Quiche and tell

After a lovely greenmarket morning on Saturday (marred only slightly by the bushels of flowers flinging eye-burning pollen around everywhere), I had brunch with friends at our new favorite brunch spot, the never-crowded-enough Old Devil Moon, and spent the rest of the afternoon making quiche with Kara, in honor of Mother's Day.

Pretty much the same as last week, with a "berry" important addition:
3 lbs. asparagus
1 bunch ramps
2 1/2 lbs. zucchini
1 bag spinach
1 box sprouts (sunflower and red clover)
1 box raspberries!!!!!
4 apples (Winesap and Mutsu)
Total spent: $41.10

We ate the raspberries during quiche prep. They were greenhouse-raised and $6.50 a (tiny) box, but so delicious. I made my quiche with a pre-made whole-wheat crust (sorry, Mom, I was so lazy), Knoll Crest Farm eggs, Lynnhaven goat cheese, soymilk, a little heavy cream, ramps, and blanched asparagus. When I served it this morning for brunch, I sprinkled a bit of shredded Parmesan on each slice and heated them separately under the broiler; this plus a bit of freshly-ground black pepper turned out to be just the thing.

I think quiche may be my new favorite meal. It's great to make in advance, can be done relatively healthfully, and is so versatile! I'm already planning my next one: Lynnhaven's goat feta, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh basil, and spinach or zucchini. And yes, I'll make the crust homemade next time.

We used this Epicurious recipe, as well as the recipe from Baking Illustrated as our guides, then improvised. Here's the recipe I came up with - next time I'd use about 1/4 more cheese though, and prebake the pie crust. Also, I plan to omit the cream, adding extra cheese and another egg yolk to keep the texture.

Springtime Vegetable Quiche
1 pie crust
3 large or 6 small ramps, white part sliced thinly and leaves cut into 3/4" wide pieces
1 tsp. olive oil
6 eggs
1 1/3 cups soymilk
1/3 cup heavy cream
3 oz. goat cheese
1 1/2 cups asparagus, cut into 1" pieces, blanched
1/2 tsp. salt
freshly ground black pepper

Saute white part of ramps in olive oil until soft; add leaves and cook until wilted. Set aside to cool. Whisk together eggs, soymilk, cream, salt, and goat cheese; add several grinds of pepper. Arrange asparagus pieces evenly in crust. Add cooled ramps to egg mixture and stir; pour egg mixture into crust. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until light golden brown; center should be just set and a knife inserted into the center should come out clean.
Note: If you have extra egg mixture after filling your crust, you can pour it into greased ramekins and bake them for cute crustless mini-quiches. This is also a good way to taste-test your quiche mixture before baking the whole thing. Not that I am forward-thinking enough to have done that, but you could do.

As for the rest of it, I'm planning to make another springtime vegetable risotto with the remaining ramps, as well as zucchini and asparagus; though the asparagus (from Terhune Orchards) is so good on its own, simply blanched, that it might end up gone before I get around to risotto. We've been eating the zucchini raw in lunches, with hummus for the photo assistant, and of course cooked in every possible dish. I think I'll make pasta with spicy zucchini sauce this week too.

Two new good things

New good things have been few and far between lately - hence my lack of posts. However, there are two I thought I should briefly mention.

1. My new bag. I am not the handbag type, nor the Dooney & Bourke type, but my mom won me over to both camps by sending me what has to be the biggest purse-type bag in the world. It is simply huge, and can carry lots of produce. Today at the greenmarket, I bought a five-lb. bag of apples (which are now bubbling away with lots of cinnamon on my stovetop for applesauce, of course), and declined an additional carry bag, dropping the (large, unwieldy) bag of apples into my enormo-bag, where it disappeared into the depths, much to the delight of the vendor. "Wow," she said, "It's like Mary Poppins!" Indeed.

2. I am going to culinary school! I have been officially accepted into the Natural Gourmet Institute Chef's Training Program. I start April 29. I am so excited!

Smoothie Stories

My mom and I were discussing smoothies recently (that's nothing new), and after we compared recipes, I realized how elaborate my smoothies have become since the Vita-Mix. Since they're so easy to make and I have everything easily at hand, I was surprised to find that the pictured pre-smoothie contained fourteen different ingredients, when, a year ago, my smoothies had four: strawberries, banana, apple juice, yogurt. This is a "wintertime" smoothie because I use winter vegetables and add spices for heat, and all the fruit is frozen. It may sound like a weird and gross combination, but...man, these smoothies are good, and they make me feel great!

Wintertime smoothie:
ginger
cinnamon
soy yogurt
small lemon slice
flax seed meal
bananas
curly kale
parsley
red clover sprouts
carrot
frozen mango
frozen strawberries
frozen blueberries
apple cider

A skeptic relents: tomatoes in winter??!!

Another slim-pickins day at USG, which slimness was compounded by my late arrival (my usual vendor was even out of kale by the time I got there at 11).

I don't believe they were out of kale:
3 lbs. Nicola potatoes
2 yellow onions
1 1/2 lbs. carrots
1/3 lb. baby spinach
1/3 lb. baby red Russian kale
2 tomatoes
Total spent: $30

It was with a mixture of shame, hope, and confusion that I finally bought some tomatoes from the Shushan Valley Hydro Farm stand (this photo is from their website). Since they appeared a month or so ago, I've peered into their little plastic tent, even picked up then put down a bunch of basil once or twice, but haven't taken the plunge. Tomatoes in winter seem impossible, or at least ill-advised; I feel a bit like the sucker of a snake-oil dealer: "The taste of summer, yours year-round! Step right up, folks!" But today I needed inspiration (and I have had tomatoes on my mind since making the exquisite tomato soup from Veganomicon), so I went for it. I'm going to use at least one of them tonight in a quick sauce for Knoll Crest Farms spinach pasta, along with some black olives, spinach sautéed with olive oil and garlic, and Lynnhaven Farms goat cheese. So even if the tomatoes' soil-less cultivation has rendered them insipid, there will be enough flavor in the dish.

