Spinach Quiche

I love this quiche and I don’t care whether quiches are in or out of fashion. If you are not up for making a pie crust, buy one. If you are not up for a pie crust of any kind, make this quiche without one. I have a friend who actually prefers it that way.

1 partially baked 8 or 9-inch pie shell, see recipe below
OR
Purchase one from the supermarket
Note: If the supermarket one comes unbaked, follow the instructions on the wrapper for partial baking or look to the recipe below.
2 tablespoons butter
½ onion, chopped
4 cups finely chopped spinach
OR
1 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon smoky sweet paprika
1 cup grated cheese, whatever you like or have on hand cheddar, Swiss, Parmesan or a mix
1¼ cups heavy cream, warmed in the microwave
4 eggs, lightly beaten

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF.
2. Melt the butter in a large skillet and sauté the onion until tender but not browned.
3. Add the spinach, cover and cook for 5 minutes. If you use fresh, you’ll need to chop again. No need to do that if you use frozen. Add the salt, pepper, nutmeg, paprika, and ½ cup cheese.
4. Pour the warm cream slowly over the eggs while beating. Gradually beat in the spinach mixture. Taste for seasonings. Ladle into the pie shell. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
5. Bake for 30 minutes or until set. It will take longer for larger pies—45 minutes perhaps. Let sit for 15-20 minutes before serving. Serve warm.

Notes:
For a bigger pie shell, increase the cream to 1¾ cups and the eggs to 5.
If you make this quiche ahead of time (the day or the morning before serving), refrigerate and then reheat at 300ºF. for 20-30 minutes to warm it slightly.

6 servings
Adapted from Craig Claiborne’s The New York Times Menu Cookbook

Pie Crust

For an 8 or 9-inch pie plate or tin:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup plus 3 tablespoons (1 stick plus 3 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut roughly into ½-inch pieces
7 tablespoons ice water or more if necessary

1. Combine the flour and salt in the container of a food processor. Add the butter and pulse until the butter and flour are blended and the mixture looks like cornmeal, about 10 seconds.
2. Add the ice water to the mixture. Pulse until you see the mixture coming together. If it doesn’t after a couple of additional pulses, add more ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until it does.
3. Dump the contents of the container onto a sheet of plastic wrap and mold it into a ball. Flatten the ballot a disk; bring the plastic up around the dough to cover it completely. Either freeze for 10 minutes or refrigerate for 30 minutes. (You can also refrigerate the dough for a day or two or freeze it almost indefinitely. If frozen, defrost before rolling.)

 4. Sprinkle a smooth countertop or a large board with flour. Unwrap the dough and place it on the work surface; sprinkle the top with a little flour. If the dough is hard, let it rest a few minutes to warm up just a little.



5. Roll with light pressure, from the center out. Continue to roll, adding a small amount of flour as necessary, rotating the dough occasionally, and turning it over once or twice during the process. When the dough is about 1/8-inch thick, place your plate upside down over it to check the size. You want your circle of dough to be about 2-3 inches bigger than the plate it will go into.
6. If the size is correct, move the dough into the pan by folding the dough in half and placing the fold in the middle of the pan. Carefully unfold the dough and press it gently into the outer edge of the plate.
7. Trim (I use scissors) the extra dough about 1 inch above the rim. Fold the dough above the rim in half (to ½ inch) and crimp with your fingers to make a decorative edge. With the scraps, you can fill in any part of the circle that’s missing.
8. Place the plate in the freezer for 10 minutes or the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Partially Baked Pie Crust

1. Preheat the oven to 400ºF.
2. Prick the dough all over with a fork to help prevent the crust from poufing. (You’ll see what I mean when it happens.)
3. Tear off a large piece of aluminum foil. Press the sheet into the dough, especially on the sides. Weight the foil with a pile of dried beans or rice, pie weights, or a tight-fitting oven-proof skillet or saucepan—anything that will sit flat on the surface and hold the dough in place. Sometimes I just do the foil and don’t weight it with anything and it’s just fine.
4. Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from the oven; remove the weights and foil. If it has poufed, wait for a few minutes for it to settle and then prick the bottom, once again, with a fork.
5. Bake for another 4-5 minutes or so until the crust is just starting to turn a light brown and the bottom looks set.
6. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

Adapted from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food, Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and M.F.K. Fisher’s The Cooking of Provincial France

Here are a couple of suggestions for rounding out this dinner:

Summer Squash Gratin

Italian Lemon Ice

Chilaquiles and Andouille Sausage Scramble with Salsa Verde

This makes a great dinner but it can also be served for breakfast.














