Recipes for the Dinner

Ok, I know I am bad about posting recipes. I am making the effort to be better. Here are some recipes. The quiche recipes are based on what I did - which were variations on a basic quiche recipe I found online.

Quiche Crust (from a recipe online - makes 2 crusts)

Ingredients:

• 1 and 3/4 cups of unbleached, all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1 stick of cold, unsalted butter
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp sour cream or creme fraiche

Directions:

1. Mix the flour and salt together (I use a fork) in a bowl.
   
2. Cut the butter into cubes or chunks. Using a pastry cutter or your hands, work the butter into the flour. It should be like coarse sand when it is ready
3. Create a hole in center of the mixture.
4. Break the egg into the hole and add the sour cream or creme fraiche.
5. Beat the egg and sour cream/creme fraiche together with a fork, slowly incorporating the flour mixture as you go.
6. Use your hand to get all of the dough to mix stick together.
7. Break the dough in half and form each into a disk shape.
8. Wrap each disk with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
9. Allow dough to warm up a little bit before rolling out.

Ham and Spinach Quiche

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of ham, cubed
• 1 cup of wilted spinach (you can use frozen or fresh, but you will need a lot more fresh to get 1 cup)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
  
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 1 cup mushrooms, sliced (any kind you want - just not the white button mushrooms, please)
• 4 large eggs
• 3/4 cup half and half
• 2/3 cup shredded Gruyere cheese
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
  
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 9-inch pie pan lined with the quiche crust (kept in the refrigerator until the last moment)
  

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
   
2. Heat a large saucepan over medium heat. Add olive oil and saute onions until soft (3-5 minutes)
3. Add mushrooms and saute until tender (3-5 minutes).
   
4. Add the ham and allow heat through. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
   
5. Add the parsley to the mixture, mix and turn off heat.
6. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and half and half together.
7. Add the Gruyere cheese and the wilted spinach to the egg mixture and incorporate well.
   
8. Add the ham, onion and mushrooms to the egg mixture and work together.
9. Pour the mixture into the lined pie-pan.
10. Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.
11. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Smoked Whitefish and Asparagus Quiche

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of smoked whitefish, deboned and in chunks
  
• 1 cup of sliced asparagus (however size you like, but larger chunks will take longer to cook)
  
• 2 tbsp olive oil
  
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 1 cup mushrooms, sliced (any kind you want - just not the white button mushrooms, please)
• 4 large eggs
• 3/4 cup half and half
• 2/3 cup shredded Gruyere cheese
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
  
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 9-inch pie pan lined with the quiche crust (kept in the refrigerator until the last moment)
  

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
   
2. Heat a large saucepan over medium heat. Add olive oil and saute onions until soft (3-5 minutes)
3. Add mushrooms and saute until tender (3-5 minutes).
   
4. Remove the onions and mushrooms to a bowl and add the sliced asparagus. Saute until the slices green up.
   
5. Add back the onions and mushrooms. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
   
6. Add the parsley to the mixture, mix and turn off heat.
7. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and half and half together.
8. Add the Gruyere cheese and the smoked whitefish to the egg mixture and incorporate well.
   
9. Add the asparagus, onion and mushrooms to the egg mixture and work together.
10. Pour the mixture into the lined pie-pan.
11. Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.
12. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.
    

Dinner and a Slug-fest

We had invited my mother-in-law to dinner today. Of course, I hadn't cleaned the house in weeks, so this morning consisted of me tearing through the house like a tornado trying to get things picked-up, scrubbed, and generally - un-mucked. I was a success...at least on the first floor.

Then, there was the food. The food. Yes, the food!

As I posted last time, I have become enamored with the quiche. I know - why would anyone become enamored with quiche? I don't have a good answer for you. All I can say is - It is pretty easy to make, it uses eggs....and it's an easy use of eggs....

Anyway, I decided on 2 quiches this time. The first was a more traditional quiche. It was ham and spinach with a trio of mushrooms (shitake, cremini, and oyster). The second was more a niche quiche (yes, I just wrote that!). It was smoked whitefish and asparagus with the same trio of mushrooms. Both quiches used a yellow onion and fresh parsley.

