There's fish in there.

This dish was hard for me to make. I had the idea in my head and I was determined to give it a shot, but there was a very serious problem.

The problem was that smoked salmon is one of my favorite foods of all time. I don’t like to mess with it. I like it very simply on crackers or a bagel. Why would you do anything else with it?

Besides that, it’s not the most economical thing in the stores. Four ounces of it can easily set you back $8-$9.

Don’t screw it up, I kept telling myself.

It was really hard for me to just call the whole quiche off and eat the salmon straight. But I pulled through. I made the quiche and it was good. The key to it is to make sure you don’t try to challenge the salmon flavor. Just let it do its thing and add a few other simple ingredients to accent the flavors.

Smoked Salmon Quiche

Yield: A 9 inch quiche

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Ingredients:

Pie Crust:
1 Cup + 2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
8 Tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
1/2 Teaspoon salt
3-4 Tablespoons ice water

Quiche Filling:
6 eggs
1 Cup Milk
1/2 Cup heavy cream
4 ounces smoked salmon
4 ounces goat cheese
2-3 Tablespoons chives (or dill)
Pinch of salt and pepper

Helpful Equipment:
Food Processor, for pie crust

Directions:

1) To make crust, mix together flour and salt in a bowl or food processor. Then cut in cold butter until it resembles pea-sized pieces. Add a few tablespoons of cold water and stir together or pulse a few times.

2) Turn out dough and press it together to form a tight ball. Wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes at least.

3) Roll dough carefully (use lots of flour) into a 12 inch diameter. Transfer the dough to the 9 inch pie dish.

4) Add parchment paper to the bottom of the pie and fill with a few cups of dried beans.

5) Pre-bake the crust at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Let cool.

6) Mix the eggs with the cream and milk. Whisk together well. Add a pinch of salt and pepper.

7) Layer salmon, goat cheese, and chives in the bottom of the pie crust. Add half of the egg mixture.

8) Add the last of the filling ingredients followed by the last of the egg mixture.

9) Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes until set in the center.

10) Let cool for a few minutes prior to serving.

Making the Crust

This is my standard pie crust recipe, but if I’m making it for a real pie I add in a pinch of sugar also. You can definitely buy pie crust pre-made, but I enjoy the process of making it and think that the homemade versions are generally better even if they aren’t always as pretty.

To get started, mix your flour and a pinch of salt in a bowl or food processor. Then cube up your cold butter and cut it into the flour. You can either pulse it a few times in a food processor or just mix it in with your fingers.

You can also use your fingers.

Once the butter is mixed in, add a few tablespoons of ice cold water and mix a bit more. You’ll end up with crumbs basically.

This scares some people I think because it doesn’t appear to be a dough at this point, so they add more water and that’s a bad idea.

You should end up with crumbs, like this.

Dough?

If you press these together a bit, you’ll notice that the crumbs stick very nicely to each other. After all, there’s a lot of butter in those there crumbs!

Eventually you should be able to mold the crumbs into a tight ball of dough.

Dough!

Wrap this guy in plastic wrap very tightly and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes, preferably an hour though to make sure it’s really nice and cold.

Then, roll out the dough slowly. Use flour to keep the dough from sticking to the counter. It’ll probably crack some but just work slowly and try to keep it rolled in a circle. For a nine inch quiche, you’ll probably want 12 inches of pie crust.

Then just carefully plop it into your dish.

Tricky business.

As you can see, there’s some cracks in mine and it isn’t even all around. I cut off the parts that overhang and use it to patch up the missing parts. It almost always works out well.

I tried to form a kind of pretty edge around the crust, but mine definitely has a “homemade” feel to it.

The good news is, the hard part is over!

Some patchwork was necessary...

Pre-baking the Crust

I’m not sure if this step is entirely necessary, but I always pre-bake my crust a bit for quiches. To do this, just line the pie with some parchment paper and add a few cups of dried beans. I use the same beans every time which I just store apart from my cooking beans.

It's a bean pie!

Bake this guy for 10-12 minutes at 350 and it should be slightly firm, but probably not browned at all which is perfect.

Let it cool a bit while you make the filling!

The Quiche Filling

I kept my filling pretty straightforward. Some of the ingredients (salmon, goat cheese) are a bit pricey though.