4 corn tortillas, cut into 1-inch strips
OR
1½ cups slightly crushed tortilla chips
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for brushing the tortillas
Salt and pepper
1 andouille sausage link (about 8 ounces), thinly sliced into rounds
6 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 ounces Monterey Jack or cheddar or a combination of the two (about ½ cup)
Salsa Verde, see recipe below, or you can purchase tomatillo salsa

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF.
2. Scatter the tortilla strips on a rimmed baking sheet and brush lightly with olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Bake for about 15 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally and turning over the strips, until they’re golden brown on both sides and crisp.
3. Heat the 2 tablespoons oil in a large non-stick or cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage slices and cook and stir them for 4 to 5 minutes, until brown and cooked through.
4. Pour the eggs into the skillet and cook, gently folding the eggs as they cook, until just done but still wet looking. Season the eggs with salt and pepper and turn off the heat.
5. Add the cheese and tortilla strips or chips to the skillet and fold them into the eggs until the cheese melts and the tortilla strips or chips soften slightly.
6. Drizzle the chilaquiles with ½ cup of the Salsa Verde and serve warm with the remaining salsa on the side.

4-6 servings
Adapted from Sara Foster’s Casual Cooking

Salsa Verde

4 medium tomatillos, paper covering removed, chopped
OR
1 cup pureed canned tomatillos (with their juices)
½ cup fresh cilantro leaves
3 scallions, chopped (white and green parts)
2 garlic cloves, smashed
Juice of 1 lime
Salt and pepper

1. Combine the tomatillos, cilantro, scallions, garlic and lime juice in a blender and purée until smooth.
2. Serve immediately or refrigerate in an airtight contained until ready to serve.
3. Just before serving, season with salt and pepper.

Makes about 1½ cups
Adapted from Sara Foster’s Casual Cooking

Classic Cheddar Cheese Soufflé

When my boys Franz and Ben were growing up, we would have a cheese soufflé every couple of weeks. Making a soufflé often meant that I was running out of food in the fridge—and that, in fact, we were pretty much down to the basics: butter, eggs, milk, and cheese. They would greet the meal with a moan “Soufflé again?” Poor boys. Little did they know that many people would find it an elegant and almost ethereal repast. Last week I served it to a friend who said that it was like eating clouds. Enjoy.

6 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon dry mustard
Dash cayenne pepper or ¼ teaspoon hot smoky paprika or Aleppo pepper
4 tablespoons butter
¼ cup flour
1½ cups milk, warmed in the microwave
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
OR
½ cup grated Parmesan and ½ cup grated cheddar or whatever mixture you might like

1. Separate the eggs. Put the yolks in a large bowl and the whites in a medium bowl. Add the salt, mustard, cayenne or paprika to the egg yolks and mix well. See instructions for separating eggs if you need them.
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan; blend in the flour. Let bubble, stirring, for a minute or two to cook the flour. Off the heat, add the warm milk, stirring to combine. Return the pan to the heat and cook until thick and smooth, about 5 minutes, stirring regularly. Remove from the heat. Add the cheese and stir until melted.
3. Stir in several large spoonfuls of the sauce to the yolk mixture to temper the yolks. Then add the yolk mixture to the sauce, mixing steadily. Return to the large bowl and set aside to cool for 15 minutes or more.
4. Preheat oven to 400ºF. Butter a 2-quart soufflé dish and dust it with flour.
5. With a perfectly clean wire whisk, hand or electric beaters, whip the egg whites until stiff but not dry.  See instructions for whipping egg whites if you need them. Stir ¼ of the egg whites into the cheese mixture. Then fold in the remaining. Pour into the prepared dish.
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until puffed and brown on top. Serve at once.

4 servings, 3 if people are really hungry
Adapted from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything

Cheese Omelet

3 or 4 eggs
1 clove garlic, pressed
¼ teaspoon salt and pepper to taste
½-¾ cup grated cheese, cheddar works well
3 tablespoons fresh herbs, like dill, chopped or dried herbs in a pinch, optional
2 green onions, finely chopped, optional
3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1. Break the eggs into a bowl. Add the garlic, salt and pepper. Stir together until they are well combined.
2. Heat the oil in a cast iron frying pan (or an omelet pan, of course) until the oil shimmers and is very hot—but not smoking.

3. Pour in the egg-garlic mixture. It should sizzle and immediately start bubbling around the edges.

4. As the edges firm up, push them to the middle and tilt the pan so that the juicy egg moves to the outside. Keep pushing the sides to the middle until there is no more juicy part to run out. Shake the pan a couple of times to make sure the omelet isn’t sticking. If is it, carefully scoot your spatula underneath to loosen.
Note: I pick up the pan if it seems that the heat is too high. For me this is easier than changing the temp on the burner.

5. Sprinkle the cheese and optional herbs and green onions evenly over the omelet.

6. Fold one side of the omelet about a third across. Then fold over the next third, enclosing the filling. Let it sit for a few minutes with the heat off so that the cheese can melt and the herbs soften.

Note: If you are making omelets for a group, make multiple omelets rather than one or two giant ones. I think that dealing with more than 5 eggs at a time is really hard. When making multiple omelets, put the finished one on a plate in a 250ºF oven while you make the remaining.

2 servings
My own devising, but not original to me of course