Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen

This potato dish was featured in an old Gourmet magazine as part of a rustic Italian dinner.  The meal began with an artichoke and pancetta fettuccine, featured a homemade ciabatta bread, and progressed to the main course of pan roasted veal and these potatoes.  I wish I had had the time and the ingredients to make the complete meal, but life is busy right now.  My grillmeister did his part by cooking some chicken on the grill on this beautiful day.  That gave me the time to putter in the kitchen with this casserole and make some simple frozen vegetables.  I find it easier to tackle new dishes when the rest of the meal is simple.

I like the idea of adding tomatoes to a potato dish.  They add a vibrancy to the brown potatoes.  In this case I had a can of diced tomatoes that worked beautifully.  Just be sure the tomatoes are drained well and dry when added to the potato mixture.  The potatoes are browned in batches and the casserole can be assembled ahead of time.  You could even add more cheese, either Swiss or cheddar, to amp up the flavor.  This potato casserole looks good and tastes good.  What more could you ask for?

POTATO, TOMATO, AND ROSEMARY GRATIN

1 medium onion
1 large garlic clove
16 ounce can whole tomatoes
2 pounds russet potatoes (about 6 medium)
5 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary leaves
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Cut onion crosswise into 1/2 inch thick slices and mince garlic.  Drain tomatoes well and coarsely chop.  Peel potatoes and cut crosswise into 1/4 inch thick slices.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a 12-inch heavy skillet heat 1 tablespoon oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and saute potatoes in 3 batches, turning them, until golden on both sides, add 1 tablespoon oil for each new batch.  Transfer potatoes to a bowl as sauteed.

In skillet cook onion in 1 tablespoon oil over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened.  Add onion to potatoes with tomatoes, garlic, rosemary, and salt and pepper to taste and toss to combine well.  Transfer potato mixture to a 2-quart gratin dish or other shallow baking dish and drizzle with water and remaining tablespoon oil.  Sprinkle Parmesan over potatoes.  Gratin may be made up to this point 2 hours ahead and kept, covered, at cool room temperature.

Bake gratin 30 minutes, or until potatoes are tender and beginning to brown.  Serves 6.

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I love this braiser so much, I am looking for another one.  If I recall, I found mine originally at TJ Maxx for a substantial savings.  Keep your eyes open.  You may find one too.

Well, I did it.  It took a while and there are things I will do differently the next time, but I learned a lot and the mile high quiche was deemed a success.  The custard was creamy.  The asparagus, Swiss cheese and bacon worked well together and the buttery pastry crust was one of the best I have ever made.  Let’s start by discussing the crust.

The original recipe for this quiche came from Thomas Keller of The French Laundry and Bouchon fame.  He dubbed it an “over the top” quiche.  The buttery pastry crust is made in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment.  The two sticks of cubed butter are added in increments to the slowly running mixer into half of the flour until they are incorporated.  Then the second cup of flour is added and mixed on low until it is all combined.  Ice water is added and the dough is formed.  That is the easiest pastry I have ever made.  After resting in the refrigerator, it is rolled out to fit the spring form pan.  It rolled out like a dream and was easy to handle as I fitted it into the pan.

I did not follow Keller’s recipe exactly.  There was some discussion about leaving the bottom out of the springform pan and using the sheet pan surface for the bottom.  That made no sense to me.  I have found since that Deb of Smitten Kitchen attempted this with less than stellar results.  Just use the springform pan as intended and you will be fine.

Next add a circle of parchment paper and fill with dried beans.  I have a big bag of dried beans that I use over and over again to blind bake pie crusts.  It is baked for a long time.  I thought it would be too long but it worked out fine.  You are now finished with this step, which can be done way ahead of time.

Now for the filling:  The original recipe which you can view here, called for lots of mushrooms.  I chose to use asparagus, bacon and Swiss cheese.  The reason I am calling my quiche an almost mile high quiche is because the volume of the filling turned out to be less without all of those mushrooms. When done, the filling did not quite come to the top of the fluted crust.

But to me it was a thing of beauty.  Next time I will separate three of the eggs and whip the egg whites to fold into the filling to give it more volume.  I think that will do the trick.

Good eats!

MILE HIGH ASPARAGUS, BACON AND SWISS CHEESE QUICHE

Buttery Pastry Shell:
2 cups unbleached flour, sifted.  Plus more for dusting
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 sticks chilled unsalted butter cut into 1/4 inch dice
1/4 cup ice water
canola oil for brushing

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, mix 1 cup of the flour with the salt.  At low speed, add the butter pieces a handful at a time.  When all of the butter has been added, increase the speed to medium and beat until all of the butter is incorporated.  Reduce the speed to low and add the last 1 cup of flour just until blended.  Mix in the water just until throughly incorporated.  Flatten the pastry on a floured board into an 8 inch disk.  Wrap in plastic and refrigerate until chilled at least 1 hour or overnight.