The main ingredients for the ham and spinach quiche

The main ingredients for the smoked white fish and asparagus quiche

I do have to say, it is SO nice to be able to go out to our garden cut the asparagus right before using it. It doesn't get any fresher or tastier!

Both quiches used eggs, half and half, and Gruyere cheese. Here are the quiches before they went into the oven.



In addition, I made some No Knead Bread. It is interesting to see the difference in this bread when made during warmer, more humid months compared to cooler, drier months. Today's bread had much more rise in it and was much lighter and fluffier in texture than ones I made during the winter.


I also sauteed some more fresh asparagus and some of our spring onions with olive oil and then dressed them up with some local apple vinegar. It is SO good - sweet with some nice char and then the acidity of the vinegar. My mother-in-law had only had asparagus from the can and hated the stuff (not that I blame her). She was completely turned around with our fresh asparagus. There is absolutely no comparison.

I made another batch of vanilla custard (sorry - no picture). For dessert we took some shortcakes I made (a few days ago) and covered them with some orange-infused rhubarb compote (I made this a few days ago as well). This was topped off with generous dollops of the vanilla custard. This is a winner, folks. Make this for someone and they will be eternally grateful.

Here are some more gratuitous food photos.

Yes, I know this photo is dark - I am not a photographer.

See the above comment.

How did we end this glorious feast? We went out to the orchard and the garden. First, we hunted down the evil tent caterpillars that are invading our beautiful fruit trees. We sprayed a bacteria on them that is dangerous only to them. Then, in the garden, my mother-in-law pulled dandelions while Hubby and I scrounged for the evil slug. We captured some (but surely not nearly enough) of the little devils and fed them to the chickens.

Well, I am ready to have a nice glass of beer and maybe work on the pile of dishes in the kitchen. Or maybe, just the nice glass of beer.

Smoked Pheasant Quiche

Yesterday I made a Smoked Pheasant Quiche for dinner. I took a basic quiche recipe that I found online and changed things up a bit.

We had a smoked pheasant from a pheasant hunt Hubby went on last year. I stripped the meat off the bones and did my very best to remove any shot (of course, there are always a few that you miss). Then, I roughly chopped the pieces.

I made the crust for the quiche based on a recipe I found online. Geez - I've got a thing for finding these things online. Seriously - I'll do my best to find my next recipe from a recipe book - I promise!

Anyway, crusts and I DO NOT MIX. No matter how hard I try, they always end to up dry and fall apart when I attempt to roll them out. At least this time around I did succeed in lining the pie pan with crust.

Next I sauteed 2 chopped onions in some olive oil. Once they were nice and soft, I added the sliced crimini mushrooms until they were nicely brown and tender. Next, I added the chopped smoked pheasant and heated everything through and seasoned with salt and pepper. I added a handful of chopped parsley from the garden.

I beat several eggs together with some half and half, and grated just a smidge of nutmeg into the mixture. I added a lot of shredded Gruyer to the egg mixture along with some wilted spinach. I then added the meat mixture.

I poured the whole thing into the crust-lined pie pan and baked it for 20 minutes in a 375 degree oven.

It was very tasty. I would definitely lower the spinach and onion levels and up the egg and Gruyer levels next time (it was a bit more chunky and less "Quiche"-y then I would have liked. But the smoked pheasant really infused the dish nicely and the crust actually kept its crispness well. Once this is tuned up, I'll post the recipe.

Pictures of the Rhubarb Custard Souffle

This is a Jamie Oliver recipe. It is very nice - the souffle is very light and airy. I have to say - rhubarb and custard go together VERY well. I think we've had them together for dessert for almost a week now - and I'm still not tired of it!

Ok, here are pictures of the souffles.


The ramikens were lined with butter and ground gingersnap cookies (I pulverized some leftover ginger cookies I made for Christmas). Rhubarb compote was placed inside along with a spoonful of custard. Mixed the remaining rhubarb and custard together with an egg yolk and a bit of flour. Whipped the egg whites (recipe calls for 4 - I did 5 since I had 4 from when I made the custard and 1 from the recipe) and sugar and whipped til very stiff. Mixed some whites with the rhubarb/custard mixture and then folded that in with the remaining white. Dolloped the mixture into each ramiken. Baked on a pre-heated cookie sheet in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

So, dinner tonight will be a couple pheasants. One was smoked. I'll attempt another Jamie Oliver recipe. We seem to be all about Jamie Oliver these days. If you haven't watched his Food Revolution tv shows - I would recommend it.

