A Harvest Quiche
by Eric N Gibson
Contributing Writer
As I gathered some vegetables from the garden one August afternoon I thought to myself, “I wonder if I could make a meal ostensibly from items raised here at home?” Up for a challenge, I decided to take inventory of what I had to make a meal with. Tomatoes (Oh boy! Do we have tomatoes!), Zucchini, Summer Squash, Basil, Chives, a few other herbs.
“Hmmm… What else?” I needed a protein of some sort. Just then movement among the tall grass caught my eye. My son had let the chickens out to free range. Eyeing one of the unwary poultry straying a bit too far from her flock mates I thought, “Ah ha! That’s what we could have…” (No, not the chicken!) ‘Eggs!’ And in the freezer we still had bacon from last year’s pig. I got the protein covered.
So dinner was taking shape, a crustless Harvest Quiche. But what makes this stand out from any other quiche? Well, for starters most of the key ingredients were grown or raised here at the homestead. I dare not say farm as anyone who knows me would be laughing themselves right out of their chair. But seriously, what makes this meal stand out is the oodles of local fresh ingredients and how you use them. For example, how about making Roasted Tomatoes?
Roasting tomatoes is really quite simple, can be done ahead of time, and adds a new dimension of flavor to almost anything you use them in. Having a bumper crop of them, I used cherry tomatoes. I filled a large glass bowl to about ¾ full and added about two to three tablespoons of olive oil and about two or three cloves of minced garlic. Tossing them together to evenly coat, I then emptied the contents out onto a cookie sheet. Sprinkled with a little fresh cracked pepper corns and a pinch of salt, I tossed this into a 450 degree oven for 30 minutes.
While the tomatoes were roasting I cooked about a half pound of bacon in a large skillet, somewhat crispy but not too well done. You want it somewhere this side of “when you chop it with a knife, it doesn’t shatter like glass.”
With the tomatoes roasting and cooked bacon resting on paper towels waiting to be chopped, I turned my attention to the herbs; fresh basil, the trio I mentioned in an earlier article (Purple, Sweet, and Summerlong), and some fresh chives. Chopping these herbs, you need not get too crazy, just small enough to garnish between your teeth so it gives you something to do after dinner in the evening while watching Andy Griffith reruns. And look at that! By the time you are done chopping the herbs and bacon, the timer is sounding for the roasted cherry tomatoes.
So, what do they look like, these roasted tomatoes? To the untrained eye they look like a miniature version of a pan full of deflated beach balls washed up on shore, barely keeping their round full figure from a half hour ago.
But, what you did was actually bring out some delicious flavor. Roasting draws moisture out of the item being roasted, in this case tomatoes, and in this exchange, it intensifies their tomato flavor making them more robust.
The addition of garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper only heightens their savory goodness. While you will not need all of these for the quiche, you can serve these delicious roasted tomatoes as a side dish warm or cold. You could also toss them into your dinner veggie dish. Or, perhaps, if you are really feeling inspired, give them a quick chill in the fridge and, along with fresh Mozzarella and a Balsamic reduction, serve over Baby Spinach and a garnish of sweet Basil for a yummy Caprese style salad. In a sealed container they will last a few days to a week in the fridge and I have a few recipe ideas I will share in future articles, but let’s get back to the quiche.
So why a quiche? Because quiche, with or without crust, is simple, easy, and a most palatable dish for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner to most everyone, even those who frown upon crusts. Quiche, to the layperson, is basically “scrambled eggs”. Some may even venture to say, a fallen souffle? But seriously, a traditional quiche is more of a dense custard base and resembles that of scrambled eggs in a pie shell. So why not call it Scrambled Egg Pie? Because nobody gets all giddy at the thought of you taking the time to make a Scrambled Egg Pie. But when you tell someone that you made a quiche, their eyes sparkle, their smile gets wide, they clutch their pearls and nearly faint at the thought of you taking the time out of your busy day to make a “Quiche”.
The souffle, on the other hand, when done right, is airy, a much lighter combination and a more involved process.
Separating yolks from whites, whipping more air into the mixing process, adding some ingredients to give it some lift, and a lot of praying that: a) when in the oven it will rise, and then b) when out of the oven, not fall. What these two (three) have in common is that they all use eggs and all can have a penchant for the savory or the sweeter side of life. However, I prefer not to leave so much to chance and Providence and opt to make a “quiche”. It is quicker and easier than a souffle and I need not pay much attention to how I work the eggs, so I don’t need a backup plan. And this too is probably why my quiche comes out like scrambled egg pie. I’m okay with that.
Along with Sauteed Green and Gold squash, dinner was served, a crustless quiche in a casserole dish. The entire meal featured two kinds of squash, tomatoes, and four kinds of herbs(basil, basil, basil, and chives); all from our gardens. Eggs from our ladies in the hen house and bacon from a pig raised here on site and harvested last fall. The remainder of ingredients were milk, cheese, and a few staples from the larder to round out the meal. Thus proving, to me at least, that yes, I actually could make a meal from what was raised here at home. It was a memorable Simple Feast harvested from less than two and a half acres.
Enjoy!
