Tomato-Spinach-Dill Quiche w/ Potato Crust

FRIDAY, AUGUST 20TH, 2010

4 stars (out of 5)

I found this recipe on the same blog as the salad from the previous entry for the spinach salad (http://fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com/2010/06/tomato-spinach-and-dill-quiche-with.html). The blogger looks like she has some pretty good recipes on there. This one appealed to me because I thought that the shredded potato pie crust was funny, and also because I haven't made a quiche for a long time (oh, and I was craving dill!).

Ingredients:

1 package of shredded hashbrown potatoes*
Garlic powder (optional)
1 tomato, diced
1/2 cup fresh spinach, chopped
2 tbsp red onion
2 tsp dry dill**
1/4 cup feta cheese
7 large eggs
1/4 cup milk
Salt & pepper
Olive oil

{*Note. Available at IGA. In the original recipe, she actually grated the potatoes herself. I don't really have the time, nor the patience to do this, so I "cheated" and just bought the pre-shredded version. If you have a nice evening that you would like do it from scratch, I recommend looking at her blog. But, if you're like me, you would much prefer to sip on a glass of wine and read a book than stand around shredding potatoes.}.

{**Note. I also added about 2-3 tbsp of fresh dill, and really recommend doing this. Even with this much dill, I think it could have used some more!}.

Preheat oven to 375F.

1. First, I patted the shredded potatoes dry, and spread them in a pie dish. I pressed them down fairly hard and then sprinkled with salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste. I then placed it in the oven for about 12-14 minutes. It's not very finicky on this count - you can leave it in for a bit longer without it burning (which I did as I prepared the other ingredients).

2. As the pie crust was cooking, I crumbled the feta, diced the tomato, sliced the spinach, and chopped the red onion.

3. I then beat the eggs, milk, and dill together in a separate bowl.

4. When everything was prepped, I removed the pie crust from the oven, and added the tomato, spinach, red onion, and 1/2 the feta cheese.

5. I then poured the egg mixture over top, and sprinkled on the remaining feta cheese.

6. I popped it in the oven for an additional 30-40 minutes, and let it stand for a few minutes before serving.

Overall, this was pretty simple to make, and very stress free. I originally searched for it because I was craving something fairly healthy which had dill in it. I think that the dill could either be increased, or I could have added more salt, which would have made the dill flavour pop more. One note, I would make the potato crust very very thin, or even mix some flavours right into it before setting it in the pie place. Surprisingly, it did make a very good, sturdy crust (and simple!), which I was pleased to see. I will make this recipe again (leftovers were even good for breaky the next day!), probably just adding more dill and salt. SB really liked it, and it was a nice change from our other meals.

Strawberry Spinach Salad w/ Poppyseed Dressing

FRIDAY, AUGUST 20TH, 2010

In an attempt to get back to our post-vacation "health", I decided to try to make salads a more interesting part of our meal. There are so many good ones out there that are super simple, and very yummy. I came across a blog which had this recipe (http://fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com/2010/06/strawberry-spinach-salad-with-poppy.html). I decided to try it out, with my own modifications.

Ingredients:

Salad:

Baby spinach
Strawberries
Green onion
Goat cheese (optional

Dressing:

1/4 c. white wine vinegar
1/3 c. vegetable oil
2 tsp. granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. dry mustard
1/8 tsp. salt
2 tsp. poppy seed

1. I first prepared the poppyseed dressing by combining the sugar, vinegar, salt, and mustard in a food processor, and processing for 20 seconds.

2. I then added the oil and blended on high for an additional 10 seconds.

3. I removed the dressing into a bowl, and stirred in the poppy seeds, and refrigerated until I needed to use it on the salad.

4. For the salad, I simply combined the spinach, sliced strawberries, green onion, and goat cheese (we had some left over in our fridge).

5. I just spooned the dressing over top as needed, but you could also combine and toss it all together.

Overall, this was a pretty good tasting salad. Hard to screw up! I would have liked if we had more goat cheese to add to it, as I felt it went well with the dressing and strawberries. Will definitely (try to remember to) do this again!

ID's Baked Tomato Risotto

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15TH, 2010

4.5 stars (out of 5 - a yummy, easy to make risotto)

This is a dish that the Irish Dancer (we`ll call him ID) cooked for me when I visited him a few weeks ago, and that I really really liked. I thought I'd try it out myself, and see if SB liked it as much as I did. I like this particular recipe because it's such an easy way to make risotto (without the constant stirring).

Ingredients:

2 tbsp butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 cup arborio rice
19 oz (540 mL) can of stewed tomatoes
2 cups veggie broth
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp granulated sugar
140g goat cheese log
150g pkg baby spinach (approx.)

1. First, I melted the butter in a sauce pan. The recipe says to use an oven-safe sauce pan (medium sized); I wasn't sure if my stainless steel Ikea pot qualified, so I cooked it in this metal pot and transferred it to a (warmed) casserole dish for the baking portion of the recipe. On this note, here is where you would normally preheat your oven to 400F.

2. I added the onion to the melted butter and stirred. You want them softened (about 5 minutes cooking over medium heat).

3. As the onions cooked, I prepared the rice...

4. ... spices (I like to mix them together in a shot glass)...

5. ... and broth.

6. Once the onions were softened, I added the rice to the sauce pan and stirred until the rice was coated.

7. I then added the stewed tomatoes (including the liquid), and cooked (stirring frequently) over medium heat for about 5 minutes. You want to cook until most of the liquid is absorbed (second picture).

8. I added the broth and the spices to the pot, and turned the element on high, cooking until the mixture came to a boil.

9. Once the mixture came to a boil, it was time to stick it in the oven. If you have an oven-proof pot, you just stick the lid on and in it goes. Because I wasn't sure about the "oven-proofness" of my pot, I transferred the mixture to a casserole dish, covered it, and stuck it in the oven.