Place the unwrapped pastry on a floured board and roll in out to a 14″ to 16″ round, dusting with flour as needed.  Carefully fit it into an oiled 9″ springform pan.  Pat it into the pan and trim the excess pastry from the top, leaving enough pastry to flute the top.  Flute and gently press the top against the edge.  Chill the pastry shell for at least 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Line the pastry shell with a 14″ round of parchment paper and fill with dried beans or rice.  Place the springform pan on a sheet pan and bake the pastry shell for about 40 minutes or until the fluted edges are lightly browned.  Carefully remove the parchment paper with the dried beans.  I used a scoop to remove most of the beans before lifting the parchment paper out.  Return the shell to the oven and bake for an additional 15 minutes or until the bottom is lightly browned.

Transfer the baking sheet to a rack and let cool.  The baked pastry shell can be covered with plastic and left at room temperature overnight if needed.

Quiche Filling:
8 slices of bacon, cubed and fried until crisp and then drained
1 pound of asparagus, trimmed and sliced and blanched in boiling water until crisp tender.  Transfer to ice water to retain color.  Dry thoroughly before adding to quiche
3/4 cup Swiss cheese
2 cups whipping cream
2 cups of milk
6 eggs
Pinch of nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste

Scatter 1/4 cup of the Swiss cheese and 1/2 of the bacon and asparagus over the bottom of the pastry shell.  In a blender or the bowl of a stand mixer blend together 1 cup of the cream, 1 cup of the milk and three of the eggs with 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/8 teaspoon of pepper and a pinch of nutmeg until frothy, about 1 minute.  Pour over the asparagus mixture.  Add 1/4 cup of the Swiss cheese and the remaining bacon and asparagus.  Blend the remaining cream, milk and eggs until frothy and pour over the top.  Add the remaining 1/4 cup of Swiss cheese to the top.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and bake the quiche for about 1 1/2 hours or until the top is nicely browned and the custard is barely set in the center.  Let cool in the pan until very warm.  Remove springform ring, slice and serve.

Printable recipe

This past week there has been no time to cook.  Instead I have been spending time with my Grandchildren and trying to give their parents some much needed time to catch up on work and relaxation.  A new baby in the house is time consuming, but worth every minute of it.

I’ve mentioned before that my DIL Kristen is a marvelous cook.  She contributes to this blog on occasion and I always come away from their home with new ideas.  On a busy night while I was visiting them, she made this quick and easy chicken dish.  It can be ready in 15 minutes.  She served it with a pancetta risotto that took a little longer to make, but you could also serve it with quick cooking couscous or rice.  The cream sauce has a hit of mustard and makes the sauteed chicken cutlets an impressive company dish.

CHICKEN WITH MUSTARD CREAM SAUCE

6 to 8 chicken cutlets
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup white wine
2/3 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup whipping cream
4 tablespoons honey Dijon mustard

Melt butter in large saute pan.  Brown chicken cutlets on both sides until cooked through.  Remove chicken to plate.  Add wine to pan to deglaze.  Stir to release brown bits from pan.  Cook long enough to reduce the wine slightly.  Add the chicken broth, cream and mustard.  Boil until sauce thickens, about 2 minutes.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Serve sauce over chicken.  Garnish with parsley or fresh or dried tarragon.  Serves 4.

I am back at the cottage this week and will experiment with my mile high quiche.  I am off to visit my egg lady.

Printable recipe

Monday was a beautiful Spring day with temperatures in the low 80’s; a perfect day to spend with a friend shopping and having a leisurely lunch at a new restaurant.  The friend is also my blogging buddy, the other Penny of The Comforts of Home.  We had not seen each other since I went to Florida last Winter so we had a lot of catching up to do.  The perfect place to do that was a new restaurant in Asheville called Books & Breadboard; a novel idea. 

The ambience is warm and friendly with tables scattered amongst the bookshelves.  The menu is thoughtfully organic and the owners and chef support local farmers.  But what attracted me was the mile high quiche.  I had stopped in the week before to peruse the books and heard comments about the quiche; words like custardy and light.  Besides who wouldn’t want something called “mile high” anything.  It is a thing of beauty.

All of the food is served on breadboards.  The quiche I ordered was the bacon, asparagus and Swiss cheese version.  It was indeed light with just the right custard crumble to it.  I did ask if the chef would part with the recipe, but as I expected, that was not going to happen.  I blogged about a similar quiche here.  It is made in a 9″ springform pan and uses more eggs and cream than quiches made in a pie tin or tart pan.  Checking the internet, I found another recipe from Thomas Keller here.  It was on a blog called AMZing Eats.  That is the recipe I am going to try, substituting the mushrooms with bacon, asparagus and Swiss.  I will let you know the results.

Penny ordered the soup of the day which was a white bean, tomato and basil with a half sandwich of turkey with cranberry mayonnaise.  You can’t go wrong with anything on the menu.  It was a wonderful lunch and the shopping wasn’t bad either.  Blogging friends are special.