Posted on

Lasagna Frittata

Lasagna Frittata
Lasagna Frittata

Almost every hockey player knows that one of the best recovery foods is comprised of either beef or chicken, tomatoes and pasta.  If you’ve ever been around a game that goes to multiple overtime periods, you’ll find trays of meaty lasagna or other meaty pastas being devoured by the players in the overtime intermissions.  So why not make a quiche.  Here is and update to the original Lasagna Quiche from the Real Men DO Eat Quiche cookbook.  This actually makes mini-lasagna in each pie pan, instead of what we came up with before.

Serves: 16 – 22 (2 Quiches)

Ingredients

  • 1 lb Hamburger
  • 1 lb Italian Sausage
  • 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
  • 1 large Onion, finely chopped
  • 1 Shallot, finely chopped
  • 4 cloves Garlic, finely chopped
  • 2 Tbsp Pepper
  • 1 Tbsp Salt
  • 1 tsp Cinnamon
  • 2 cups Porcini Mushrooms (chopped)
  • 1 cup Spaghetti or Bolognese Sauce (pick your favorite)
  • 12 pieces of Lasagne Pasta
  • Base Quiche Mix
  • 6 tsp Butter
  • 2 Pie Pans
  • 1 cup Mozzarella Cheese, shredded
  • 1 cup Parmesan Cheese, shredded

Preparation

In a large skillet or pot over medium-high heat add the Olive Oil.  When the oil is hot, add in the Onions, Shallots and Garlic and stir.  After about 2 minutes add in the Pepper, Salt and Cinnamon and continue to stir until the onions are soft and translucent, about 2 minutes more.  Add in the Beef and Sausage and raise the heat to high.  Continue cooking this until the meat is just starting to brown, about 5 – 10 minutes.  Add in the mushrooms and continue cooking for another 5 – 10 minutes, stirring frequently.  You’ll know your done, when the meat is starting to get a crisp browning and the mushrooms have soaked up most of the grease.  Remove and stain to reduce the grease.  If you want you can use the grease later in the Spaghetti Sauce and Base Quiche Mix to add flavor, I don’t because this makes a greasy quiche.  Put the strained mixture in a container and refrigerate until final assembly.

Although I’m told that some Lasagne Pasta doesn’t need to be cooked first, I cook it by the instructions anyway.  Instead of cooking these in a large pot with a lot of water, I’ve taken to using a skillet or large pot with just enough water to cover the pasta.  To the water I add a dash of Olive Oil and Salt.  Then when the water is boiling, add in the pasta and cook for about 6 – 8 minutes.  This is a little faster and uses a whole lot less water.  Strain the water out and put the pasta back in the hot pot and add in 4 teaspoons of butter and make sure this is all melted and fully coating the pasta.  If you need to add a little heat to get this done.  Transfer the pasta to a container and refrigerate until final assembly.  If you want to you can line your pie pans with 1 teaspoon of butter each and refrigerate.

Final Assembly and Cooking

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Prepare the Base Quiche Mix in a large mixing bowl as you normally would.  Add in the Spaghetti or Bolognese Sauce and continue to whisk for an additional 3 minutes.

Place one layer of pasta in the bottom of each pie pan.  Then spoon in a layer of the meat mixture.  Slowly add the eggs/sauce mixture to form a layer.  Top this is a thin layer of the shredded cheeses.  And repeat this step until almost to the top edge of the pie pans.  Three layers is usually enough.  Top the last layer with all of the remaining cheese.

Place in the oven and cook for 30 – 40 minutes.  Keep an eye on the cheese so that you don’t burn it, but a little browning makes for a good flavor.  Remove from the oven and either serve or pack it up for the rink.

Posted on

Guinness Corned Beef

Member Content
Guinness Corned Beef Stew
Guinness Corned Beef Stew

Irish Corned Beef Stew is always a good meal.  If made right its always got a lot of flavor and can be considered a whole meal.  Here we’ve taken the basic concept and add another flavor, Guinness Beer.  This one you’ll need to allow an extra 8 hours to cook the filling in a crock pot or slow cooker.  The version pictured above was made with a regular pie crust, but we made on of these with an Irish Soda Bread Crust which was even better.

Serves 16 – 22 (2 Quiches)

Ingredients

  • 1 lb. Corned Beef, sliced and roughly chopped
  • 1/2 Cabbage, chopped
  • 4 large Carrots, chopped
  • 4 Celery Stalks, chopped
  • 2 pints Guinness Beer
  • 2 tsp Garlic, minched
  • 2 Tbsp Pepper
  • 1 Tbsp Salt
  • 1 Tbsp Thyme
  • 2 cups Beef Stock
  • 2 Tbsp Dijon or Beer Mustard
  • up to 1/2 cup Flour, for thickening
  • 1 cup Dubliner Irish Cheddar (one 200 g package) shredded
  • 2 Pie Crusts of your choice
  • Base Quiche Mix, less 1 egg and 1/4 pint Half and Half

Preparation

You’ve got a lot of chopping to do, so get busy chopping the all the vegetables into small chunks no larger than 3/4 inch.  Place all of these in the bottom of a crock pot or other slow cooker.  Layer the chopped Corned Beef on top of that.  In a mixing bowl, combine the Garlic, Salt, Pepper, Thyme, Mustard and half of the Beef Stock.  Mix well so that all the powders are fully mixed.  Add in the first pint of Guinness.  Then pour this mixture into the crock pot over the meat and vegetables.  This should be enough to cover fully cover the ingredients, if not add a little more Beef Stock to cover.  Cover the cooker and set it on high heat for 8 hours.  Check on it at about 4 – 6 hours to make sure that the solids are still covered with liquid.  If not add enough equal parts Beef Stock and Guinness to cover.  At 8 hours of cooking this should be ready, but if you want you can cook longer.

