Sunday, February 10, 2013

So many eggs, so little time



Fresh from my butter tart success and the recent resumption of egg production following the molt I decided to try my hand at a quiche. I made a batch of pastry as per the butter tart recipe which makes one double layer or two single layer pies. I preheated the oven to 400ºF then turned it down to 350º when the pies went in. Roll out and lay two pie shells in pie plates. Press down into the plate, crimp the edges with a fork and trim the excess all round. Finally, prick with a fork all round so the pastry doesn't rise too much. An additional step to get the flakiest possible crust on the bottom is to brush the inside of the pie with butter before adding the filling. I didn't bother this time and the bottom is a bit dense.

I had about 150gms of shrimp, 6 strips of bacon and one shallot for both pies.

I fried the bacon so it was completely crisp, any soft bits would give a slimy mouth feel in the quiche.  Dice a shallot and caramelize.  Drain cooked shrimp, I just used machine peeled. My pie plate will hold 4 cups of liquid but by the time a crust goes in a rises a bit, 3 cups is all it really holds. I broke 6 large eggs, my chickens eat all they want so their eggs are humongous, into a 4 cup measure. I had at least 2 cups of eggs. Beat the eggs, then in went the shallot, shrimp and bacon broken up. Stir. Fill to 3 cups with homemade yogurt (or cream or milk), stir and pour into one pie shell. Repeat for second pie shell.  Bake 45 minutes or until the center barely jiggles when moved. It should finish cooking out of the oven as it cools.  

I keep the pies in the fridge under plastic wrap and reheat pieces for breakfast at 300ºF in the toaster oven. That's a really nice breakfast.


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