mizchef

posted by admin on Nov 5

On this day, November 5, 1986, the James Beard House opened in New York City. James Beard was a chef, author, cooking TV show host in the 19402) and a culinary educator, bent on introducing the world to the joys of cooking. He died in in 1985 at the age of 82. A year later, many of his friends, including Julia Child, turned his home into a public space for culinary events and the James Beard Foundation was founded. JBF gives scholarships (of which I am a recipient) and James Beard Awards, given in many categories, such as Best New Restaurant, Best Cookbook, Best Food Writing, etc. In the culinary world, receiving a JB award is like winning an Oscar.

The townhouse in the West Village is an interesting space. You go down a few steps and to the right is the reception room/shop. To the right of that is a passage that leads to the kitchen, which then leads out to an atrium-like back room, with glass ceiling and a glass outer wall that looks out into the lovely sitting garden.

James Beard's Chef Jacket

That back room was obviously an extension because the inside wall looks like the outside of a house: painted brick half wall, pipes, trellis-style wood on the upper wall. In that room, there is a staircase that leads up to the dining room. There are a set of stairs that lead up when you first walk into the house, too, but I don’t know where exactly that leads, since I’ve never been up there.

View from upstairs, atrium

Although it is now a public space and the main office of a foundation, it still looks like a home. Many of the original furnishings and touches remain and you can almost picture James Beard sitting there in front of his fireplace, or browsing his incredible library of books.

Events at JB House give talents chefs a chance to show off their skills. Sometimes the dinners are a showcase for a particular chef/restaurant; sometimes the meals are collaboration from different chefs from different restaurants. But the chefs’ dishes are built around a theme. I was there the other day for a Día de los Muertos Fiesta event, a brilliant dinner composed of numerous dishes that left me not only full and satisfied, but lifted and inspired. I’ll be telling you about that in another blog.

I’m very grateful to the James Beard Foundation for choosing me as a scholarship recipient and for being instrumental in making the culinary arts a respected and enviable profession and pastime.

Dining Room

For more information about James Beard, visit the James Beard Foundation site.

posted by admin on Sep 3

Pizza has an interesting history, which I talk about in my cookbook, What, No Meat? Here’s an excerpt:

Virtually every culture in the world has one form of pizza or another. In the last couple of decades it has even found its way to the most culturally isolated countries. You probably knew that pizza is an Italian creation, but did you know that it goes back to the ancient Romans? The Romans made what they called moretum, a plain baked piece of dough that they ate with onions. Near the beginning of the 2nd second century A.D., the word picea entered the language to describe a piece of round dough dressed with various toppings, perhaps influenced by the Greek word pièzo, “to flatten.” It finally became pizza soon after. (Sauce didn’t enter the picture until the 18th century.)

The pizza that we know today was created in Naples in 1535 in honor of the marriage of Bona Sforza to Sizismondo I, King of Poland. Despite its grand origin, it became a food for common folk. Pizzerias started out as little holes-in-the-wall, selling pizza to the local peasants. As pizza’s popularity grew, pizzaiuoli (pizza-makers) began adding tables and chairs to entice people to enter. Little by little, they began to decorate and beautify their establishments by putting in colorful tiles or fancy brickwork.

Gennaro Lombardi opened the first pizzeria in the U.S. in New York in 1905. Over time, it became very popular and more pizzerias opened all across the country, becoming a favorite gathering place for people of all classes. Today, pizza is just as American as it is Italian. According to one urban legend, U.S. pizza is so popular that in the 1980s, college students in England ordered pizza to be shipped overseas. Papa John’s pizzeria filled the largest pizza order in history by delivering 13,500 pizzas in June of 2006. This surpasses the Guinness World Records champion, Little Caesar’s, who delivered 13,386 pizzas on August 19, 1998 to employees of the VF Corp. of Greensboro, N.C. at 180 locations in the U.S.

(Excerpt from What, No Meat?: Copyright © Roberti Roberti
Do not reprint in ANY form or media without express written consent.)

