Quiche

This is a non-traditional quiche, with a high vegetables-to-eggs ratio.

Recipe

14 eggs
milk
salt
pepper

15oz spinach
1 lb sliced mushrooms
1 lb broccoli

2 handfuls of grated Swiss cheese
1 handful of grated Parmesan

2 deep-dish pie crusts

Preheat oven to 375.

Prep fillings. In this case: Saute spinach in oil and squeeze out excess liquid. Saute mushrooms with salt, oil, and butter. Steam broccoli. Make sure that the broccoli and mushrooms are chopped or broken in to bite-sized pieces.

Whisk eggs with milk, salt, and pepper, as if you were making scrambled eggs. Go a bit heavy on the salt.

Assemble each quiche as follow:

• Start with an empty pie crust.
• Add a layer of broccoli.
• Add a thin layer of egg.
• Cover with Swiss
• Add another layer of egg.
• Add the spinach.
• Add another layer of Swiss.
• Add another layer of egg.
• Add the mushrooms as a layer.
• Fill the crust near to top with egg, but don’t overfill.
• Sprinkle with Parmesan.

Bake at 375 for about 40 minutes. Do not over bake. Remove from the oven when the top is brown and a thermometer inserted in the middle of the quiche reads 165.

Notes

Jenn makes this all the time by winging it, and it comes out great. Jeff is trying to write down a recipe he can follow so that he can quiche too. Quantities above are a bit sketchy at the moment.

Seriously do not over bake. A quiche is structurally a baked custard and these follow an interesting pattern as they heat up. Consider heating a quiche or custard, starting at room temperature. At first the egg (egg mixture, really) is just a liquid. As it warms up proteins change shape and begin to trap water molecules as they form new bonds. At about 165 proteins have captured most of the water, yielding into a nice fluffy quiche. However as you continue to heat the quiche, proteins will continue to create more, tighter bonds, and by 180–185 degrees this process squeeze water out of the quiche, yielding a gloopy mixture.

Mark Bittman advises, “by the time a custard appears to be set, it’s almost always overcooked. You must make a leap of faith and remove it from the oven while the is still wobbly” (How to Cook Everything, pg. 949 of the 2008 hardcover).