Richard's Travels Cooking Blog

I recently remembered quiche – I don’t see it as much as I should so I decided to make some. I remember a time long ago when I didn’t like quiche and some people may agree with that, but it’s a good starting point for a lot of interesting flavors. This recipe is a very rich quiche with ham and mushrooms giving it a strong flavor. The crust was soft on the inside – next time I might try cooking the crust and filling separately for 10-20 minutes before combining them (pre-cooking the filling will make sure I don’t have to keep it in long enough to burn the crust). Depending on the type of crust/dough you use and how hard you want it, it’s usually fine to just cook them together.

Since I don’t make pie crusts and I didn’t know where to look at the grocery store, I ended up picking a Pillsbury croissant dough to make a nice light crust. One tube that makes 4 croissants roughly covers two 8-9″ pans if you stretch it out the right way – I got two tubes so I had a slightly thicker crust and most of the second tube left over to make a few extra pastries with. It’s probably easier to go with a regular pie crust of phyllo dough in the end but either way you’ll end up with a delicious quiche!

Try this with a nice pasta salad and you’ll have a great meal that you can take with you on a picnic. I did just that but the salad I tried didn’t work out; when I get a better one I’ll post it This makes two medium-sized quiches, which is probably more than you need for 4 people especially if you have something else with it.

All mixed and ready to assemble

Ingredients (serves 6-8):

• 1-2 tubes Pillsbury croissant dough (around 220 grams / 8 oz each)
• 1 1/2 cups chopped fresh spinach
• 150 grams deli ham, chopped into small pieces
• 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
• 1/3 cup chopped onion (6-8 green onions might be a more interesting alternative)
• 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 2 1/2 cups of milk
• 6 eggs
• 1 cup shredded cheddar

Ready to put in the oven (and catch any spills)

Baking directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F
2. Fit the dough into two 8-9″ pie pans to make a complete crust (or just use a pre-made pie crust)
3. Combine the eggs and milk and whisk them well until they’re completely mixed
4. Chop the vegetables and ham
5. Put everything except the cheddar together and mix it well
6. Pour into the pie plates
7. Top with the cheddar
8. To be safe, put the pie plates on pans then put them in the oven.

Since I have a habit of putting in a lot more than the recipe says and quiches expand a bit when they cook (or maybe it’s just this dough, which does expand), I’ve saved myself from some messes by putting them on a pan to reduce the cleanup work. If you keep your filling 2cm/1″ below the top of the crust you should be ok, but try using a pan until you’re sure it’s safe

The reward for your efforts! It spilled a bit so I reduced the ingredients in the recipe above.