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Mar
19
2024

BLOG-Pancakes, wait, no… Quiche!

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We have family in town today, and for Saturday breakfast I was thinking about changing up an old family favorite: potato pancakes. In the kitchen, I am surrounded by garden zucchini and onions—aren’t you?—so I thought zucchini pancakes, of course. Someone else must have had this same brainstorm I figure, so I started flipping through cookbooks. Pancakes, however, were soon forgotten. Almost immediately the words “quiche with brown rice crust” arrested me. Ooo, I had brown rice…I love brown rice…My kids love brown rice. Zucchini Quiche! With no further adieu, the griddle was shuttled to the side, and I brought out the stoneware pie plate.

This deep dish pie plate comes from Miami Valley Pottery, 145 East Hyde Road. For 8 years, Artesian Naysan McIlhargey has been making objects of great beauty and unpretentious practicality. I have several of his pieces, and his deep dish pie plate is a fine and durable workhorse. This month alone, it has held—in turn—scalloped potatoes, peach pie, and bread pudding. Today we try something new.

The crust is an easy mixture of egg white and precooked rice. I mixed two cups of leftover rice and the egg white by hand then, with a wooden spatula, modeled the mixture into the bottom of Naysan’s plate. This crust gets popped into a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes.

While the crust baked, I shredded zucchini like mock spaghetti then chopped and steamed kale. I tossed the zucchini and kale together with minced onion, italian parsley, and fresh basil. The greens were placed in the center of the baked crust and covered in a custard of 3 eggs, 1/2 cup of cheddar cheese, 3/4 cup milk, and 1/4 tsp salt. Back in the oven it all went for 40 minutes, and I took the quiche out a couple of minutes early when the top turned golden brown.

The cheddar cheese I used is from the Winds Wine Cellar. The name of the cheddar is Prairie Breeze, a frequent offering in their cheese case and one we like to use in tossed salads. This quiche is my first use of the cheddar in a baked dish, and the results were winning.

During the baking, the custard worked into the rice adding texture to the creamy filling while the bottom crust maintained a hearty crunch. The visiting family heartily approved of the dish. It’s a welcome and blessed event when family makes the long journey to visit… even more fortunate when a spontaneous adventure in cooking for them comes to happy fulfillment.

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2 Responses to “BLOG-Pancakes, wait, no… Quiche!”

  1. Rufus Musser says:

    Hi Amy,

    At Milton Creamery we are always looking for new ways people are using our Prairie Breeze so that we can share them with others. We’ve got a small recipe collection on our website. I think your quiche would make a great addition. Would you mind if we posted it? Of course, we would give credit and a link back to your site.

    Thanks much for the mention of Prairie Breeze. It truly makes me happy when I see others enjoying Milton Creamery’s cheese.

    If you ever make it to southeast Iowa, please stop in. We’ll show you how Prairie Breeze is made.

    Rufus

  2. Dan Plecha says:

    No Magnus would shout it out loud
    They’re country folks, simple and proud
    But when Amy makes quiche
    Get there early; capiche?
    (It’s likely to bring out a crowd.)

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