Quiche aux Fine Herbs (waxing poetic)

The sunlight in East Tennessee is often magical, but it is even more so in the spring. The light is golden, dappled, filtered through the chartreuse new leaves popping out on trees. Suddenly, everyone looks more attractive, the noisy world fades to a lazy whisper, and you are content to do absolutely nothing, other than soaking in this just-warm-enough sun.


Of course, there are ramifications, jolting bursts of reality that shake your sun-addled brain awake. Before you know it, you've ignored your garden for two weeks and there are terrifying new weeds and enormous heads of neglected lettuce taking over. You haven't been to the grocery store in ages, and now you aren't sure what kind of dinner you can cobble together. You are suddenly conscious of your laziness and feel the need to take on a project. You bake bread, making rolls, hamburger buns, a mock baguette. But still the threat of dinner looms. You decide to take on your herb garden and are immediately presented with an answer: quiche.



The recipe varies a bit from my classic mushroom quiche, but of course the idea remains the same. Weed your herb garden, trimming back the fragrant plants, and put those trimmings to good use at dinner. If you have eggs, cream, and a few cheeses, you are already halfway to a simple dinner, made to be enjoyed while cool breezes blow through your tranquil, if only for a moment, home.


Quiche aux Fine Herbs
serves 4-6 (the leftovers are lovely)

1 pie crust, homemade or store bought
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
pat butter
olive oil
3 eggs + 1 egg yolk
.5 cup cream
.5 cup 1% milk
1.5 cups of shredded cheese (I used a mixture of Parmesan, Gruyere, and chevre)
small pinch freshly ground nutmeg
2 Tbsp finely minced fresh herbs (I used flat leaf parsley, rosemary, thyme, lovage, and chives)
sea salt
freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prick the bottom of your pie crust several times with a fork, and then bake until dry, but not brown (about 10 minutes). Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Place the butter and a drizzle of olive oil in a medium saute pan over medium heat. Add onions and saute until translucent and beginning to turn golden brown around the edges. Set aside to cool.

In a bowl, whisk together the milk, cream, and eggs until very well combined. Add a pinch of salt, and a few grinds of pepper and nutmeg. Lastly, whisk in your herbs. Sprinkle half of your cheese mix over the bottom of your cooled pie crust. Spread the cooked onions over the cheese evenly, then top with the remaining cheese. Pour the egg mixture over the top.


Bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes, until the surface is a nice golden brown. Remove and let cool for at least 10 minutes (I actually pulled this out of the oven 1 hour before I planned to serve it, and it was perfect). Serve with a crisp green salad and an icy cold glass of white wine. Enjoy your meal, and let yourself slip back into delicious laziness, because the work can wait until tomorrow.

A classic: Mushroom Quiche

You might notice a new addition to the site over there on the left. The ads were suggested by a friend after I commented that being an Unemployed Cook was expensive. If the crass commercialism bothers you, I apologize heartily and encourage you to ignore them. But, hopefully, they will help me out a little bit. Thanks!


Today we had lovely lunch guests in the form of Chris' father and step-mother. I have been craving my classic quiche for days now, and this was a perfect opportunity to make it. Let me say right off the bat that I KNOW making piecrust isn't that difficult and I swear I'm going to learn how to make a proper one very soon. But for today, store bought had to do (and it was great).


Mushroom Quiche
serves 4 hungry lunch guests

1 8-oz. package baby Bella mushrooms
2 medium shallots, sliced thinly
olive oil
sea salt
freshly ground pepper
freshly grated nutmeg
1 heaping cup shredded Gruyere cheese
3 eggs
.5 c. milk
.5 c. half & half
1 piecrust


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prick the bottom of your pie crust a few times with a fork and bake for 6 minutes, until it begins to feel dry to the touch. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.


Brush dirt off of mushrooms and chop into small pieces. Heat some olive oil in a large saute pan, add shallots and cook over medium heat for 1 minute. Add mushrooms and a pinch of salt and pepper and saute until they are a deep golden color and the liquid has evaporated (mushrooms are almost all water, so you want to cook that water out--liquidy mushrooms = soggy quiche). Remove from heat and let cool.

Using a whisk, mix the eggs, milk, and half and half until combined. Add a generous amount of fresh nutmeg and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Mix well.



Sprinkle half of the cheese evenly around the bottom of the pie crust. Top with mushroom mixture, then the rest of the cheese. Pour egg mixture over the top--it should be pretty full. Place into your oven and bake for 45 minutes, or until it is a deep golden brown and is set in the middle. Let cool for at least 10 minutes before trying to cut it--although this is great at room temperature or even cold. Serve with a green salad. Enjoy!