Wednesday night was pizza night at the Natural Gourmet Institute. It was probably a little awkward for some because our bread class was cancelled due to Hurricane Irene. Irene hit us full-on on Sunday, August 28, 2011, but the city began shutting down on Saturday. Mayor Bloomberg ordered all mass transit to halt service at noon. This meant that people could get to class but they wouldn’t be able to get home. So, the school closed. That was a relief to me because to make up those classes would have been a pain in the behind for me.

Logically, bread baking should be a prerequisite to pizza making, but circumstances precluded that. But the students in my class are pretty quick learners and in the end, we made some pretty tasty pizzas and focaccia, some of them gluten free. (However, I must say that I did not agree with all the toppings that were made available to us. I just don’t think that tofu belongs on a pizza, no matter how tasty you make it.)

First, we all started by making sponges, a starter made with yeast, water, and flour and is set aside to ferment. Some bakers make a sponge and let it sit for days, even weeks. Some starters—often called “mothers”—have been around for years and years. This is achieved by making a dough with the starter, then taking a piece from that dough and setting it aside, making a dough with that starter, taking a piece, and so on. Artisinal bakers are known for doing this, as it supposedly makes a superior bread.

One of the gluten-free versions of the pizzas was slightly gummy. The bottom was crisp but the part just beneath the toppings had the appearance and texture of undercooked dough, even though it wasn’t undercooked. But the flavor was quite good—better than you’d think from a gluten-free dough. The texture of a gluten-free dough can never be that of regular dough, but you can still get a really good pizza, with a nice, fluffy texture and, with the right toppings, a complex flavor.

We were each assigned a specific recipe. Mine was pissaladiére, which is a French pizza made with caramelized onions, Niçoise olives, and anchovies. I thought it came out pretty good, although I refused to use anchovies. Sorry, all you anchovies lovers, but I just can’t stand the sight, smell, or taste of them. And that pizza was delish! I split my dough into quarters, so I wound up with 4 small pizzas. (See the picture below.)

It was a scramble to get a pizza stone. We actually had lines forming because there were only a few pizza stones and each person had multiple pizzas to throw into the oven. But, eventually, everyone got theirs in and we feasted! At the beginning of class, I was starving. By the end of class, I was stuffed.

So, here is the recipe for pissaladiére, as I made it in school. Enjoy!

Pissaladiére

Sponge:
¼ cup warm water
1 ½ tsp dry yeast
2 Tb unbleached white all-purpose flour

Dough:
½  cup warm water
½ tsp sea salt
1 Tb olive oil
1 ½ cups unbleached white all-purpose flour
cornmeal for coating peels

Topping:
1/3 cup olive oil
4 lbs. onions, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, peeled, whole
2 Tb Herbs de Provence
½ tsp sea salt (or to taste)
freshly ground black pepper
1 cup Niçoise olives, pitted
6 plum tomatoes, sliced (optional)

Sponge
In small bowl, combine ¼ cup water, yeast, and 2 Tb flour; stir until thick like batter. Cover sponge and set aside in a warm, draft-free place for 20-30 minutes.

Dough:

1. Add ½ cup water, salt, olive oil and just enough of the remaining flour to create dough that pulls away from sides of bowl.
2. Knead dough on table about 10 minutes or until soft dough is created.
3. Place dough in medium, clean, lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Proof in a warm place for 45-60 minutes or until dough has doubled.
4. While dough is proofing, place pizza stones in preheated 425 oven, and prepare toppings.

Toppings:
1. Heat olive oil in medium pan over low heat. Add onions, garlic, Herbs de Provence, salt, and pepper. Slowly cook about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally until onions are very soft and translucent (don’t brown). Remove garlic.

2. Gently punch down dough and cut into 2 equally sized balls. Stretch out each ball of dough into a circle about 1/4-inch thick. Place on peel.

3. Spread cooked onions on top of each dough. Add tomato slices and sprinkle olives over the top. Fold edge of dough over onion mixture to cover about 1 inch around. Let rise 15-20 minutes.

