Recipe Time! The Quiche Edition!

My dear friend Kale is engaged! And what better way to celebrate the occasion than by having a party? So, that’s exactly what we did this past weekend! The party was intimate, mostly family, close friends, and the wedding party, of course. In an effort to be a little frugal, we opted to make many of the hors d’oeurves for the party. One of the things that will be served at the party is miniature crustless quiches. Four different kinds of mini-quiches, to be exact.

Now, I cook. I do. But I grill chicken, I cook up spaghetti, those sorts of things. I don’t, however, cook a TON of fancy dishes. And, yes, I consider quiche a little fancy. But, after cooking these little bites, I learned that there really isn’t much to it. And, after a test run of the recipe, we determined that I was capable of pulling off this dish. (Kale has a lot of faith in me.)

So with the help of my friend Sarah, we decided to spend our Thursday night cooking these suckers up. We also made dinner (homemade pizza) and drank (grapefruit mimosas and pinot noir). Both were delicious, I'll have you know. A Sarah is a far more giving soul than I, for being so willing to help me out with these.

A Google search hailed me toward this recipe:

http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/breakfast/makeahead-recipe-crustless-miniquiches-125509

This recipe was good because it was specifically for quiches that could be made ahead of time, frozen, and reheated when needed. But, it needed to be adapted from zucchini and basil quiches to the following:

- leek, gruyere, and basil (top)
- bacon, gruyere, and leek (bottom)
- tomato, basil, and gruyere (right)
- basil and gruyere (left)

That’s right! Not just quiche, but quiche done FOUR different ways!

So to make them, here's what you do:

First, heat your oven to 350. The original recipe says 450, but that was wayyy too hot. During the test run, the edges got too brown and the middles weren’t cooked good enough.

Then prepare the batter. You’ll need all of this to make 24 mini-quiches. If you’re like us and double, triple, or quadruple the recipe, you’ll have change up these amounts. God bless the iPhone for making that easy to do.

- 1/8 c. cornstarch
- 5/8 c. whole milk
- 1 large egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/2 c. heavy cream
- 3/8 tbsp. kosher salt

Put the cornstarch in a medium bowl. Whisking steadily, slowly pour in 1/4 cup of the milk, mixing until quite smooth. Whisk in the whole egg and egg yolk, mixing again until smooth, then gradually whisk in the rest of the milk, the cream, and salt.

Now the filling(s). I'll start with the leek, cheese, and basil ones. I bought a bushel? (bunch?) of leeks. Leeks look like giant green onions. Mine happened to be a set of three. Then, I minced them as finely as possible. I considered grating them, like we did for the test run, but I think it contributed to the lack of doneness of that batch. Grated leeks are like mush. Kinda gross.

See what I mean? But, the minced leeks looked a little like this:

Looks much better, I think.

Then, I minced two cloves of garlic, and sauted the garlic in some olive oil. Once that got “fragrant” (about 2 minutes) I added the leeks and cooked it up a little. This is when you just have to feel it. You’ll know. For me, it’s about 3 1/2 minutes.

Generously spray the 24-cup mini-muffin tin with PAM (or your version of PAM).

After I did this, I handed this to Sarah:

The bowl of gruyere. Doesn’t that look tasty? I like to think of gruyere as parmesan cheese’s fancier cousin. Fancier name, more expensive, and a little stinkier. With this gruyere, Sarah started making the bottoms for these little bites. She does this by placing a generous pinch of gruyere into the bottom and pushing it down. It’s the foundation of your quiche, so be sure to do this.

Once that’s done, you’ll need a teaspoon and a tablespoon. Working together, we used the TEASPOON to spoon in the filling and the TABLESPOON to spoon in the batter. Between the two layers, add a pinch of basil. It will make them tastier and more flavorful.

Here's the before:

Pop them into the oven and let them stay there for 23-25 minutes. After that, flip the muffin tin around and let it stay for 3-5 more minutes.

After this, take them out and let them cool. I know it’s hard. But you must. After waiting about 10 minutes, we used toothpicks to pull the delicate quiches out of the muffin tin and placing them on a platter to finish cooling.

Here’s the info on the rest of the fillings. The cooking times didn’t really change, just the stuff inside.

- Bacon, cheese, and leek. For 24 mini-quiches, you’ll need the same amount of batter as mentioned about. Then, fry up half a package of bacon. Any kind you have. Then take and 1/8 of a cup of gruyere, and a few tablespoons of leftover leeks and stir them around gently.

Take your teaspoon and spoon this into the cups, once the cheese has been pressed down into the greased tin. Then add the tablespoon of batter and put them in the oven.

(I may have forgotten to take a picture of the "after" shot for these ... my b.)

- Tomato, basil, and cheese. Again, same amount of batter. For 24 mini-quiches, you’ll only need two Roma tomatoes. Take the tomatoes and slice them up long ways. Then, if you have a paring knife, slice out all of the wet, seedy part of the tomato. Trash that section. Then dice the rest up as finely as you can manage. Then, chop up some fresh basil. Add about an 1/8 of a cup of gruyere, and gently stir this around. Take your teaspoon and spoon this into the cups, once the cheese has been pressed down into the greased tin. Then add the tablespoon of batter and put them in the oven.

Before:

After:

- Basil and cheese. For 24 mini-quiches, take about a ½ cup of gruyere and a healthy helping of the basil. You want to make sure that these still have a good flavor, even though they are the plainest ones. Then add the tablespoon of batter and put them in the oven.

Now, I will tell you that making quiches four different ways is a bit time-consuming. But, you can do just one variety of quiche and it wouldn’t be so bad. Or you can make an evening of it – grab a friend, grab some wine, and have at it. It’ll be a fun, memorable friend time.

Again, these quiches are great for making ahead of time, freezing and reheating for another day. That’s what we did for Kale’s party. Or, you can make a batch and eat them for breakfast (or lunch or dinner) throughout the week.

And, get creative! Add in different things and don’t be afraid to experiment and try something that is seemingly “weird.” It may be delish. If you know me, you’ll know that I do not experiment when it comes to food. But, this was an experiment that proved to be a success. Definitely something I’ll do again!