Other updates:
Pear pie = meh - I liked the pecan streusel topping, but the pear pie didn't quite work. Perhaps I needed more seasoning, or more lemon juice, or something: it was a bit overly sweet and one-dimensional, as my mother warned me it might be. Though it doesn't help that the pie crust was the toughest and worst yet! I am somehow regressing in pie-crust skill, and I don't know why. This week I will either go apple again or find a recipe for vegan banana cream pie.
I'm out of cinnamon so I had to order from Penzeys again. My order, which I am only listing because it's an eclectic bunch of mostly B-list spices I'm unsure about: allspice, cinnamon (Ceylon this time), vanilla beans (Madagascar), marjoram, zatar, tarragon, mustard powder (not hot), ancho chile powder, chipotle chile powder. I can't wait!
Veganomicon forays - So far I have made the chickpea cutlets, which are just as fabulous as I'd hoped, and the tomato soup, which is the type of tomato soup you'd get in a restaurant and say "this is why we go to restaurants - for tomato soup like this." But you're at home, so you just think "I am a genius," even though it's not your recipe. I still haven't made the autumn latkes - they'll happen this week.
More applesauce is on the stove, using last week's miscellaneous apples.

Ever-dwindling options

Even if I hadn't been anxious to get home to make my first-ever double-crust cherry pie (yes, I had to use canned and no, it wasn't pretty enough to photograph), I would have come home light-handed today. I couldn't even find any sweet potatoes!

I suppose this could make a nice soup:
2 lbs. German butterball potatoes
1 bag spinach
2 bunches kale
2 yellow onions
1 box mixed red clover and mung bean sprouts
4 pears
Total spent: $22

Also, I forgot carrots. No big plans for this tiny haul (kale and sprouts for smoothies), though the pears are a bit newsworthy. I bought them because my photo assistant likes them, though I don't, and it seems like having fruit variety is good when possible (which it barely is at this point in the season). Well, we cut one up and had it with brunch (homemade veggie biscuits and gravy!), and...I kinda liked it. I'm used to pears being mealy and weird, but this one (from Terhune Orchards, of course) was crisp, juicy, and sweet. So maybe I like pears now. Don't tell my mom.

Winter is awesome

I take back what I said about winter. It's 60 degrees here, and I got a Vita-Mix for Xmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She's like a rainbow

It was a colorful day at the greenmarket! I got yellow zucchini, yellow beans, and red carrots...and it seemed like everything, from tomatoes to radishes, was available in at least three colors. Radishes were regular red, pink, or white; tomatoes red, green, yellow, or multi-striped; carrots came in orange, red, purple, and white.



Anna and the amazing technicolor produce:
1 yellow zucchini
1 bunch red carrots
1 lb. yellow snap beans
1 bunch red radishes
1 lb. apricots
1.5 lbs. sweet cherries
1 pint strawberries
1/4 lb. salad greens
1 bunch shallots
1 head Rocambole garlic
4 ears bicolor corn
3 tomatoes
Total spent: $30 exactly

It's been so long since I've had fresh apricots that I had to call my mom to find out how to tell when they're ripe. (She said it's the same as for peaches.) We also talked about the radishes: I'm planning to find a recipe that includes them cooked, but the idea of cooking radishes is anathema to Mom. "Just cut off the stalk and eat them," she said, "or cut them up in salads." I think I'll try both.

Cherry season will be over in another week, and there were only two vendors that had any sweet cherries at all. I had to hunt and peck to find 1.5 lbs of relatively perfect ones...they're so sweet and delicious - I hate that they'll be gone so soon.

The corn I'm planning to pack for a picnic tomorrow, pre-cooked (it's sweet enough to be great without any condiments), I'll make a fresh tomato sauce this evening with the tomatoes and some of my long-suffering basil plant's leaves, and the zucchini and carrots I want to use in a multi-colored stirfy later in the week. I'll keep you posted.

Quick thoughts

Shelling peas is a lot of work, but seems worth it. We had fresh peas and the remaining baby Yukon Gold potatoes in a Spanish omelet with saffron (recipe from A Year In A Vegetarian Kitchen) - so delicious. And the leftovers were perfect cold for lunch the next day.

I don't think I "get" plums. My mom has always been a serious plum advocate, but I don't think they do it for me. The Shiro plums I bought were ripe, but the flesh was only slightly sweet and a little perfumey, with super-tart skin that forced my face into a comical pucker. To varying degrees, most of my plum memories are the same. Maybe they're just not for me. I'd rather have peaches.

Tricolor snap beans were just as delicious as I imagined, but like so many other veggies, the purple beans turned a disappointing dark green when cooked. I blanched them, then roasted them in a 375-degree oven with a little olive oil and salt for about 7 minutes. They still had some crunch - which is what I wanted, in order to highlight their freshness and sweetness. Despite the color change, they impressed my dinner guests last night. I hope they're available again!

We've been eating lots of spinach lately, and that coupled with my love for fresh green salads (rather than the bagged kind), makes me want to suck it up and invest in a salad spinner. They seem really dumb to me, but I might just need it. We'll see.