4. Slide pissaladiére onto hot pizza stones and bake 20 minutes or until golden brown.

posted by admin on Aug 6

August 6 is National Root Beer Float Day, and if you have a sweet tooth, there’s nothing easier than a root beer float. There are some fancy schmancy recipes out there that call for eggs, vanilla extract, and some other ingredients, but the original, and purest, recipe calls for only two ingredients: vanilla ice cream and root beer.

mccormick.com

Ice cream sodas in general were invented by Robert M. Green in 1874, when he ran out of ice for his sodas and decided to use ice cream instead, hoping it would pass unnoticed. Needless to say, it went over pretty well. Credit for the root beer float is generally given to Frank Wisner of Cripple Creek, Colorado. The story goes that he was drinking a glass of root beer and the full moon illuminating the snow-capped Cow Mountain inspired him to drop some vanilla ice cream into the root beer, which is why it’s also sometimes called a ‘”brown cow.”

So here is a simple, but excellent, recipe for a classic American root beer float.

Root Beer Float

Vanilla ice cream
Root beer

posted by admin on Aug 5

Blueberry waffles. Belgian waffles. Buttermilk waffles. They all sound good, right? Waffles have become an American breakfast classic. And today is National Waffle Day. Happy, happy, joy, joy!

Waffles may seem like a contemporary invention, but they’ve actually been around quite a long time, some say as early as the ancient Greek period. The word waffle is derived from the word wafer. According to legend,  during the Middle Ages, bakers wanted to compete with monasteries, where communion wafers were made, and came up with the waffle.

kfc.com

Waffles received a marketing boost when Thomas Jefferson bought a waffle iron in France and began serving waffles in the White House. Culinary history tells us that he began a waffle trend, and “waffle parties” became de rigueuracross the U.S.  Belgian waffles became popular after they were introduced at the 1964 World’s Fair in Queens, New York.

The waffle iron was invented by Cornelius Swarthout of Troy, New York. He patented his “device to bake waffles” on August 24, 1869.

In the interest of keeping things healthy, here is a recipe for “Healthy Waffles,” courtesy of Waffle-Recipe.com. Enjoy!

Healthy Waffles

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup ground flax seed
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups skim milk or water
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat a waffle iron, and coat with cooking spray if necessary.

2. Sift dry ingredients – flour, flax seed, wheat germ, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a large bowl and set aside.

3. Beat eggs in a separate bowl.

4. Add remaining liquid ingredients – milk, oil, applesauce, and vanilla together and whisk until well blended.

5. Add liquid ingredients to flour mixture and stir until smooth.

6. Pour batter into waffle iron and cook until crisp and golden brown.

posted by admin on Jul 19

Do you really need a reason to eat ice cream? Neither do I. But in case you’re looking for one, here it is: July 19 is National Ice Cream Day. This is aside from National Ice Cream Month, which I wrote about HERE. (Remember Tom Carvel and those commercials?) Did you know that both National Ice Cream Month and Day were proclaimed by President Ronald Reagan? Yep. So, whether you approved or disapproved of him as a President, this, if nothing else, was a good thing he did.

There are so many different kinds of ice cream and so many different flavors that you could have something different every single night for a year and never have the same thing twice. And making your own is not difficult. In my book, What, No Meat? Traditional Italian Cooking the Vegetarian Way, I have recipes for Tortoni and the classic Spumoni. Here is my recipe for Spumoni. Enjoy!

Spumoni

© Roberta Roberti
From What, No Meat? Traditional Italian Cooking the Vegetarian Way

2 cups milk
5 egg yolks, slightly beaten
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (½ pint) heavy cream
1/3 cup maraschino cherries, finely chopped
1/3 cup blanched almonds, finely chopped
2 tablespoons brandy (optional)

Turn the refrigerator control to the coldest setting. Bring about an inch of water to a boil in the bottom part of a double boiler, then reduce it to a simmer.

In the top part of the double boiler, mix the milk, egg yolks, salt, and 3/4 cup of the sugar. Cook the mixture, stirring constantly, until a thin layer coats a metal spoon, about 8 to 12 minutes. Allow it to cool at room temperature, or to cool it quickly, place the top part of the double boiler in a bowl filled with ice water and stir it. Add the vanilla and blend well.

