"Clean out the refrigerator" quiche

Now, you can't really go wrong with a quiche. A quiche is an excellent and easy way to get rid of any vegetables and/or cheeses that are starting to go bad. Essentially, you just need to add 3-4 eggs and milk or cream or ricotta. That's it. Really. That's why I call quiches the "clean out the refrigerator day" dinner.

This particular quiche, as you could probably tell from the previous post, is using the vegetables from making veggie stock. In addition, I had some ricotta and swiss cheese that would soon be past their primes and 1/3 a bag of frozen spinach, so it was thrown in as well. Completely excellent.

The top three ingredients were cooked from the vegetable stock, but you can cook them in advance any way you want to (except the leek, which can cook with the quiche or be precooked, it doesn't matter). This is so flexible it's not even funny; add or take away whichever vegetables you want.

Ingredients:

8 stalks asparagus, cut into bite-sized pieces and cooked
1 sweet potato, cooked and mashed
1 whole leek, chopped into small slices
1 small-medium onion, chopped (I had a red one on hand, but yellow or white is fine)
8-10 oz. frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1/3 lb. swiss cheese
3/4 cup ricotta
3 eggs, beaten
1 T. grainy mustard
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 375

1. Mix all the ingredients together and toss into a pie crust. Bake for 50-55 minutes until an inserted knife comes out clean and it's not jiggly. The end.



By the way, pretty much any pie crust will do. Here is the one I used:

1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 cup crisco
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 tsp. vinegar
ice cold water to hold it together

Mix all the dry ingredients, then incorporate crisco and butter until it resembles course meal. Add wet ingredients until it just holds together, then roll it into a pie pan (if it's too sticky, add flour or leave it in the fridge for awhile).

Vegetable stock

For all the recipes that call for chicken stock but you've got a vegetarian in the house. I made this for the baby, but it was so delicious that I think I will use it in place of chicken stock from now on, and I haven't even salted it yet!

This makes 2-3 cups, and you can freeze it if you want to keep some on hand.

I intend to make a quiche out of the discarded vegetables...I'll let you know how it goes.


Ingredients

1 large leek, chopped into slices
1 sweet potato, peeled cut into chunks
6-8 stalks asparagus, cut into 1 1/2 inch slices
4-5 cups water
(salt)

Directions

1. Place all ingredients in a large saucepan, making sure that the water line is above the vegetables.

2. Bring to a boil, then cover and let simmer until soup has a mild flavor and the vegetables are tender (about 45 minutes to 1 hour).

3. Strain to remove the vegetables so all you have left is the stock.

4. Add salt to taste if you want it salted, or whatever herbs you want (I found rosemary to be very good).

Orange Beef

I think this is supposed to be deep-fried, but in addition to being bad for you I find the prospect of deep-frying positively terrifying. If you want to do it at home, more power to you; the beef will probably be much crispier.

Ingredients

1 lb. sirloin steak (or whatever steaky thing you have on hand)

1 egg white
1/4 cup corn starch
1/2 tsp. salt and pepper
2 T. soy sauce

2 scallions, chopped
3 T. brown sugar
3-4 T. soy sauce
1 T. sesame oil
2 T. vinegar (white, red wine, or rice wine)
1 knob ginger, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
black or white pepper to taste
1/2 tsp. red chili pepper flakes (more or less, depending on how spicy you want it)
1 orange, zest and juice

Peanut or canola oil for frying
Steamed broccoli

Sesame seeds for garnish (optional)

Directions:

1. Cut the steak into chunks (it's easier to do this if you put the beef in the freezer 1 hour prior to cooking)

2. Coat the chunks of steak in the next 4 ingredients (egg white, corn starch, soy sauce, salt and pepper) and set aside while you do the rest (preferably for about 30 minutes)

3. Whisk the rest of the ingredients, except the broccoli and oil, together***. This part is pretty flexible; if you think it needs more soy sauce/sugar/whatever add it now. Keep taste testing it.

4. Add some oil, and cook the coated beef on both sides until brown and crispy.

5. Drain the oil (there should be a little left on the pan), then re-add your beef and the soy sauce mixture.

6. Cook until well-coated; add steamed broccoli and serve over rice. Sprinkle with sesame seeds for garnish.



***If you prefer to cook the garlic and ginger a little first, you could omit them then toss them in before you re-add the beef and the soy sauce mixture, but it's not necessary.

