Last night was Good Friday, and so for supper, I decided to bake a Mushroom & Swiss Cheese Quiche and a Broccoli & Cheddar Cheese Quiche. I had walked four miles roundtrip to buy the broccoli and put it out on the counter with all the other ingredients to go into the quiches.
I collected a bunch of tiny branches of thyme to pluck its leaves. You know that scene in Good Fellas, where the mobsters are in prison and are cooking Italian food in confinement? They have nothing but time, and so they slice the garlic carefully thin with a razor blade? That's how I feel these days. I had nothing but time on my hands to denude these tiny herb branches of their teeny, tiny leaves to flavor my quiche. I also chopped a white onion for my mushroom quiche.
I also chopped the Chef's Medley Mix of Mushrooms and a few more Crimini mushrooms as well as three small cloves of garlic which I macerated with a teaspoon of coarse salt. I also blind-baked two pie crusts in a 400 degree oven for 12 minutes--don't forget to prick the pie crusts beforehand. I should have baked it for 8 minutes longer to make for a less soggy crust when you pour the custard.
Into my cast iron on medium high heat, I sauteed the onions in a couple tablespoons of butter.
Next went in the chopped mushrooms, thyme, and garlic, which I sauteed for an additional ten to fifteen minutes to drive off the moisture.
While my mushrooms and onions were getting caramelized, I blanched the broccoli florets and started grating my cheeses: Cheddar, Gruyere, Emmenthaler, and Baby Swiss. I have so much leftover cheese! Macaroni and cheese and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner next week. I should probably pre-grate and bag for storage in the freezer before they get moldy.
Next I layered the mushrooms and Swiss cheeses into one pie shell and sprinkled nutmeg on top. In the other pie shell, I layered the blanched broccoli and Cheddar cheese--I wish I had thought to sprinkle cayenne pepper on it.
In my batter bowl, I cracked six eggs plus one yolk, a cup of milk, and a cup of heavy whipping cream and then blended. I forgot to add a couple of teaspoons of salt that the Kitchn's How to Make a Fool Proof Quiche called for, but I've hypertension and figured there was plenty enough sodium in the macerated garlic and in the cheeses.
I poured the custard into the filled pie shells.
Bake the quiches in a preheated 350 degree oven for 40 minutes--my husband likes his quiche well done, and so I had to put the broccoli quiche into the oven to cook for longer. However, I wish I had just left it out while it still had that jiggle in the middle which would have made a more velvety and soft custardy interior THOUGH both were divinely delicious which my neighbor whom I shared this quiche supper with can attest.
Leftover quiche for next week's meals.
Once a month before work, I make a run to McDonald's for a Sausage McMuffin. However, during the pandemic, I just couldn't because my local McDonald's doesn't have a drive-thru. And just because McDonald's thinks it owns the name for my favorite sandwich, it can't trademark or own the rights to a basic recipe of English muffins, sausage patty and cheese. I just bought a bag of frozen precooked sausage patties at Grocery Outlet, always have sliced cheese on hand, and had a bag of English muffins in my fridge for the past month, which was fresh enough.
I nuked the patty in the microwave for 30 seconds and then plopped the sausage in a frying pan for some of that brown Maillard deliciousness on which I laid a slice of Cheddar to heat and melt and toasted an English muffin.
I have to have ketchup on my sausage muffin because really it's just a pork hamburger for breakfast.
And because it's the first meal of the day, coffee instead of cola. My sausage muffin was yummy, and I wanted another, but don't want to gain the quarantine fifteen.
And tonight for dinner, we're eating leftovers because I've got rugelach to bake today.
No comments:
Post a Comment