Pour the mixture into a clean casserole dish, a mold, or a loaf pan and freeze it until it is almost firm, about 2 hours.

Whip the cream with an electric beater on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form. Fold in the remaining sugar, the cherries, almonds, and brandy and blend well.

Remove the first mixture from the freezer. Scoop up the middle and push it up the sides of the dish to create a well in the center. Fill the well with the cream mixture. Cover the mold with plastic wrap and freeze it until firm, about 3 to 4 hours.

Scoop out the spumone and place it into individual dessert dishes. Or to plate the entire mold, invert it over a serving dish. Rub the bottom and sides of the tray or dish with a hot cloth until it slides off the spumoni. Serve immediately, alone or with pizzelles or chocolate rolls on the side.

Store it in a container with a tight-fitting lid in the freezer up to 4 weeks.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

posted by admin on Jul 11

Chicagoans, sadly, have had to say good bye to Trader Vic’s, the original tiki bar palace. The Chicago Tribune reported it on July 6. Victor Bergeron opened his Polynesian-themed restaurant in Oakland, CA, in 1936 and in 1944 created what would become the quintessential, iconic island drink: the Mai Tai.

The tiki concept, wildly popular in the 1940s through the 1960s, began a shame-filled descent into cheese-land and many of the Trader Vic’s locations have closed over the last several decades.However, it seems that tiki-themed restaurants and bars are returning to reclaim their cheesy glory!  There are 14 in New York City alone. And for you nostalgia-lovers out there, there are still Trader Vic’s restaurants to be found, from Sarasota, FL, to the United Arab Emirates, and even in Kiev, Ukraine, where it’s called the Mai Tai Lounge. For a list of locations, go to the Trader Vic’s website HERE. And I am not ashamed to admit that I own a copy of Trader Vic’s Tiki Party.

So, in honor of Trader Vic’s, as Chicago bids a sad aloha ‘oe to it, here is Trader Vic’s original Mai Tai recipe. Just in time for summer. Enjoy!

Trader Vic’s Original Mai Tai

2 ounces 17-year-old Jamaican rum
1/2 ounce orgeat (almond syrup)
1/2 ounce orange curacao
Juice of one fresh lime
1/4 ounce simple syrup*

Lime slice for garnish

Sprig of mint for garnish

1. Shake ingredients and pour into an ice-packed glass.
2. Garnish with lime and a sprig of mint.

Makes 1 serving.

*Simple Syrup

posted by admin on Jun 30

It’s National Ice Cream Soda Day (June 30), and if there’s any treat that is quintessentially American, it is the ice cream soda.

Credit for the ice cream soda is usually given to Robert M. Green, who created it in 1874. The story goes that he ran out of ice for his sodas and decided to use ice cream instead, hoping it would pass unnoticed. He later said that it was an intentional concoction he created to compete with another vendor. Obviously, it went over well. Green put into his will that “Originator of the Ice Cream Soda” was to be engraved on his tombstone.

Here is Ina Garten’s Ice Cream Soda recipe over at Food Network.

Ice Cream Soda

Ingredients

• Raspberry Syrup, recipe follows
• Chocolate Syrup, recipe follows
• Pure vanilla extract
• Heavy cream, chilled
• Club soda or seltzer, chilled
• Vanilla ice cream
• Strawberry ice cream
• Chocolate ice cream
• Coffee ice cream

Directions

Chocolate Syrup:

• 3/4 cup cocoa powder, sieved
• Pinch kosher salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon instant coffee granules
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Raspberry Syrup:

• 1 pint fresh raspberries, sliced in 1/2
• 1/2 cup sugar
• Juice of 1 lemon

posted by admin on Jun 12

Photo: Good Housekeeping

Today is a most sacred day for peanut butter cookie lovers. It is, my friends, National Peanut Butter Cookie Day. PB cookies is one of life’s gifts to us. Peanut butter, credited to George Washington Carver, is believed to have been created by the Aztecs, which wouldn’t surprise me, since they utilized nuts, seeds, and legumes in every possible way.

