Spinach Feta Quiche

I’ve had this recipe for years but hadn’t made it in a long time. One day, my daughter, Tissi, decided she wanted to make herself some quiche. She’s a veggie eater and she loves quiche so I dug up my recipe for her. The problem was when I wrote it out for her, I said it only needed one pie crust. Needless to say, she ended up with a ton of extra filling. It wasn’t until a couple of attempts later that I realized my recipe was actually for TWO pies! Poor Tis. She couldn’t figure out why the recipe wasn’t working for her. LOL! If you want to make just one pie, cut the recipe in half. Otherwise, make sure you have two pie crusts ready.

SPINACH FETA QUICHE

• 2 ready-made frozen pie crust shells (or make your own)
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups half-and-half or whipping cream or milk
• 1/2 tsp. salt, or to taste
• 1/4 tsp. pepper, or to taste
• 2 Tbsp. flour
• 1 pkg. (10 ozs.) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 6 ozs. (1 cup) crumbled feta cheese

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. Line pie crusts with foil, fill with rice, beans, or pie weights, and bake for 10 mins.
3. Remove foil and pie weights, return crusts to oven, and bake an additional 4-5 minutes or until crusts are set and dry.
4. Remove crusts from oven and set aside until ready to use.
5. Lower oven temperature to 350°F.
6. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, half-and-half, salt, and pepper, using a wire whisk.
7. Sprinkle in flour, whisking vigorously back and forth to break up any lumps. If you have a few tiny lumps left, don’t worry about it. They’ll disappear into the quiche.
8. Stir in spinach and feta cheese.
9. Divide mixture evenly between the two crusts.
10. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. If necessary, cover edge of crusts with foil to prevent over-browning.
11. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.

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Real Man Quiche

I call this quiche “Real Man Quiche” in homage to the book “Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche” that was published in the early 80’s. Well, in my family, the men are as real as they come and they do eat quiche – specially when the quiche is a giant, meaty one like this one. Number 1 likes this deep-dish quiche because he feels it doesn’t leave him hungry like a wedge of regular-size quiche does. It’s basically the same as a normal quiche only with more meat and double the base ingredients. A springform pan makes it easy to unmold the big, heavy pie. Serve it with a salad or a nice bowl of soup and you have a filling, man-satisfying meal.

REAL MAN QUICHE

Crust:

• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 lb. cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 egg yolk
• 5-8 tbsp. ice cold water

1. Combine flour and salt in a large bowl.
2. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or your fingers until mixture resembles cornmeal.
3. In a small bowl, beat egg yolk with 5 tablespoons ice water.
4. Add egg yolk mixture to dough and work in with your fingers until dough comes together when squeezed in your hand. If it is too crumbly, add more ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until dough holds together.
5. Shape dough into a disk, wrap with plastic wrap, and chill until firm, about 30 minutes.
6. Sandwich dough between two pieces of parchment paper.
7. With a rolling pin, roll out dough into a 13-inch circle.
8. Lay dough inside a 10-inch springform pan, fitting dough into the bottom and up the sides of the pan.
9. Trim off any excess dough. Freeze scraps for future use.
10. Place in refrigerator until ready to use.

Filling:

• 1 lb. bacon
• ½ large onion, diced
• 8 large eggs
• 1 quart milk or half-and-half
• ½ tsp. salt or to taste
• ½ tsp. pepper
• ½ lb. smoked ham, cubed
• 1 (10-oz. pkg.) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and water squeezed out well
• 2 cups shredded swiss cheese
• 4 tbsp. flour

1. In a skillet over medium heat, fry bacon until crisp, remove from grease and drain on paper towels; then crumble into pieces.
2. Remove all but 2 tablespoons of bacon grease from skillet, add the onions and cook until opaque.
3. Preheat oven to 375ºF.
4. In a bowl, beat the eggs together, then whisk in the milk or half-and-half.
5. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Stir in the crumbled bacon, cooked onion, ham, spinach, cheese and flour.
7. Pour filling into prepared crust.
8. Cover loosely with foil and bake 1 hour. and 30 minutes
9. Remove foil and continue to bake until set and center jiggles slightly, about 15 minutes more.
10. Cool about 45 minutes to an hour.
11. Remove ring from springform pan, transfer quiche to a plate and slice into wedges.
12. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Quiche Lorraine

You know how some days you get home from work and you’re just so tired that all you want to do is sit down and veg out, but you can’t because you still need to fix dinner for a hungry family? That’s how I felt tonight. It was one thing after another at work and even though I have a sedentary desk job, sometimes I think “mental” work is almost more tiring than physical labor. You know? These are the days when it sure feels good to get home.

But now what to fix for dinner? Well, a quiche is good because it’s easy and relatively quick, especially if you use a store-bought pie crust like I did tonight. They make excellent refrigerated pie crusts nowadays. You just thaw, unroll, and lay them in your pie plate. Or better yet, get a frozen one which comes ready to bake in its own pie tin. If you do decide you want to make your pie crust from scratch, I have a good, basic pie crust recipe here that you can use.

QUICHE LORRAINE

• pastry for single crust, 9-inch, deep-dish pie (homemade or store-bought)
• 8-12 slices bacon
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 4 eggs
• 1½ cups heavy cream or half-and-half or milk
• 1/2 tsp. salt, or to taste
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
• 1 Tbsp. flour

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. Make pastry for single crust pie.
3. Ease pastry crust into quiche or tart pan, pressing against bottom and side. Trim excess pastry even with top of quiche pan.
4. Line pastry crust with foil, fill with pie weights and bake at 425° for 8 minutes.
5. Remove pie weights and foil, return to oven and bake an additional 4-5 minutes or until crust is set and dry.
6. Remove crust from oven and set aside until ready to use.
7. Lower oven temperature to 350°F.
8. In a skillet, cook bacon until crisp. Remove bacon, crumble and set aside.
9. In same skillet, cook onion until opaque but not brown; drain.
10. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, cream, salt and pepper.
11. Stir in bacon and onion.
12. Toss cheese with flour and stir into egg mixture.
13. Pour into crust.
14. Bake at 350° for 30-40 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. If necessary, cover edge of crust with foil to prevent overbrowning.
15. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.

NOTE:  If you’re making a regular pie instead of a deep-dish pie, decrease the eggs to 3 and the whipping cream to 1-1/4 cups.