Pour the contents of cooker through a strainer, reserving the liquids into a large pot.  Put the solids into a container and refrigerate until ready for final assembly.  Put the large pot with the liquids over medium high heat to bring to a slow boil.  Add in 2 tablespoons of flour at a time, thoroughly mixing to thicken up the liquid.  Repeat until you’ve created medium thick gravy.  Reduce heat to a slow boil and continue to cook for about 30 minutes stirring occasionally.  Allow to cool and put in another container and refrigerate until final assembly.

Final Assembly and Cooking

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Place the solids from the previous step equally into each of the prepared pie crusts.  Gently mix in a about 1/4 cup of the cheese into the solids.  In a large mixing bowl, prepare the Base Quiche Mix (less 1 egg and 1/4 pint of Half and Half) and mix in 1 – 1/2 cups of the gravy mixture from above.  Whisk for at least 3 minutes to fluff up the eggs.  Pour mixture gently over ingredients in the pie crusts, filling to near the top of the pie pan.  Spread the remaining cheese over the top of the quiche filling.  If you don’t mind a little browned cheese, as in the photo above, simply cook in the oven for 30 -40 minutes, until the cheese is browning in the center.  For a more even browning of this cheese, wrap the pie pans with 3 – 4 inches of aluminum foil around the edges, gently folding down the foil but not pressing into the quiche.

Posted on

New England Clam Chowder Quiche

New England Clam Chowder Quiche
New England Clam Chowder Quiche

We’re going to skate well before the Super Bowl kick off, but we already know who is going to win, so we’re going to make this quiche in their honor.  And to keep some of our Boston bred team-mates happy.  They’ve been complaining about all the spicy dishes.

Basically this takes the standard New England Clam Chowder and folds it into a quiche.  It tastes like Clam Chowder, and that’s what counts.  This is just a little cheesier than normal so if you don’t like all the extra cheese, you should trim the recipe to your liking.

Serves 16 – 22 (2 Quiches)

Ingredients

  • 1 large Onion, finely diced
  • 3 Celery Stalks, chopped
  • 4 Tbsp Unsalted Butter
  • 4 Tbsp All-Purpose Flour
  • 2 cups chicken or vegetable Stock
  • 2 (10 oz) cans of Chopped Clams in Juice
  • 1 cup Heavy Cream
  • 3 or 4 Potatoes, cubed to 1/2 inch
  • Salt and Ground Black Pepper to taste
  • 2 cups Medium Cheddar Cheese
  • 1 bunch Chives, chopped
  • 2 Pie Crusts
  • Base Quiche Mix – adjusted to 1/4 pt of Half and Half

Preparation

Using a large pot over medium-high heat, melt the Butter.  Add in the Onions and Celery and saute until the Onions are translucent and the Celery has softened, stirring often.  Add in the flour and stir well until there are no clumps of flour.  Pour in the Stock, and just the Juice from both cans of Chopped Clams, Heavy Cream and Potatoes and stir.  Bring to a slow boil, stirring often, until the mixture thickens. Then reduce the heat to medium-low and continue to cook 20 minutes, stirring often.  This will be done when the potatoes are nice and tender.  Add Salt and Pepper to taste.  Then remove from heat and strain the mixture to separate the solids and liquids.  Reserve both in separate containers until ready for final assembly.  Add the Clams to the cooled solids container and mix thoroughly.

Final Assembly and Cooking

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Fill the prepared pie crusts equally from the solids container to make the filling.  In a large mixing bowl, fold in the adjusted Base Quiche Mix into the liquids you separated before and thoroughly whisk.  Pour that gently over the filling in each pie crust.  Sprinkle the Cheese equally over each crust and top with a sprinkling of the chopped Chives.  Into the oven for 30 – 40 minutes or until the Cheese starts to brown.  Remove when ready and either serve or pack them up to take to the rink.

Posted on

NM Green Chile Ham Cups

Member Content
New Mexico Green Chile Ham Cup
New Mexico Green Chile Ham Cup

While trying to come up with a good inspiration for a cupcake to make, I came across a few recipes that used sliced meat instead of paper for the cup.  So this was born.  Taking the well known quality of NM style Green Chile and putting it in an edible cup, stopped with some bacon and eggs.  I made 24 of these things and they disappeared so fast, I almost didn’t get a picture of them.

I’m working on more varieties of this so keep your eyes open.  They’ll be coming soon.