But however peanut butter originated, it is the genius of using it in cookie dough that deserves kudos. With its salty-sweet taste, reminiscent of molasses, and its trademark  fork-made cross-hatch pattern, PB cookies have become a staple of the American pantry.

According to Whatscookingamerica.com:

It is not until the early 1930s that peanut butter was listed as an ingredient in cookies. The 1933 edition of Pillsbury’s Balanced Recipes by Mary Ellis Ames, Director of the Pillsbury Cooking Service, contains a recipe for Peanut Butter Balls. It instructs the cook to roll the dough into balls and press them down with the tines of a fork. This practice is still common in America today.

I remember very vividly learning how to make peanut butter cookies in Home Ec class in junior high school. (Do they still teach Home Ec in school?) I only remember three things from that class: 1) Stainless steel sinks stain (from water), 2) how to make peanut butter cookies, and 3) practicing fire safety procedures by rolling ourselves up in asbestos blankets. Yeah, good times.

I’m not a huge cookie monster, but put PB cookies in front of me, and I’m done. I have a tremendous weakness for them. So, today is a day of reverence for me, and in honor of the day, here is a PB cookie recipe from Epicurious.com, originally appearing in the January 1998 issue of Bon Appétit. Enjoy! (I know I will.)

posted by admin on Jun 10

This week’s class at Natural Gourmet Institute was hors d’oeuvres. We made vegetarian, vegan, fish, and chicken hors d’oeuvres, including:

Hor d'Oeuvres at Natural Gourmet Institute

* Phyllo Triangles with Savory Mushrooms
*Tempeh Nori Packages
*Fried Shrimp with Wasabi Garnish
*White Bean Spread with Sundried Tomato/Kalamata Tapenade on Rosemary and Garlic Pizzelle
*Curried Chicken Salad on Papadam with Yogurt Raita
*Rosemary, Pumpkin, and Leek Dumplings
*Mini Salmon Cakes with Lemon Dill Aioli
*Parmesan Tacos Filled with Baby Mesclun Greens
*Pine Nut Ricotta on Endive
*Pumpkin Cornmeal Tartlet with Avocado Cream
*Phyllo Triangles with Herbed Greens

The staple of any party or gathering is the hors d’oeuvre. Whether it’s an intricately constructed piece of art or just a bowl of salsa and chips, everyone loves them.

White Bean Sundried Tomato/Kalamata Tapenade on Pizzelle

As a guest, you want something to nibble on while you’re talking, walking, listening, whatever. As a host, you want to make sure that your guests have a little something to put in their stomachs so they don’t roll out of your home stinking drunk. (They might anyway, but at least you’ll know it wasn’t your fault.)

The hors d’oeuvre (which literally means “outside the work”) has been around almost as long as people have been eating foods other than brontosaurus drumsticks. Romans, Greeks, and other ancient civilizations had little bite-sized snacks before their main meals.

Tempeh Nori Packages

Hors can be as simple as crudités and dip; however, “pretty” hors d’oeuvres are labor intensive. But an outstanding hors d’oeuvre is what people often remember most about a meal, even more so than dessert (unless that dessert was out of this world).

For a bunch of students, we made some very nice plates (see photos).

Pumpkin Cornmeal Tartlet with Avocado Cream

And they tasted pretty damn good, too.

I’m wrapping up work on a book of hors d’oeuvres for my second cookbook. I’ve been working on it for years and I’m hoping that a publisher picks it up. Wish me luck.

Here’s the recipe for Parmesan Tacos Filled with Baby Mesclun Greens, which is what I made in class. You’ll find it’s fairly easy and not overly time consuming. Let me know what you think.

