Now that our hens are back to laying 1 egg per hen per day, it's time to get all those creative egg recipes out! One dish that this family loves is quiche. I know it can be a bit intimidating to make your own pie crust, but trust me, once you get the hang of it, nothing compares. Certainly I wasted a few sticks of butter in the past on tough crusts, but now I produce a tender flaky shell that given the circumstances, I could eat alone. Hunter eats the pie crust raw while I roll it out, and God forbid you keep that kid away from butter.
Speaking of eggs, last year I read a great article in La Cucina Italiana about this wonderful farmer, Paolo Parisi, who lives near where my family is from in Italy. He tends an impressive heritage breed of pig called the Cinta Senese, along with goats and Livornese chickens. I have a crush on Parisi because I simply adore his creative methods of farming and also the way he markets his fare. This man gets over $4.00 per egg because he treats his animals with care and ingenuity.
The article I have read many times, and you can get an excerpt here:
http://www.lacucinaitalianamagazine.com/article/materie-prime
Here is my own recipe for one of our favorite quiches. It's easy to prepare, even if you're a novice to pie crust (buy a prepared one from the grocery store).
Spinach and Goat Cheese Quiche by Amy Chelko Lord
–a note on this crust–I use a big ceramic pie dish, it's a 9inch pan, but with high edges, so I have modified a traditional pie crust recipe to make sure that the edges of the crust reach above the sides of the dish by about a quarter of an inch. You sure don't want your quiche filling to spill over your crust or it will burn in the pie dish and stick to the bottom of the crust.
For the crust:
7 tablespoons of cold butter, 1 1/4 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 3-5 Tablespoons of ice cold water or vodka chilling in your freezer. I got this idea from America's Test Kitchen right here:
http://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/detail.php?docid=11482
I do this all the time, and it really works well.
You will also need a bag of kidney beans and aluminum foil for the "blind baking" of the crust.
For the filling:
8 ounces of fresh spinach, 2 Tablespoons olive oil, 3 cloves of minced garlic, 8 ounces of goat cheese (chevre), salt and pepper.
For the custard:
4 eggs, 2/3 cup whole milk (we use 1% at our house so I just mix in some half and half with it), salt
In the Kitchen Aid with the paddle attachment, I slow mix the flour and salt. To this I add the cold butter that I have cut into pieces and continue mixing on low until the flour and butter look sandy. Next, add the chilled vodka–or water–1 tablespoon at a time until the dough forms a ball. As soon as this happens, turn off the mixer. I find this is the trouble area with pie dough-making, over mixing the dough. As soon as that dough forms a ball, turn it off. Dump the dough onto the counter, form a ball without kneading it, and wrap it in plastic. Fridge for half an hour.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. You are going to blind bake your piecrust–that is pre-bake it to get it crisp, and then finish baking it with the filling and custard.
http://www.piemaven.com/blind_bake.htm
Roll out the dough on a floured surface until it's about 1/4 inch thick and larger than the pie plate. Gently lift the dough and place it in your dish. With a fork, make many pricks in the bottom of the pie crust. Take your aluminum foil and layer it over the crust so about an inch hangs off the side. Fill the foil with the kidney beans like so:
Bake in the oven for about 12 minutes until the shell is set. Remove from oven, take out beans and foil and return for another 5 minutes until the crust is golden, but not brown. Allow to cool.
Rinse well your 8 ounces of spinach. In a pan with a bit of olive oil, saute the spinach on medium low heat until it wilts and the water is evaporated. At the very end, add a tiny bit more of olive oil and the garlic, which should only cook for about 30 seconds. Hit it with some salt and pepper.
In a large bowl, whisk the 4 eggs, milk, and about half a teaspoon of salt. Obviously, I love salt and use small bits of it along the way while I cook. I prefer to have everything seasoned during the process rather than finish a product with salt. If it seems like too much, ease up on it.
Oven back to 400 degrees.
In your cooled crust, slice some of the goat cheese on the bottom, about 3 ounces. Spread the cooked spinach on top of the crust. Pour in the custard and finish with pieces of the goat cheese round the top. Bake for 30-35 minutes. This quiche is rich with the cheese and may take a bit longer in the oven. Essentially you want the custard set and the crust a nice golden brown.
Cool the quiche on a rack for about 10 minutes and serve. Equally good hot or cold.
On a small personal note, One of my all-time favorite authors just passed away on March 28th. Harry Crews was a southern gothic writer who told hideously beautiful tales of hardship and love with poetic hilarity. I know that sounds like a lot for one guy to pull off, but he did and God bless him for it. He was a writer who inspired me while cracking me up and I highly doubt we'll see anyone like him again for a long while.
On another note, a song I always associate with the first time I picked up A Feast of Snakes and my mind changed.
Rest in Peace, HC.

















