Thursday, February 12th was a Valentine Soiree at
Be beauty in Little Italy. Juju and Tara hosted a fabulous and fun event decorated with yummy truffles and cupcakes from
Honey & Bee Pastries and hors d'oeuvres from
Savvy Cuisine! Of course I can't leave out the shop's famous and delicious libation, The Belezza which also made an appearance...well, who am I kidding...it was the star (as usual)! It was a special night and a great excuse to mingle, sip, sache, nosh, and shop on a Thursday.
Savvy Cuisine hosted a spread of mini quiche which seemed to disappear very quickly and as promised I'm posting the recipe here on the blog. A couple days later than I had hoped guys-so sorry!
OK, so I actually struggled to come up with an hors d'oeuvre that was going to compliment the sweet treats from Honey & Bee and pair up with the high standards of The Belezza. These are two savvy institutions in their own right so Savvy Cuisine better show up and represent! After careful deliberation, one panic attack, and some lucky incite I decided to go back to my french cooking roots and I dug out my syllabus from
Cordon Bleu. One of my favorite things in school was making quiche, so I adapted their recipe for
Quiche Lorraine and turned it into
Quiche Brocoli instead. I also brought along the
Quiche aux Champignons Sauvages recipe and tweaked that a bit into a simple
Quiche with Mushrooms. Both recipes were originally for large quiches, but translate well into mini quiche which are great for brunch, lunch, dinner, midnight snacks, etc.
Caution.The recipe below is rated
M (for metric system). To give it your own rating of
A (Last humans standing using a different system than everyone else, or otherwise known as
American) use a scale (it will have the metric system on there) and/or use this handy dandy website which easily converts that which is unintelligible to a pure and simple verbiage that can be comprehended and mastered by everyone...
GourmetSleuth.comShort Crust Pastry200g flour
100g butter
5g salt (about 1 tsp)
1 egg
2 T water
Mini Muffin Pan (24)
Garnish
100g grated Gruyere cheese
180g broccoli florets (blanched)
Filling
3 eggs
250 ml heavy whipping cream
salt, pepper & nutmeg
Whisk eggs, salt, pepper, and nutmeg briskly then add cream last. The cream works in better if it's sat outside the fridge for a bit. A bit. Not an hour.
First, coat your mini muffin pan with either a healthy coating of butter or spray with Baker's Joy. Then put it in the fridge to cool.
Measure and sift your flour into a bowl. Beat egg and water together until well mixed. Pour your flour out onto a cold solid surface and make a fort-circle the flour and then hollow out a hole in the center. The butter should be room temperature and malleable. Work it into your fingers and put little chunks on top of the flour surrounding the hole. Pour egg mixture into the center and sprinkle salt over everything. Work your dough with a pastry scraper gently cutting into the flour, butter and egg mixture. Do this slowly but deliberately. Too slow and you'll have egg on your foot in a second. Do it without deliberation and the egg might end up on both feet and maybe run off the other side of the table.
Once everything is incorporated smear the dough out with the heal of your hand. Don't knead it! That is what my chef screamed at me in French and it put the fear of God into me. I don't know what happens if you try and knead it and I don't want to find out. So, after NOT kneading it, but just smearing it, roll it into a ball, lightly dust it with flour and wrap it in plastic wrap. It goes in the fridge for 20 minutes to cool down.
After your dough has cooled, bring it back to the table again and this time, roll it out very thinly and evening with a rolling pin. For the mini quiche, I used the rim of a white wine glass to cut the shapes that I needed. Then place your dough into the mini muffin cups so that the dough comes up slightly and evening over the rim of the muffin cup. It now goes into a 345 degree oven for about 10 minutes. NO BROWNING! (picture that yelled in French too).
When your dough has cooked for 10 minutes brush lightly with an egg wash and return to the oven for about 3 minutes. (Still keep yelling NO BROWNING in your head, yell it out loud if you need to).
Remove your muffin tin from the oven and gently poke the bottom of the little quiches with a fork. Your aerating. If you don't do this, these little critters pop up huge and there will be no room for your filling. Let it cool for a few minutes. When you're ready to fill, place a few florets in the bottom of the quiche and then some sprinkles of cheese, then carefully spoon in your filling. DO NOT OVERFILL. Sorry for all the yelling in this recipe. French.
Cook the filled quiches for 10-15 minutes. They should get slightly golden around the edges. Remove them promptly and put on a rack to cool. They can be served at room temperature or if your guests are coming over later, just put them on a baking tray and warm up in a 175 oven for 10-15 minutes or so. Voila! You just made quiche! Bon Appetite!
I forget how many years ago it was when I first experienced the extraordinary world that is New Orleans. I remember my first impression though. It was in Pat O'Brien's patio on a slightly cloudy and sticky day in the quarter. I ordered my first HURRICANE and that was followed quite closely by my second. It was pure alcoholic decadence. I believed I had found the holy grail. It was pink, it was tall, it was cold, and the first sip felt like a sledgehammer to the head. I was in love!
