By Marjorie Watkins and Suzanna Leigh
Marjorie
With the thermometer on my balcony reading 40 degrees, the temperature in the kitchen is cool enough to make a baked dish for dinner. How about a custard or a quiche? People have been eating mixtures of eggs and milk heated to thicken them since at least ancient Rome. My many-times great grandfather Charlemagne was most likely served a savory custard in a crust, with cooked vegetables from the palace garden and mushrooms from the surrounding forest. The English word “custard” came from the French term “croutade,” which originally referred to the crust of a tart.
A conventional quiche is like a custard pie without the sugar; a savory custard with vegetables and cheese in a crust (I have never met a auiche without cheese). It originated in what is now the Lorraine district of France – when it was under German rule, way back in the Middle Ages. So, Germany and France both claim to have invented it!
A simple sweet custard (5 servings):
Blend together:
2 cups milk
¼ cup sugar or honey
¼ teaspoon salt
Add and beat together:
2 whole eggs or 4 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
Distribute this liquid into 5 little custard cups. Sprinkle with a dash of nutmeg. Bake at 300 degrees for about 40 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. They may be eaten warm or cold.
Quiche
For a gluten-free pie shell, preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Mix together:
1 cup sorghum flour
¾ cup brown rice flour
¼ cup cornstarch or potato starch
Work in ½ cube of butter
Pour in about ⅔ cup water while stirring the dry ingredients with a fork to form a soft ball.
Grease a glass pie pan. Press the soft dough evenly on the bottom and sides of the pan and ½ inch above the rim. Hold the pan up to the light to make sure it is evenly spread. Create a fluted edge, folding the extra dough under as you go. Bake 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce heat to 375 degrees.
Marj’s Quiche Filling
I happened to have a head of broccoli that really needed to be used up before all its tiny buds became tiny blossoms and it lost its rich green color. I made this as an augmented Danish omelet, but it would have been a quiche if I baked it in a pie shell.
2 large green onions, chopped
¼ cup green bell pepper
1½ to 2 cups steamed broccoli florets, chopped
3 oz grated mozzarella cheese
4 eggs, beaten
1½ cup milk or half-and-half
½ tsp salt
⅛ tsp black pepper
1 tbsp minced parsley (optional)
Instructions:
Sauté the raw vegetables until cooked, but not brown. Add steamed broccoli florets. Beat together milk, eggs, salt, and pepper. In the baked pie shell, spread the grated cheese. Add the cooked vegetables. Pour the milk and egg mixture over it (garnish with parsley).
(Garnish with parlsey)
Bake in center of the oven at 375 degree, for 40 minutes, until knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. The top of the quiche should be brown and slightly puffed. Remove to a wire rack for 10 minutes to let the custard set.
Suzanna’s variation:
It was the first night of Ramadan, and I wanted to make something special for husband Rich/Rifaat to eat after his first day of fasting, so I made quiche for the first time ever.
For vegetables I used:
¾ cup of sliced mushrooms and ¾ cup chopped chard, sautéed down to about 1 cup total.
⅔ cup shrimp, cooked, peeled, and chopped
I used 1 tsp of Aleppo pepper instead of black pepper
I served it with a salad of steamed green beans (½ cup? Sorry, I didn’t measure)
2 stalks celery (chopped)
1 slice cooked golden beet (diced)
Dressing:
1 generous tbsp frozen orange juice concentrate
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp vinegar
I don’t do pie crusts, though, so son James made a fine crust using oat flour instead of Marjorie’s flour mixture. It was really good! And guess what? Real men DO eat quiche – the men in my house devoured it!