10. I cooked the mixture for 30-40 minutes (until liquid is absorbed), but you need to keep an eye on it. Mine looked like it wasn't absorbing the liquid, but then once I took it out (after 30 minutes) and stirred it well, it was much better and only needed 10 minutes more.

11. Once it was cooked, I added the log of goat cheese and the spinach, stirring well.

12. Served with a salad!

Overall, this has such a great flavour with the goat cheese-tomato combo, and it is fairly easy to make. I never make risotto because, well, I'm too lazy, but this is a really simplified way to do it. As you can see from my pic, it was a bit runny, but I think it would have been good with 5 more minutes (SB was too hungry!).

Spinach-Ricotta Stuffed Pasta Shells

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22ND, 2009

4 stars (out of 5 - amazing sauce, okay filling)

During our week off before Christmas, SB and I decided to try out a few new recipes. This one looked different, and we liked the idea of the tapenade-tomato sauce. In the end it really was quite good, but a bit complex to make (not difficult, just many different things to prepare).

Ingredients:

350g large conchiglie (large pasta shells)
1 pack frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1-2 cloves garlic
4 tbsp olive oil
1 large can crushed tomatoes
50g crustless white bread, crumbled
1/2 cup milk
2 1/4 cups ricotta cheese
Pinch of ground nutmeg
1/3 cup tapenade*
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

{*Note. We make our own tapenade, but you can just use store-bought. If you don't have any on hand, you can skip it, but I really recommend trying it. I will try to post our (super simple) recipe for home-made tapenade soon, and will post the link here when I do.}

1. We first boiled the water for the pasta (as per the instructions on the box). Once it was cooked, we drained it, ran it under cold water (to prevent further cooking), and set it aside.

2. In a small food processor/chopper, we then added the bread...

3. ...milk...

4. ...and 3 tbsp of the olive oil...

5. ...and blended until smooth.

6. We then added the ricotta cheese, and seasoned with the salt, pepper, and nutmeg, again blending the mixture well.

7. Next, we added the chopped spinach. Because our food processor is so small, we had to gradually add the spinach, which made for a funny green colour halfway through (second pic).

8. The final mixture, which we set aside until the tomato sauce was prepared:

9. We then turned our attention to the tomato sauce, mixing together the crushed tomatoes...

10. ...tapenade...

11. ...remaining oil...

12. ...and the minced garlic...

13. ...and stirred the mixture well.


14. We then spread the tomato sauce on the bottom of a medium-sized casserole dish. You should use a large one if it fits in your oven - ours doesn't and we had a bunch of leftovers that needed to be cooked later :(

15. After spreading out the tomato sauce, we then (gently) opened the shells and stuffed them with the spinach mixture (not too much)...

16. ... and placed them in the casserole dish on top of the tomato sauce.

In the end, we tried to squish in as many as we could!

15. We then sprinkled with the Parmesan cheese and cooked at 350F for 15 minutes (until heated through). You may also want to add toasted pine nuts.

Overall, this was quite a good dish, although it was really the tomato-tapenade mixture that made it delicious. I really loved the tomato sauce and will probably do it again for other pasta dishes. The spinach filling was okay, but could use some more salt and flavour... somehow. Any ideas?! We will definitely be trying this one again!

Spinach and Feta Quiche with Home-made Crust

MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2009

3.5 stars (out of 5 - pretty good, but a lot of work when you make your own crust)

All-Butter Crust:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes (see pic)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 to 3 tbsp ice water

1. First, I cut the butter into cubes:

2. I then placed the butter into a food processor, and added the flour, salt, and sugar on top. You can do it by hand, but I am lazy!

3. I pulsed the food-processor approximately 10 times, until the batter resembled little peas:

4. I then added the water, 1 tablespoon at a time. When it started to stick together, I scooped it out of the processor and molded it by hand.

5. I then put it in some saran-wrap and placed it in the freezer for 10-15 minutes (during this time, I started mixing the ingredients of the quiche).

6. When it was chilled, I rolled it out with a rolling pin. I tried coating the rolling pin with flour, but it still stuck pretty badly. I rolled it out until it was just a few millimetres thick. Notice how I didn't really care about the shape of the dough (just somewhat round). This is because when you try to transfer it to the pie plate, it just falls apart anyways.

7. I then transferred the crust to the pie plate. As it falls apart, I did this in pieces and then just molded it together with my fingertips. Looks gross, but it will be covered by the quiche anyways! I then pricked it a bunch of times with a fork to prevent it from rising during baking.

8. After it was prepared, I stuck it in the oven at 350F for about 20-30 minutes. The recipe calls for it to be cooked for 20 minutes with "baking weights", but since I have no idea what those are, and nor do I care, I just do 20 minutes, check it, and then add a few minutes when it is needed. Once out of the oven, cool slightly before adding the quiche mixture.

Feta and Spinach Quiche:

1 package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed (about 300g)
3/4 package of Feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup cottage cheese
Green onions (about 1/2 of a small bunch), chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dry basil (or a seasoning of your choice - I use Herbes de Provence)
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder or garlic salt
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk

1. First, I defrosted the spinach in the microwave. I do this first so that it can cool while I mix the other ingredients. I then combined the feta, cottage cheese, green onions, olive oil, basil, pepper, and garlic powder. The recipe says to blend until smooth but I a) am too lazy, and b) like it chunky (especially the feta). I then squeezed the spinach until it was fairly dry and added it to the bowl. After it was all mixed up, I added the milk and egg.

2. I poured this mixture into the cooled pie crust and placed it in the oven for 35-40 minutes at 325F.

3. I let it cool for 5-10 minutes and...




4. ...voila! Serve with salad.