Serves 24

Ingredients

  • 24 slices Thin Sliced Breakfast Ham
  • 12 slices good quality Bacon
  • 24 Eggs
  • 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
  • 1 Medium White Onion finely chopped
  • 2 cups Chicken or Pork Stock
  • 8 NM Big Jim or Anaheim Chile Peppers, roasted and cleaned
  • 4 Garlic Cloves, roasted and minced
  • 1/2 tsp Oregano
  • 1/2 tsp Cumin
  • 1 tsp Ground Pepper
  • 1/2 tsp Salt
  • 4 Tbsp Flour (or Whole Wheat Flour)

Preparation

First off your going to need 2 cupcake trays that have 12 tins for cupcakes.  You don’t need it right now, but make sure you’ve got them.

First we have to make our NM Green Chile.  Follow this recipe or in a pinch, you can substitute a jar of either El Pinto Roasted Green Chile Sauce or Colorado Green Chile Sauce in place of the peppers, garlic and spices.  Just follow the recipe as noted below.

On either a grill or in your oven at 400 degrees, roast your Chile and Garlic until the skin is blackened.  This should take about 20 minutes, turning them over once while cooking.  Remove and allow to cool until you can easily handle them.  Remove the skin from the Chile and chop into small pieces, less then 1/2 inch.  Fine chop or mince the Garlic.  Transfer to a medium sauce pan and heat to medium-high heat.  Add in the Oregano, Cumin, Pepper and Salt and stir until for about 3 minutes, then reduce heat to medium.

If your taking the short cut, simply put the jar of sauce into the medium sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Stirring occasionally, when boiling reduce to medium heat.

If you’ve taken the short cut, from here on the  where you start.

In a large sauce pan, over medium-high heat, add the oil and when hot enough, add the chopped Onions and saute until tender and starting to turn translucent (about 3 minutes).  Add in the sauce you have in the medium sauce pan and continue to stir until everything comes to a boil again.  Slowly add in the flour to thicken up the mixture.  Then add in the Stock and simmer on medium heat until it thickens up.  Add more flour if you need too.  This should be the consistency of a good thick gravy.

This should make about 3 cups of Green Chile Sauce.  I highly recommend letting this cool and refrigerating, covered for at least 12 hours until final assembly.  It brings the heat up a little while bringing out the flavors as well.

Prepare the Bacon by either baking in the oven at 375 degrees for 15 minutes per side or in a skillet until done.  The remove and drain on some paper towel.  After it’s drained, chopping each slice into 4 pieces.  Store until final assembly.

Final Assembly and Cooking

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Spray the cupcake tray with a light coating of Olive Oil.  In center of each cupcake hole, place one slice of Ham and push down on the center.  The Ham should go into the hole and form a cup.  Pinch one side of the slice to get the cup started.  Then scoop about a 1 inch ball of the Green Chile Sauce and place in each of the Ham cups, pressing to make sure it goes to the bottom and fills the cup.  Then put a couple of pieces of Bacon in each cup, on end so one end of the Bacon sticks up a bit.  Crack open and place one whole egg into the top of each Ham cup.  This should just fill the cups to the top.  Put into the oven and bake for 20 – 40 minutes, checking to see that you don’t burn the egg.  The time you take them out determines how done the eggs are.  30 minutes will usually yield an over medium yoke.  Remove from the oven when the yolks are done to your liking and serve.  I took these to the rink in the trays, double wrapped in foil to keep them warm.

Posted on

Jalapeno Black Eyed Pea Quiche

Member Content
At New Year’s celebrations in the South, eating Black Eyed Peas is supposed to bring luck in the New Year.  We’ve localized this to the Southwest by adding Jalapeño Peppers to the mix.  If you like though you can use some other kinds of spicy peppers.  But the Jalapeños are our favorites for this.

And we’ve got to pay better attention to how much we drink the night before.  This is the second quiche in a row that we completely forgot to take a picture until it was too late.

Serves: 16 -22 (2 quiches)

Ingredients

  • 2 – 15.5 oz cans of Trappey’s Jalapeño Black Eyed Peas
  • 1/2 cup Panko or bread crumbs
  • 8 – slices Bacon, chopped
  • 1 cup Cheddar Cheese, shredded
  • 1 cup Swiss Cheese, shredded
  •  2 Pie Crusts
  • Base Quiche Mix

Preparation

In a skillet, cook the chopped Bacon until done, remove from heat and allow to drain on paper towels.

In a large pot over medium heat, pour the Black Eyed Peas, extra Chopped Bacon and the Panko and cook, stirring frequently to reduce the liquid volume by 2/3.  This should take about 15 minutes.  Remove and place in a container and refrigerate until ready for final assembly.

Prepare the rest of the ingredients and store until final assembly.

Final Assembly and Cooking

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Get the prepared pie crusts and loosely fill each of them with the Black Eyed Pea mixture prepared above.  Prepare the base quiche mix and pour over the other mixture.  Stir a little to make sure the quiche mix gets well mixed into the Pea mixture.  Top each pie with the cheese mixture and place in the oven.  Cook for 30 – 40 minutes, removing when the cheese starts to turn golden brown.  Serve or pack them up to take to the rink.