Baby Quiches (rhymes with witches)

I know, quiches does not rhyme with witches in our modern parlance, but in 1972 or so, my family thought it did.  Okay, maybe we were not terribly worldly, but this was a full decade before Real Men Eat Quiche came out and we finally learned how to pronounce it. 

In truth, my Mom was way ahead of her time in her embrace of world cooking.  She was probably the only suburban mom I knew who tackled the food of the Philippines despite having only Swedish and Canadian-Scottish blood coursing through her veins.  She is still the best home cook I know.  It was just the pronunciation issues that left us in the dust.

Very rarely (mostly because it seemed they took forever to make and my Mom is more night owl than lark) she would treat us on Sunday mornings to something called Baby Quiches.  I thought they were the best thing in the world, and after I wrote the last post I started thinking about them.  I vaguely remembered canned mushrooms and Pillsbury crescent rolls from a tube.  I called my Mom and she dug the old recipe from way out of the bottom of her maple recipe box.  She hasn't made them since the 70's either.  Unfortunately, with so many years between us and the quiches, I can't credit the source of the original recipe, but it looks like it came from our local newspaper in San Diego at the time.  

I am including the original recipe, as well as my update.  My memory did not fail me on one count, there are crescent rolls in a tube and canned mushrooms in the original, but on another count it did fail me.  They are not as good as I thought they were when I was in second grade.  Memory can deceive and this recipe needed changes.  I don't know if it is a case of more sweetener in processed foods today, but the crescent roll mix imparted an odd sweetness to a savory dish.   There was too much breadiness and not enough quichiness (if you will bear with me while I make up words).  I was guessing the evaporated milk would add an odd chalkiness to the texture, but I could barely even get a sense of any custard at all.  Here is the original recipe.

French Mushroom Quiches (or Baby Quiches, as we called them)

1 - 8 ounce tube crescent roll mix

6 slices of bacon, fried and crumbled

1/4 cup french fried onions

1/4 cup shredded cheddar

2/3 cup evaporated milk

1 - 2/1/2 ounce jar or can of mushrooms, drained

1 egg

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup french fried onions

Grease twelve muffins cups.  Divide the dough into twelve portions and press into bottom and sides of individual muffin cups.  Sprinkle first 1/4 cup onion rings, evenly divided, into each muffin cup, and then sprinkle the crumbled bacon and shredded cheddar.  In a small bowl or cup, combine milk, mushrooms, egg and Worcestershire sauce and mix with fork.  Fill each muffin cup approximately 2/3 full with mixture.  Top with remaining 1/4 cup of onion rings.  Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 25 minutes.  Let stand three minutes and serve.

My update might be accused of being a back date.  I took the recipe and pared it back to a more traditional quiche.  Since it's almost Spring I decided to lose the bacon and mushroom combo, add asparagus and generally lighten up the flavors (although with cheese and cream, I wouldn't exactly call it "lite").

I loved the idea of doing this in muffin tins, because face it, most of us have a muffin tin, but not twelve mini tart pans with removable bottoms.  I also wanted to use a basic pate brisee quiche crust, but after the breadiness of the original recipe, I decided that the downside of using a muffin tin is that there is just too much bread to custard if you bake each baby quiche in a full crust.  So I decided just to put a crust on the bottom of each muffin cup.  To prevent them from sticking, I greased the cups and laid a strip of baking parchment across the bottom of each cup, letting a little hang over on each side so I could use these tabs to pop the quiches out of the cups.  It worked pretty well.  Here is my update.

Baby Quiches with asparagus, carmelized onions and tarragon

Crust

1 1/3 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 - 8 ounce stick of butter, very cold and cut into large chunks

6-7 tablespoons ice water

In a food processor, mix the flour and salt, then add the butter chunks.  Pulse until coarse crumbs form.  Add ice water one tablespoon at a time, just until moist enough to hold together and form a ball. Do not overwork the crust.  Refrigerate for at least one half hour prior to rolling out.  

Butter twelve muffin cups and lay a one inch strip of parchment paper across the bottom or each cup, leaving tabs on each side.  Once chilled, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness.  With circle cutter just slightly larger than the bottom of your muffin tin, cut out twelve circles.  Press the dough circles into the bottom of each muffin cup and prick the dough in each cup lightly with fork.  Place muffin tin into freezer for 10 minutes to chill.  Once chilled, bake for 10-12 minutes in 375 degree oven, till set. Remove from oven and cool.

Filling

6-7 stalks of asparagus, trimmed, cut into 1 inch pieces, blanched until tender crisp, and then drained

1/2 large yellow onion, thinly sliced

2 ounces of Gruyere cheese, shredded 

(I happened to have had some aged Gruyere in my refrigerator, but use whatever you have and like)

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon fresh tarragon, minced

1 cup cream

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Prepare asparagus as directed.  While crust is chilling, melt butter in saute pan and cook onions over low heat for 25 minutes until golden.  Add minced tarragon and cook another minute, just to wilt. Remove from heat and set aside. While crust chills and cooks, shred cheese and set aside.  Whisk together cream and eggs, salt and pepper.  To each muffin cup, add cheese and asparagus in equal portions. Pour cream and egg mixture into each cup, filling to 2/3 full.  Add onion in equal portions to each cup.  Bake in 350 degree oven for 25 minutes.  Run a thin knife around each quiche and pop out of cups using parchment paper tabs.

We ate this with a simple green salad with enoki mushrooms and dressed with a mustard and white wine vinaigrette.  Add a glass of wine and it's dinner.

Comments

[Heidi]

Memory really is something. I used to love something my mom made called "Pizza Casserole." Apparently just ground beef, spaghetti sauce, noodles and cheese but I loved it. I also recently bought the Game of Life because I missed it so much. We played one round with the family and gave up in disgust. It was too much like *real* life and no fun at all! I'd try these quiches but I have a feeling they are not on my diet.

[Tamara]

Really, now. I can't believe you haven't yet tackled spam casserole. I'm waiiiiiiting!