We had a little party for our 5 new baby chicks last night – they are one month old and getting ready to move out to their new digs in the garden, so we called it a “coop-warming party” and invited all our friends. Everyone was quite entertained by the idea – one couple, who it turns out also has 3 chickens of their own, thought it was the coolest party they’d ever been to: proof that other “normal” people have chickens too.
In addition to tours of the just completed chicken coop and plenty of time for everyone to pet and play with the chicks, we served up a buffet of summer patio fare: in addition to the obligatory brats and whole grain rolls, we had salad of watermelon, feta cheese and red onions, grilled tricolor bell peppers, zucchini and yellow squash, grilled polenta cakes, orange cream cheese frosted brownies, a white balsamic custard tart with fresh fruit that went over very well indeed, and cream cheese with fresh chives and garlic from the garden stirred in. The most popular item of the evening, though, appeared to be the chard and onion quiche (I’d made two in the hopes that we’d have generous leftovers to enjoy this week – both were polished off in their entirety, so we will have to cook again tonight – too bad).
1 pie crust
large bunch chard, stems trimmed off and chopped separately, leaves roughly chopped
red onions, sliced – I used several small ones, but I’d say 1-2 large ones would work
grated Pecorino-Romano cheese (again guesstimating, I grated about a saucer full)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup milk (I used 1%)
1 cup cream (I used table cream that was left over in the fridge)
a few toasted pine nuts
salt, fresh ground pepper, dash nutmeg and dash cayenne pepper
Directions:
preheat oven to 400 degrees
Saute chard stems in olive oil until softened; set aside
Saute chard leaves in olive oil, seasoning occasionally with salt and pepper, until wilted and tender; set aside
put onion slices in pan with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and a generous dash of sugar; over medium heat let them cook until well softened and beginning to caramelize; try not to stir much to allow the caramelization to begin to take effect
line a pie plate with pie crust and fold over edges
fill bottom of pie with onions
layer chard stems and leaves on top of onions
sprinkle most of the grated cheese over the chard
mix together cream, milk, eggs and season with salt, pepper, cayenne and nutmeg
pour egg mixture into pie crust
top with remaining cheese and sprinkle with pine nuts
bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes
lower heat to 325 and bake for 35 more minutes, until golden brown and slightly crusty
let sit for a while before serving – at least 30 minutes, but quiche will taste fabulous hours later or the next day
I was paid the highest compliment on this quiche when a native French woman had some and pronounced it truly excellent; she commented on people’s tendency to overbake theirs until the eggs turned runny, and on the excellent flavor of the vegetables. You might as well just call it “garden quiche,” because it could just as well have had any other combination of greens and veggies in it; this is just what was ready for the taking yesterday. I can see by my fast-growing vines that we will soon have the opportunity to try cherry tomato and zucchini quiche, for example. Any good cheese and any tasty combination of vegggies, sausage or other kinds of meat would surely be just as wonderful. Let your imagination run on this one – as long as you have the basic base down, you can’t mess up a quiche!
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I made this quiche last night with a few modifications. I added about a 1/2 pound of swiss cheese which I melted in the heated milk. I added the eggs to an additional 1/2 cup cold milk (omitting the cream) and mixed slowly to the heated milk. I also added a can of salmon to it.
The quiche was divine. Thank you.
Thank you Pam! Your variation sounds like a very interesting one!