A Lovely Little Quiche

In my town, St. Patrick’s day is a pretty big deal.  On the Saturday closest to St. Pat’s, there is a large parade downtown, streets are blocked off, and drinking in the streets is encouraged.  It’s quite the party with upwards of 10,000 people (often drunkenly) celebrating. Naturally, I’m always a participant in the revelry.  And, knowing I’ll have a busy day of drinking ahead of me, I like to make sure I have a big breakfast to start the day right.  For the Noon parade, I often have a few friends over for breakfast, Bailey’s and coffee, and Bloody Mary’s around 10 am to begin the festivities.  This years breakfast included a green onion and sun-dried tomato quiche, sausage, bacon, roasted potatoes, and cinnamon rolls.

Green Onion and Sun Dried Tomato Quiche

• 1 pre-made frozen deep pie shell
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup grated cheese
• 1 bunch green onions, white and some of the green part, sliced
• 1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes, sliced thin
• 1 tablespoon butter

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

Melt butter over medium heat in pan on stove.  Add green onions and sun dried tomatoes and saute about 5 minutes, or until nicely cooked down.  Season with some salt and pepper.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, heavy cream, and cheese.  Season with salt and pepper.

Add tomato-green onion mixture to frozen pie crust and spread evenly over bottom of crust.  Pour egg mixture into pie shell.

Set pie shell on sheet pan and place in oven.  Cook about 35 minutes or until golden brown and quiche feels fairly firm in the middle (no longer jiggly).

Remove from oven and let sit at least 10 minutes to allow it to finish setting up.

My notes:

• Yes, I use frozen pie shells.  I feel like I don’t make very good pie crusts, and I pretty much avoid it at all costs.  It takes a pretty special occasion for me to make one from scratch…and I can’t think of anything in about 5 years that I deemed special enough to make one.
• For the cheese for this recipe, I just used what was in my fridge, which ended up being Parmesan and Pecorino Romano.  If I would of had cheddar or Swiss, I probably would have thrown that in, too.

Saturday Morning Breakfast

I made breakfast the other morning and referred to it as “bacon hash”.  After saying that, I realized I knew what that conjured up in my mind, but I thought there might some ambiguity of what it was in others’ minds.  When I told my husband I was making bacon hash for breakfast, I heard him make some sort of grunting sound that I understood was meant to express his pleasure, but I then realized that I doubt he actually heard what I said after he heard that word “bacon”, as that word alone is enough for him to be pleased with anything that might come next.

As for me, when I think “hash“, I think small, diced up pieces of meat and potatoes, and probably some veggies, too, cooked up and browned a bit, and then kinda tied together in some way – maybe through gravy, or eggs, or a larger piece of meat – or  all three for that matter.   For Saturday morning, it meant potatoes, bacon, and onions with a couple of poached eggs.

 

Poached Eggs and Bacon Hash

Bacon Hash with Poached Eggs

• 6 slices bacon, cut in half long-wise, and then diced into pieces
• 1/2 white onion, diced
• 5-6 new (red) potatoes, diced
• 4 eggs
• 1 Tablespoon white vinegar

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Add bacon to pan and place pan over medium heat.  Cook bacon about 3-5 minutes.  You want the bacon to start to render some fat, but not cook all the way.

Once the bacon is sizzling pretty well, add the onions and cook for about 2 minutes.  Add the potatoes to the pan and give it some seasoning with salt and pepper.

Cook hash mixture on stove top for another 5 or so minutes.  I like to allow the mixture to be spread over the pan in a somewhat thin layer and allow the mixture to brown in areas by leaving it alone for about a minute, then giving it another quick stir, and then spreading it out again.  After doing this for about 5 minutes, spread mixture out again one last time in pan and place pan in oven  for about 8 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through.

In the meantime, bring a pan with water and the 1 Tablespoon of vinegar (the vinegar helps the egg whites stay together) to just about simmering.  If the water starts boiling, and becomes too vigorous (lots and lots of bubbles bursting on surface), turn it down.  To poach eggs, you want the water just simmering.  I use a wide, flat pan (has about 3 inch sides) and fill it about 2/3 full of water.

Working one egg at a time, crack your egg into a small cup or ramekin.  Bring your cup to the surface of the water, and gently slide your egg into the pan.  Using  a slotted spoon, gently coax the egg whites closer to the yolk, as this will provide more contained, even cooking.  (I have read that some people use the lid (ring) of a mason jar turned upside down in the cooking pan to allow the egg to “settle” into the ring to cook.  I have not tried this, but I suppose this idea seems quite reasonable.  I’ll have to try it and see how it goes.)

Go ahead and repeat this process with each egg until its cooked.  I let my poached eggs cook about 3-4 minutes.  I usually only work 2 eggs in the pan at one time, otherwise things get a little too hectic and they don’t turn out quite as well as I would like.

When your egg is done, remove it from the water with a slotted spoon.  Hold the egg over the water for a few seconds to allow it to drain.

Place some hash on a plate, and top with your poached eggs.  We also had toast with some of the Truffle butter we had picked up at the farmer’s  market a few weeks ago.  Truffle butter + egg yolks + bacon = happiness.

 

Yolky goodness for sopping up with my Truffle butter toast

my notes:

• I served my eggs right away.  If you need to cook several in advance, place them in  bowl of cold water after cooking them.  They won’t stick together, and they hold well in the water.  To warm them before use, gently place them in the pan of just barely simmering water for 1-2 minutes to warm them.  Drain and serve.
• To make cutting bacon easier, place it in the freezer for about 20 minutes.  The bacon becomes firm and less greasy and becomes much easier (and safer) to cut up.
• I used a cast iron pan to cook up the hash, but use whatever you like.  Just make sure your pan is oven-safe.