Parmesan Tacos Filled with Baby Mesclun Greens

© Natural Gourmet Institute

For tacos:
9 oz. Parmigiano reggiano, freshly grated on small microplane grater
1 tbsp unbleached white flour, sifted

For filling:
1 tbsp + 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 small shallot, minced
1 tsp Dijon mustard
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 oz. baby mesclun greens, washed and spin dried

Procedure:

Parmesan Tacos Filled with Baby Mesclun Greens

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line standard size baking sheet with Silpatbaking mat or parchment paper.
2. In small mixing bowl, toss grated Parmigiano Reggiano with flour.Sprinkle 1 ½ tbs cheese mixture onto Silpat mat to form a 3-inch circle and flatten. Six will fit on a standard baking sheet.
3. Bake until cheese is melted and very lightly golden brown (about 10 minutes) after 5 minutes rotate pan. Remove from oven and let sit 30 seconds. With a spatula, remove one baked round to a paper towel and hold it in the palm of your hand, folding up the edges. Depress a butter knife or small offset spatula adown the middle to form a taco shape. Make sure bottom is flat. Transfer to paper towels to cool. Repeat with remaining cheese.
4. While cheese is baking, in small mixing bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, shallot, and mustard. Whisk in the olive oil slowly. Add salt and pepper to taste. When all of the crisps are made a cooled, toss the greens with vinaigrette. Place the greens carefully into the tacos and serve. Assemble as close to serving time as possible.

posted by admin on May 20

It’s National Quiche Lorraine Day!

Quiche Lorraine has become a classic staple of French cuisine. However, its origin is known to be Germany—specifically, Lothringen—in1586. It is recorded to appear at the court of Charles the 3rd, Duke of Lorraine.

The French renamed the town Lorraine. The word quiche—as French as it may sound—is actually derived from the German word for cake, kuchen. (If you’re interested in linguistic evolution or word origins, this is from Wikipedia: “The Lorraine Franconian dialect of the German language is historically spoken in much of the region, where German Kuchen, “cake”, was first altered to “küche”. Typical Alemannic changes unrounded the ü (/y/) and shifted the fricative “ch” (/ç/) to “sh” ([ʃ]), resulting in “kische”, which in standard French orthography became spelled “quiche.” Got that?)

Photo: Cookstr.com

The original recipe consisted of eggs, cream, bacon, and bread dough for the crust. Later on, the French brought it up a notch in sophistication by exchanging the bread-dough crust for a flakier pastry crust. Cheese was also added later.

Quiche became popular in the U.S. in the 1950s with the widespread introduction of French cuisine in the home, and this was when the notion that “real men don’t eat quiche” was born. Why? Probably because quiche was, and is, often a lunch or main entree dinner option, alongside a salad or perhaps some soup. Women seem to be satisfied with this kind of meal. Men aren’t. Or weren’t. Now that men (in some places and circles) have moved away from that big meat-and-potatoes-with-lots-of-gravy-and-biscuits kind of diet, they are more open to lighter fare.

Below are a couple of recipe for a traditional Quiche Lorraine, courtesy of Emeril Lagasse, and a vegetarian version, courtesy of Jewishfood-list.com. Plus, I’m throwing in a Broccoli Quiche, just because quiche is a great thing.

Enjoy!!

Quiche Lorraine

Ingredients:

Flaky Butter Crust, recipe follows
6 ounces thick cut bacon, cut into narrow strips (or “lardons”)
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1 1/4 cups half-and-half
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
1 cup grated Gruyere or Swiss

Directions:

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to an 11-inch circle. Fit into a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom and trim the edges. (Alternatively, a 9-inch pie pan can be used.) Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Line the pastry with parchment paper and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake until the crust is set, 12 to 14 minutes. Remove the paper and weights and bake until golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. Leave the oven on.

In a medium skillet, cook the bacon until crisp and the fat is rendered, about 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Discard the fat or reserve for another use.

Arrange the bacon evenly over the bottom of the baked crust.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs, yolks, and half and half. Add the remaining ingredients and whisk to combine. Pour into the prepared crust and bake until the custard is golden, puffed, and set yet still slightly wiggly in the center, 30 to 35 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes before serving. Serve with Simple Salad.