Finally the good stuff!

To fill the quiche, I like to add about half of my filling into the bottom of the pie crust. Just kind of evenly distribute the ingredients.

How pretty is that salmon?!

A salmon layer.

Then mix your eggs, cream, and milk together well and add a pinch of salt and pepper. Pour half of that on top of the filling. Then add the rest of your filling ingredients (more salmon, goat cheese, etc). Then finish it off with the final bit of egg mixture.

Doing this in phases will create layers of sorts in the quiche so the goodies are evenly distributed throughout the quiche.

This guy is ready for the oven!

Ready to bake!

Bake the quiche as 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes. It should be slightly firm in the center. If you’re unsure if it’s cooked all the way through, use a tester to check the center for any uncooked egg.

If you can help it, let this cool for a few minutes before slicing it up.

All finished!

I was very happy with the flavors in this quiche. The eggs were nice and fluffy and the smoked salmon flavor was intense, which I was hoping for. The goat cheese just adds another level of richness.

Was it hard for me to rip up 4 ounces of delicious smoked salmon and pour eggs all over it? YES.

But I’m glad I did.

As tends to happen, we ended up having way more food than we could eat because it turned into kind of a potluck thing. There were about 10 people total which is probably the max our apartment can comfortably handle.

In my humble opinion, one of the best brunch foods you can make to feed a crowd is a good quiche. I made two varieties for the affair. This was one of them!

One good quiche!

I have to give a quick shout-out that a few of these photos were taken by one of our friends, Yasmin, who’s also photographing our wedding. She happened to bring her camera over so I put her to work.

Caramelized Onion Quiche

Yield: 1 9-inch quiche.

Prep Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Ingredients:

Quiche Crust (From Bittman's How to Cook Everything)
Makes 2 shells

2 1/4 Cups all-purpose flour, plus a bit for rolling
1 Teaspoon salt
1 Cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold and chopped up
6 Tablespoons of water (approximately)

Filling:
Makes 1 quiche (double for two)
3 large onions, sliced thinly
4 Tablespoons butter or oil
5 eggs, room temperature
3/4 Cup heavy cream, slightly warm
3/4 Cup milk, slightly warm
Salt and pepper
1 Teaspoon fresh thyme or 1/2 Teaspoon dried (kinda optional)

Directions:

1) Add flour and salt for crust to a bowl and then cut in the butter using fingers or a fork until it's in small pea-sized pieces.

2) Add enough cold water to the dough to bring it together in a bowl. That's probably 6-8 tablespoons of ice cold water.

3) Split the dough into two balls and wrap them in plastic wrap. Refrigerate them for 30 minutes at least.

4) Once the dough is chilled, lightly flour a clean surface and roll out each dough ball to two inches in diameter larger than your pan. If it tears a bit, that's okay. Just work slowly and patch up the crust as you go.

5) Carefully transfer the dough to your pie pan. Press the dough carefully down into the corners of the pan and, if you want, do something decorative with the edges.

6) Add a circle of parchment paper to the bottom of you pie and fill it with uncooked dry beans (or pie weights). Poke holes around the edges to help steam escape.

7) Prebake this at 425 for 10-12 minutes until it's lightly browned.

8) For filling, heat butter in large pan over medium heat and add all your onions. Cook until they start to brown slightly, about 20 minutes.

9) In a separate bowl, whisk together all your other ingredient. Let your onions cool and then stir them in to the mix.

10) Pour this into your pre-baked crust, grate some cheese on top and bake it for 40 minutes at 325 until it's golden brown and the center is firm.

Making the crust

Can you buy a pre-made crust? Of course. But seriously people, I think it’s worth learning it. Once you get it right, you can bang out a crust with just a bit of effort. It gives you the flexibility to make a pie or a quiche on the fly without having to go to the store and is also a lot cheaper.

As you might know, the key to a good crust is to keep everything cold. This keeps your butter in small chunks so it doesn’t get immediately absorbed by the flour. Then as it cooks it melts and creates a delicious and flaky crust.

So step one is having cold butter. Chop it up into pieces to make your life easier.

Just a bit of butter.

