Elle's Kitchen: Bacon and Swiss Quiche

I learned to make quiche from

Julia Child (of course...) many years 

ago and it used to appear regularly on

the menus at Avalon.  Then, one of the 

kids decided they didn't like it and it has

been so long since I've made it I actually

had to consult The Way to Cook for cooking

time and temps.

Ingredients:

a pre-baked pie crust

6 strips of bacon, crumbled

3/4 cup swiss cheese

3 eggs

half and half

salt

pepper

freshly ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375F.

Place the bacon evenly over the bottom of the 

crust, sprinkle the cheese over that.  Beat the 3 eggs

and then add enough half and half to make a mixture 

of 1 1/2 cups, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Pour liquid over the filling and add a bit more nutmeg 

to the top.  Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until puffed and

browned.  Allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Elle's Kitchen: Cauliflower and Cheese Casserole

We tried a new recipe last night as

a vegetarian entree, serving it with

beets, salad and a pretzel roll.

Ingredients:

1 cauliflower

salt and pepper

2 cups milk

2 cloves

1 small onion, chopped

1 bay leaf

5 tablespoons of butter

1/3 cup flour

1 2/3 cups grated firm cheese,

(I used gruyere)

freshly grated nutmeg

Remove the green leaves from the cauliflower

and break into even size florets.  Add florets to 

a pan of boiling salted water and boil until almost

tender (keep checking, this doesn't take too long).

Drain the cauliflower and lay out on a dish 

towel over a cookie sheet to allow more 

moisture to leave the cauliflower.

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Put milk, cloves, onion and bay leaf in a 

saucepan and bring to a simmer.  Cook for

a minute or two, then cover and leave to infuse

off the heat for 10 minutes.  Then strain the milk

for the next step.  Discard the bay leaf and cloves

but keep the onions for later.

In another pan, melt the butter and stir

 in the flour.  Cook over low for a few minutes.

Add the strained milk all at once and

whisk together.  Stir until sauce begins to

thicken and become smooth.  Continue to

cook on the lowest setting you have for

10 minutes (I didn't wait that long).

Add the cheese and stir until fully melted.

Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste.

Put the cauliflower in a greased casserole.

Add the reserved onions and stir, then add 

the cheese sauce and stir to make sure it 

coats all the veggies.  Sprinkle with a bit more

cheese and some grated nutmeg.  Bake for

25 to 30 minutes until bubbly and the top

begins to brown.

Enjoy!

This was tasty but it took a lot of steps and

a lot of pans to just get a cauliflower with

cheese sauce casserole.  If I ever write

The American Homestead Cookbook, it

will be filled with good but simple recipes...

Elle's Kitchen: Green Curry with Tofu

 

I'm spoiled, I've been lucky to be able to travel

to Thailand and eat the fabulous food of that

country.  I still wake up craving Thai food ~ it

is hot ~ it is spicy ~ it is delicious!

The downside is I live in a small Midwestern

town and I can't always find ingredients to

recreate the tastes I experienced in Asia.  But

this recipe has ingredients that I can find in

the foreign food aisle of a local grocery store.

 

 

Ingredients:

 

2 14 oz. cans coconut milk  (I

used one regular and one lite)
4 oz. jar green curry paste  - Please note:

I love screamin' hot food and the brand of 

curry paste I used was not very hot.  Start with 

a tablespoon or 2 and see how it tastes for you.
 1 pkg. extra firm tofu, cubed
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
3 Tbsp.  oyster sauce (you can find vegetarian

oyster sauce or use 1 tabl. soy sauce instead, 

if you want it completely vegetarian)
 1 8 oz. can bamboo shoots
1 c. frozen peas
1 small onion chopped
1 red pepper and 1 orange pepper, sliced thin

 

Okay, so I consulted with my Asian food guru

(my brother) and he said the green curry pastes he

gets from the Asian markets are very hot.  So,

use a bit and see how it tastes, you can always

add more if you want it hotter.  He also found

an Asian market within an hour of my home

that I had never noticed before... thank you!

 

 

In a deep pot combine the coconut milks

and the curry paste and heat on medium.

 

Add brown sugar and the oyster sauce.

 

Add tofu, onions and peppers.

 

Add peas and bamboo shoots and simmer

on low for 20 minutes so everything is

heated through.

 

 

Pull out your Asian dishware and serve over

rice.  See where I get my dishware here:

 

http://americanhomestead.blogspot.com/search?q=pearl+river+mart

 

Then get together and eat with the ones

you love.

 

Enjoy!

Elle's Kitchen: Linguine With Garlic Scapes

A lovely early summer meal of linguine with

garlic scapes.  What are garlic scapes you may

ask?  They are the flower stems of a garlic bulb.

Garlic growers will remove this stem to produce

a larger bulb.

At our local Saturday morning Farmer's Market

there were many stalls selling scapes.  They seem

to be a hot item this year.  The farmer I bought them

from gave me this easy recipe.  This is the sort of  meal

that I imagine a little old European lady would make for

lunch after foraging in the fields in the early morning.

Ingredients:

Linguine

a handful of garlic scapes, chopped

Butter (I used 3 to 4 tbls.)

grated parmesan cheese

Cook the linguine according to package directions, drain.

Melt the butter in a pan and add scapes, saute for

a few minutes.  Place linguine in a large bowl and

add butter and scapes, add grated parm and toss.

Top with additional parm and serve.

We dined al fresco and with this as our view, it 

made the dinner even better.

Enjoy!

Elle's Kitchen: Wild Rice, Kale and Pomegranate Salad

A friend posted this salad on Facebook recently and

I knew I had to try it.  The recipe was from Pinterest

and I'm always a bit apprehensive about finding recipes

there since I have had so many Pinterest fails.  BUT, 

I'm happy to report this was a Pinterest Score ~ it was 

delicious!  Even in my dreams last night, I was

 commenting that the salad made me feel so good.

Ingredients for the salad:

2 1/2 cups cooked wild rice, cooled

2 1/2 cups baby kale, chopped (make sure it is baby kale)

1 cup pomegranate seeds

1/2 cup glazed walnuts

1/2 cup crumbled feta

  

Ingredients for dressing:

1/2 cup onion, minced

2 tabl. olive oil

2 tabl. water

2 tabl. honey

1/2 tabl. apple cider vinegar

1/2 teas. salt

a wedge of fresh orange, squeezed

Please note:  it takes 45 minutes to an hour to cook

the wild rice so do this first and then prep the rest of

the ingredients while it cooks.  Allow time for it to cool.

Chill salad ingredients in the refrigerator so they are cool.

To make the dressing, saute the onion in a bit of  olive oil

just until it softens and is translucent.  This will soften the

taste of the onion. 

If you have an attachment like the one shown above 

with your immersion blender, use that, it works great.

If not, use a food processor.

Place the cooked onions in a food processor, add the other

dressing ingredients and pulse until smooth and creamy.

Combine the salad ingredients and toss,  add dressing

and toss again.

We had this as our entree and loved it!  We felt

full but not stuffed after eating it and there were

so many flavors in each bite that you did not get

bored with it.

Enjoy!