Flaky Butter Crust:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into pieces
1 to 2 tablespoons ice water, or more as needed

To make the dough in a food processor, combine the flour, salt, and butter in the processor and process until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs, about 10 seconds. With the machine running, add the ice water through the feed tube and pulse quickly 5 or 6 times, or until the dough comes together and starts to pull away from the sides of the container. Gather the dough into a ball, flatten it into a disk, and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

To make the dough by hand, combine the flour, salt, and butter in a medium bowl, and mix with a pastry blender or your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the water 1 tablespoon at a time and mix until the dough comes together and is no longer dry, being careful not to overmix. Form into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface according to the recipe, fit it into the pan, and allow to rest again in the refrigerator before baking.

Yield: one 9-inch tart or pie crust.

Quiche Lorraine, Vegetarian

Serves: 6 to 8

1 deep 9″ pie tin, lined with an unbaked pastry shell
4 large or extra large eggs, plus 1 extra egg white
1-1/2 cups (6 ounces) freshly grated Gruyere cheese
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 pound diced soy Canadian “bacon”
2 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, peeled, sliced, and separated into rings
1 3-ounce can (1/2 cup) broiled, sliced mushrooms in butter sauce, drained (obviously, you can slice and sauté fresh mushrooms instead of using canned)
1-1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Pinch of cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 450°F. Prick bottom and sides of unbaked pastry with tines of fork. Bake 5 minutes. Slightly beat one egg white. Slightly brush over pastry. Bake 2 minutes longer. Remove pan from oven. Place on wire rack to cool.

Pour Gruyere cheese, Parmesan cheese, and flour into mixing bowl. Lightly stir with fork. Evenly sprinkle over pastry shell. Evenly sprinkle with “bacon.” Set aside.

Melt butter in skillet. Add onion rings. Sauté over low flame until golden. Turn off flame under pot. Evenly spread layer of onions over “bacon.” Evenly sprinkle with mushrooms. Set aside.

Beat eggs in mixing bowl. Add cream, salt, nutmeg, and cayenne pepper. Blend thoroughly. Pour into pie shell.

Place pan on center shelf of oven. Bake 15 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 350°F. Bake until puffed and golden, and knife inserted in center of custard comes out clean (about 10 to 15 minutes longer).

Let cool for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Poster’s Notes:
All this talk about vegetarian bacon reminds me of this wonderful quiche recipe, which was given to me by a former colleague (who was from France), and everyone has always raved about it.

Posted by Virginia Sauer (Sir Angus), Z’L

Broccoli Quiche Recipe

Courtesy of Easy-FrenchFood.com

Prep time: 20 min – Cook time: 40 min

1 round unsweetened pie crust
2 cups small broccoli florets
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup shredded cheese (gruyere or swiss work well)
4 eggs
11/2 cups crème fraîche (or whipping cream)
pinch of nutmeg
salt and pepper

Begin by preparing the crust for blind baking. Fit the crust to a 10 inch tart pan(insert link) and prick it through with the tines of a fork in about 20 places. Place the pan in the freezer for 20 minutes and preheat the oven to 400°F. (Placing the crust in the freezer helps to keep it from slipping and bubbling when you bake it.)

Place the chilled crust directly in the hot oven and bake for 12 minutes until just golden. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes. Turn the oven down to 375° F.

Steam the broccoli for about 3 minutes in the microwave. It should be just barely tender. Don’t over steam or you’ll lose the good flavor of this vegetable.

Heat the tablespoon of olive oil in a small no stick skillet on medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally just until the onion is soft (about 5 to 8 minutes).

Spread the broccoli and onions evenly on the bottom of the cooled crust. Sprinkle the cheese on top of this.

In a medium bowl whisk the eggs, crème fraiche, nutmeg and a pinch of salt and pepper together just until blended. Pour this on top of the vegetables and cheese. Place the pan.in the oven and bake just until done – about 40 minutes.

Makes 6 servings.

Variations

Mushrooms: Substitute 1 cup of sliced mushrooms for 1 cup of the broccoli. Precook the mushrooms with the onion.

Ham: Add 1 cup of diced ham for an extra punch.