The best way to mix in the cold butter with the flour is to use a food processor. Just add your flour and salt and then throw in your cold butter and pulse it a few times. Your butter should be in chunks, like this:

Fingers aren't the best job, but they will work in a pinch. (HA.)

If you don’t have a processor you can definitely use your fingers, but the butter will just warm up a bit which could theoretically make your final crust not as flaky. I’ve done it with my fingers before though and it works just fine.

Next add enough cold water (like ice cold) to this so that it just comes together in a ball. The dough should barely hold together. Then split up your dough into two balls and wrap them in plastic wrap. Refrigerate these for 30 minutes at least or stick them in the freezer for 10 minutes if you are in a hurry.

This needs to chill out.

Once your dough is very cold, dust a clean surface with some flour and then roll your crust out to two inches in diameter larger than your pan. It might tear a bit around the edges, but just work slow and it should be okay. You can repair any holes once you get it in the pan.

This isn't so hard!

I think it’s easiest to carefully fold the dough in half twice (forming a quarter of a circle) and then set that in your pan and unfold it. Once it’s in the pan the hard part is over! Then carefully press the dough into the corners of the pan and, only if you want, do something decorative around the edges. At a minimum, you can use the tines of a fork to make some designs all the way around the edge.

Pre-baking the crust

For quiches, it’s important to pre-bake your crust or else it might not cook all the way. The problem is that if you bake it like this, it will puff up a lot and just be a disaster. The solution is to either use pie weights to weigh down the center or just cut out a circle of parchment paper and lay it down in the center of your crust and pour a layer of dried beans in the pie! The beans will give just enough weight to prevent the dough from puffing too much.

Also, take a fork and poke holes over the crust and around the edges to help steam escape.

Does not taste like beans.

Don’t worry, you can’t taste the beans in the final product. Just make sure to get them all off before you add your quiche filling!

Bake this at 425 degrees for 10-12 minutes until it’s lightly browned.

For the record, if you don’t have a pie pan, it’s pretty hard to do this using a cake tin. I tried it and it failed miserably. The edges just curled all over the place. I tried a second time and wrapped foil around the edges to keep everything in place. It worked a lot better but was a pain in the butt.

If you need to make two at a time, it’d be worth buying two pie pans. This was a fail:

Oh dear.

Once your crusts are pre-baked, the rest of the quiches are pretty easy to throw together. You could pre-bake these hours ahead if you wanted. I’m not sure I would pre-bake them the day before, but a few hours wouldn’t hurt.

As an aside, I also found some of the largest bacon slices I’ve ever seen for this brunch. The package was 24 ounces of bacon and there was only 10 slices of bacon in it. I ended up cutting them all in half, but check these suckers out!

bacon steaks.

Anyway, back to quiche, let’s make some fillings.

Heat the butter or oil in a large pan and then add all your onions. Cook them until they wilt down and start to brown, about 20 minutes. In a separate bowl, whisk together all your other ingredients in a bowl. Let your onions cool slightly and then add them to the egg mixture. Pour this all in your pre-baked shell.

Fill'er up!

If you wanted to kick this up a notch, you could grate some cheese on top before baking it.

Bake this at 325 for about 40 minutes or until it is golden brown and the center is firm. Let it cool before slicing into it!

Nice and flaky

The Mushroom Variety

I made a mushroom variety also that was the exact same as the onion except I used about 1 pound of crimini mushrooms and sliced and sauteed them in butter for about 10 minutes until they were soft. I also grated a little smoked Gouda on that one and it worked nicely.

There was a ton of other food for this brunch including a baked oatmeal dish that I’ll be stealing and someone even made bagels!

I also contributed a loaf of the babka I made a few weeks ago.

swirly goodness.

Tipsy the cat was hard to find during this event. She’s in her angst-y teenager phase and doesn’t like to interact with her parents’ friends.

Yasmin found her hiding in her tunnel at one point…

Found you!

All in all, this was a great brunch. Quiche is a fantastic warming winter dish that I’d recommend everyone try to learn. It’s very versatile as you can use all kinds of stuff in the filling.

Just remember the keys:

1) Keep your butter cold for a flaky crust.
2) Pre-bake your crust.
3) Watch out for cats in tunnels.