Breakfast for the Bean

Schleichy-bean, that is. The golden soprano of St. Louis came to stay with me this weekend to hit up two auditions on Saturday. I wanted to make sure she'd have a nice breakfast before she started belting the high notes... naturally I thought of a quiche! Some protein, some fat, some veggies all wrapped into a buttery crust... what could be better?

I used the quiche recipe from the Williams-Sonoma "Food Made Fast: Baking"Cookbook. I can't praise this book series enough... I have several of the editions and have never been disappointed by their recipes. They sometimes take a little longer to make than the book claims, but everything is still relatively simple and comes out looking exactly like the gorgeous picture.

First, you have to make your pastry shell. I have to admit, I've been using frozen pie crusts for my quiches lately, instead of making them from scratch (SHAME! I'll never be the wife of a French peasant...). It's really not hard to make a crust, though, so I have no excuse for being lazy.

Pastry Dough:

2 cups Flour

.5 tsp Salt

1.5 sticks Butter (6 oz... oh yeah!)

3 oz really cold ice water

In a food processor, combine the flour and salt and pulse until mixed. Add the cubed butter overtop and pulse until coarse crumbs start to form. Then drizzle the water over top and pulse until the dough starts to come together. Roll this out onto a floured surface and then transport to your pie tin.

Long live BUTTER!

Note: The recipe in the book actually makes enough for 3 shells. What you see above is that recipe halved.... so, that makes enough for 1.5 shells. You can easily tweak this to make slightly less, but I like have extra and I'll show you way at the end of this post!

Pop the crust into the freezer for 5 minutes, then throw into a 425 degree oven for 10 minutes, or until lightly golden. Pull out of the oven and let cool while you prepare the filling.

Now the magic! Leek and Asparagus Quiche:

1 Leek, sliced

Half a bundle of Asparagus, cut into half inch pieces (you want roughly 1.5 cups total vegetables... I usually throw in more)

4 Eggs

1.5 cups (6 oz) grated Gruyere Cheese (again, I usually end up using more)

1 3/4 cups Organic Whole Milk (or Half-n-Half, or Cream... low fat milk is for losers)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper (or to taste)

Sauté the leeks in about a tablespoon of butter until they start to get wilty, then throw in your asparagus, and cook until it's all soft, but not mushy, then set aside. Sprinkle half of the cheese into the crust. Then, wisk the eggs until blended and add the milk, salt and pepper. Stir in the veggies and the rest of the cheese. Pour into the partially baked and cooled crust.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and the middle is set. Resist temptation (this is Lent, after all) and wait until it cools before you dig in!

So I said I had extra dough... what to do with it? Make mini-quiches using ramekins, of course! Since I always end up adding more veggies and cheese than I'm supposed to, the filling ends up being too much for the crust. Just make sure you keep an eye on them in the oven, they'll be done faster than the big quiche. With this recipe, I made two extra little guys.

One last note: Nicholas Tonozzi, I need my roller back! I just mushed this dough out by hand and it was a little too thick. I blame you for this.