Hubby has been out moving the sod rolls from the new garden area. It appears he's decided on a sod fence for the garden. After all the sod is moved, we will till up the soil with our new rear-tine tiller. Now, I know some people are anti-tiller. But, we have some insane amount of square feet of very clay soil to work up - and it ain't happenin' with a shovel and fork.

Well, dinner won't prep itself. Better be off.

The Custard Recipe

Ok, I promised to post the custard recipe that I use. I got it off the web.

Homemade Vanilla Custard

Ingredients

3 cups whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
3 tbsp corn starch
1/2 tsp salt
4 egg yolks
2 tbsp butter
2 tsp vanilla extract

Hardware

Heavy saucepan
whisk
spatula
Storing container (I use the 42 oz plastic container with locking lid)

Directions

1. Mix the first 5 ingredients in the heavy saucepan with the whisk until well incorporated.
2. Place saucepan on burner and bring to the boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. You will know you are there when the mixture changes from thin and frothy to silky, smooth and thick. Watch out for flying sprays of custard - they are hot.
3. Remove saucepan from heat.
4. Whisk in the butter and vanilla.
5. Pour mixture into your storing container with the spatula.
6. Place plastic wrap right on the surface of the custard to prevent a skin from forming. Cover with lid.
6. Place in the refrigerator to cool. (I like it warm, too).

I made another batch this afternoon and will use it and our rhubarb to make a rhubarb custard souffle - a Jamie Oliver recipe. I will be sure to take pictures and post later.

Oh, and it rained this morning and last night. Yeay!

We've Got Ducks!

Yes, they little darlings arrived yesterday. 10 Swedish Blues. They are quite cute. Hubby has some pictures over on his blog.

Will write more later. Tonight, we are going to see Flogging Molly in concert. Woot!

Later!

Sad News for Twin Cities Diners

Very sad news that Jon Radle, executive chef at Grand Cafe, passed away unexpectedly. We had just eaten at the restaurant a couple of months ago for a Simple, Good, and Tasty event. So sad - what a talented chef who was very much into local, sustainable food. Our condolences to his family and friends.

So What Have You Done Lately?

Yes, I know it has been a long time since my last post. Big slap on the wrist for me.

I've been pretty busy. I've been helping Hubby with the garden. We've got a lot of things planted: a few kinds of shell peas and sugar snap peas, broad beans, scarlet runner beans, leeks, beets, carrots, turnips, shallots, garlic (planted last fall), broccoli rabe, chard... I'm sure I'm missing stuff.

The apricot tree is in full blossom and the plum trees are just starting to blossom. They smell so fantastic. I'm so excited about those!

The windows of the house are full of tomato seedlings - romas, brandywines.

We are also getting ducks - 10 Swedish Blues. We've got a lot of fencing, posts, and a small yard pond liner. We plan on putting up the fence around the orchard - thus having the ducks help with pest control. Also, it is close the pole barn - so we can easily refill the pond with the run-off.

We also rented a sod cutter and removed a whole lotta sod next to the existing garden. Hubby had the grandiose idea of doing some 600-700 square feet. I talked him into half. We ended up doing even less than that. That was some long, hard work. We still have a field of sod rolls to deal with - but are slowly making headway. (I should say, HUBBY is slowly making headway.) The hope is to plant corn (popcorn, meal), squash, tomatoes, and potatoes. We did buy a tiller - a nice big rear-tine. There was NO WAY we could work that up with just the shovel and fork. Also, Hubby still hopes to clear out MORE land (in future years) - so buying a tiller seemed to be the smart thing to do.

We are nearly overrun with eggs. I made two batches of vanilla egg custard (non-baked). I have to say - DO NOT BUY VANILLA CUSTARD OR MAKE IT FROM AN INSTANT PACKAGE! The recipe is SOOOOO simple and a million times better than anything else. I also made a large batch of rhubarb compote. These two together make for a very happy tummy.

Well, that is the low down from here. Hope your spring plantings are going well.