiche to bake for another 20 to 25 minutes.  The top can be jiggly in the middle because it will set.