Key Lime Strawberry Crepes

Now, this came about as a result of a complete accident. What I had intended to make was key lime pie; what I didn't realize is that evaporated milk and condensed milk aren't the same thing...oops. This turned out as a thoroughly gloppy mess, which I figured I was going to have to throw away. By chance, however, I tasted the goopy mess and it was delicious! I topped it on top of strawberries and it was amazing. Then, since I had just made some crepe batter anyway, I added the three together and what resulted was a REALLY nice dessert, and certainly much more attractive than its original.

Since this was truly an accident, I will attempt to recreate here in recipe form.

By the way, key limes are almost IMPOSSIBLE to juice, and apparently can also be hard to find in areas without a lot of Latino supermarkets. I recommend the bottled version. (I use a brand called Nellie and Joe's, which is wonderful.) You can find it with the alcoholic drink mixers at your grocery store (like where they keep Pina colada mix). You could also probably use regular limes, but that might take something away from the whole thing.

You could also probably omit the graham cracker crust part, although I really think that that added something extra to it.


Here is the crepe recipe.


Ingredients

GRAHAM CRACKER CRUST (optional)

8 graham cracker squares
3/8 cup sugar (85 g.)
3 T. butter, melted (45 g.)

1. Crush the graham crackers by placing them in a ziploc bag and rolling over until in crumbs

2. Stir with sugar

3. Add butter and mix until consitently moistened; press into the bottom of a an oven safe dish (pie pan, casserole dish, whatever you have, preferably shallow like a pie dish). You don't have to line the bottom like you would a real crust, since this is going to be mixed in with the key lime mixture. Just sort of press in into the bottom, and don't worry about holes.


KEY LIME MIXTURE

Zest of 1 lime or 3 key limes
1/2 cup key lime juice (120 ml)
1 cup sour cream (225 g.)
1 12. can evaporated milk (350 ml)
3 oz. cream cheese (75 g.)
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar** (115 g.)

**taste test to suit your liking, preferably before you add the eggs.

Here are the oven directions, but you could probably just cook this on low over a stovetop and crush some graham crackers into it. I didn't try it, but it sounds easier.

PREHEAT OVEN TO 350 (175 C)

1. Whisk it all together for about 3 minutes, until smooth and slightly fluffy

2. Pour mixture over graham cracker mix and cook for about 30 minutes (it will never really gel like key lime pie does; just use your best judgment.

3. Stir together so the graham crackers are mixed in and allow to cool.


Putting it altogether

You'll need: hulled strawberries cut into bit-size pieces, crepes, confectioner's sugar, and the key lime mixture.

Take the crepe out of the pan, place strawberries down the middle of the crepe, spoon on the key lime mixture, then fold your crepe closed over the strawberries like you would a letter going into an envelope. Top generously with confectioner's sugar, and serve!

No Knead Whole Wheat Bread

This is me attempting to make French bread with whole wheat flour instead. My friend, who is trying to eat healthier, attempted this feat and it turned out flat as a pancake and tasting like Russian black bread (not bad, but not what she was going for!) so I thought I would give it a go. This definitely has a distinctive whole wheat taste, but is as chewy and nearly as crusty as French bread, so I'll consider it a success!

I'm still experimenting to work up to 100% whole wheat, but this one, being 2/3 whole wheat, is pretty darn close. (Most whole wheat loaves go up to 1/2 whole wheat, most of the crusty ones only venture a third!)

You could try this without the vital wheat gluten; I only added mine halfway through. I'm not sure how it would turn out, though, so no promises! By the way, you can buy vital wheat gluten in the bulk section at Whole Foods. It took some time, but I did manage to find it in a regular grocery store, but it was twice the price. If there is a natural foods store near you, I would buy it there.

Starter:

1 cup whole wheat flour (I use King Arthur white wheat) (125 g.)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (62.5)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. yeast
almost 1 cup water

1. Mix together dry ingredients in a large bowl, then add water. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for about 12 hours.

Rest of dough

All of the starter
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp, yeast
almost 1 cup water
3 T. wheat gluten

2. Mix together all ingredients, re-cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 18-24 hours.

3. When time is up, place the plastic wrap that was covering your dough on a kitchen towel, dough-side up (reduce, reuse, recycle!). Plop the dough on top.

4. Form a ball by folding down the top and bottom of the dough like you were folding a letter, then do the same to the long sides.

5. Turn ball seam-side down and cover with the kitchen towel; let sit for 2 hours

6. 30-45 minutes before dough is ready to go into the oven, place your dutch oven or casserole dish (or any oven safe container with a lid) into the oven and preheat to 475.

7. After 2 hours, place dough into heated container. Cover and bake for 20 minutes. When 20 minutes are up, remove lid and cook for another 10-15 minutes.