On thing that I like to do often in the kitchen is experiment. This is somewhat ironic because I remember as a child dreading my parents' dinner experiments. To their credit, they chose a much more difficult style of cuisine to experiment with: Chinese. Also, they were experimenting from scratch, whereas I tend to experiment based on a cuisine I have cooked a lot of, and often as a twist of a specific recipe to accomodate the ingredients I happen to have on hand. I think that Chinese cooking is particularly difficult to experiment with from scratch because the sauces are so key, and they are made from combinations that most westerners would never expect. I learned that by cooking successful recipes from the fabulous cookbook: Everyday Chinese Cooking.
Last night, I experimented with a teriyaki chicken and pineapple pizza. Yesterday for lunch, I had a warm salad of sauteed beet greens and potatoes with feta. As you can see, I do this culinary experimenting often.
Tonight's recipe experiment was based on something I had played with with before: quiche. I was looking for ways to use beet greens that Scott would like. Apparently, he's never had quiche before, but it was a success; he liked it. I thought it was pretty tasty, too.
Here's what I made:
Beet Green Quiche
Ingredients
1 recipe pie crust
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 slices bacon, diced
1 bunch beet greens, chopped (dice stems and include with greens)
2 tbsp red onion, minced
4 eggs
salt and pepper, to taste
2 cup brick cheese, grated (similar to swiss)
1 cup heavy cream
Method
Preheat oven to 425ºF. While preheating, place crust in pie pan and place in oven for 7 minutes.
Mix eggs. Mix in garlic, bacon, onion, cheese, heavy cream, salt and pepper.
Sauté greens in a dry pan over med-low heat until reduced in size but not wilted. Mix into egg mixture. Add egg mixture to pie pan.
Bake at 425ºF for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 325ºF and make another 30 minutes, or until set, browned, and toothpick comes out clean.
Now, to be perfectly forthcoming, there were some problems with this recipe. The first was when I mixed the greens and bright red stems into the mix. It came out pink:
Fortunately, that color did not last through baking. However, when I had cooked it for the full amount of time recommended by the recipe, and added an additional 10 minutes before a toothpick came out clean, when I went to cut it, I found that it had not set. I am not sure why this is, but I had to cook it a lot more. I think that if I try this recipe again, I will either add more eggs, or keep the temperature high. The recipe I referenced to create it follows. I think this is a tweak of another recipe, since the one I used is referenced in my recipe software as sourced from me. In fact, I think I combined a quiche lorraine and a spinach quiche recipe with what I happened to have on hand to create this one.
Quiche Mystère
Ingredients
1 recipe pie crust
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 slices bacon, diced
10 stalks greens, chopped (any kind -- that's the mystère)
2 tbsp green onion
4 eggs
¼ cup neufchâtel cheese, diced
salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup gruyere, grated
1 cup heavy cream
Method
Preheat oven to 425ºF. While preheating, place crust in pie pan and place in oven for 7 minutes.
Mix eggs. Mix in garlic, bacon, green onion, neufchâtel cheese, gruyere, heavy cream, salt and pepper.
Sauté greens in a dry pan over med-low heat until reduced in size but not wilted. Mix into egg mixture. Add egg mixture to pie pan.
Bake at 425ºF for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 325ºF and make another 30 minutes, or until set, browned, and toothpick comes out clean.
(This one actually does cook totally in 30-40 minutes.)
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