I decided last night I would check quiche off the list of things I had tasted and cooked. I usually don't try and make up recipes for things I have never even eaten before, but it couldn't be too hard, right? I lucked out. This was so delicious and even my 2 year old ate a whole piece. Enjoy!
Cheesy Potato and Ham Quiche
Ingredients:
Pie crust-
1 1/2 cups flour
1 stick cold salted butter, cut into cubes
1/4 tsp salt
5 tbsp ice cold water, possibly more
Filling-
4 eggs
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup diced ham steak
1 large white potato, diced
1/2 cup shredded cheddar
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
2 green onions, chopped
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp canola oil
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Start the pastry in a large rounded bowl by adding flour, cubed butter, and salt. With a pastry cutter, work the butter into the flour until it is pea sized. Slowly pour water in a couple tablespoons at a time until the dough just comes together. Try not to use your hands much because you want this dough to stay cold. Once the dough comes together, wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
While that's chilling, par boil your potatoes until about half cooked. Next, pour the oil into your skillet and bring to medium heat. Add your diced ham and cook until well browned. Remove from the oil and add in the drained potatoes and saute until they get a little browned. Set aside to cool a bit. Whisk eggs, cream, and salt/pepper.
On a well floured surface, roll your pastry out to approximately a 1/4 inch thickness, or to the point that it is an extra inch around the size of your pie dish. Transfer over to the dish and crimp edges, lay foil or parchment into the bottom, and pour in some beans (you won't want to use these beans after blind baking) to keep the pie shell from rising during the first bake. Bake the shell for 10-12 minutes or until the edges start to get a light golden color. Remove from the oven and remove the beans and foil.
Once the shell has had a chance to cool a bit, pour in half your potatoes, ham, and then cheese. Top with half your egg mixture. Add remaining potatoes, ham, egg mixture, and top with cheese and green onion. Give the dish a little jiggle to help the custard settle into all the nooks of ham and potatoes.
Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes and the quiche is set. Allow to rest for 8-10 minutes before cutting into it and serving.
*If your ham has water added, press it dry really well with a paper towel before browning. All the extra water and juices can burn to the bottom of your pan.
Green beans. I ate so many of them growing up that I swore them off for roughly a decade. Now that I'm an adult (in most ways), I have to put thought into eating vegetables and you can only eat so many green things cooked a handful of ways before you're just burned out and bankrupt of ideas. I had seen a recipe on Food Network's site where Tyler Florence had used caramelized onions in a green bean dish and I got inspired to write a recipe that transformed green beans into something even I would love. Hope you enjoy!
Ingredients:
12 oz bag of frozen green beans
1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced into strips
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp butter
a pinch of dried thyme
2 tbsp of Sherry*
1/2 cup hot water
1 tsp beef base**
salt and pepper to taste
Dissolve beef base into hot water and set aside.
In a large skillet, melt butter and oil together over medium low heat and add onion. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp salt and thyme over and toss together. Keep the heat at the same temperature and slowly cook the onions, stirring occasionally, until they are soft and golden brown (about 15 minutes; you don't want them to brown on the edges, it needs to be a low and steady softening/browning).
Once your onions look about like this, pour in the sherry and stir until it has reduced almost completely. Turn heat up to medium and pour in your beef stock. Add frozen green beans and toss/cook until most of the liquid is absorbed and the green beans are tender yet still a little crunchy. At this time, taste and season with salt and pepper accordingly.
*If you don't keep sherry around, much like I don't, you can buy cooking sherry in the grocery store where you find all your different vinegar.
**Beef base is usually in the grocery store where you find bouillon and comes in a short little jar. If for some reason you can't locate it, beef bouillon (1 cube) dissolved in water will suffice. You just don't want to use beef stock because it will provide too much liquid to the recipe.
