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Pumpernickel Rye Pizza Style Crust

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When your trying to make a crust for your quiche that really needs a pumpernickel rye bread flavor this pizza style crust is your ticket.  The bonus is that this can also be used for a pizza crust if your not making a quiche.   Why would you need a pumpernickel rye crust?  For quiches that use bratwurst, corned beef, pastrami or really anything that you’d like to have a dark spicy bread wrapper.

Makes 2 crusts

Ingredients

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup rye flour (dark or light)
  • 4 teaspoons cocoa
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
  • 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
  • 2 teaspoons caraway seeds
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons molasses
  • 2/3 cup warm water
  • 2 tablespoons cooking oil

Directions:

FOOD PROCESSOR METHOD:

  • Put first 7 ingredients into food processor fitted with dough blade.
  • Stir molasses into warm water in small bowl.
  • With machine running, pour molasses-water mixture and cooking oil through tube in lid.
  • Process for 50 to 60 seconds. If dough seems sticky to remove, add about 1/2 teaspoons flour to make it easier to handle.

HAND METHOD:

  • Put first 7 ingredients into medium bowl. Stir together well.
  • Add warm water, molasses and cooking oil.
  • Mix well until dough leaves sides of bowl.
  • Knead on lightly floured surface for 5 to 8 minutes until smooth and elastic

Final Preparation:

  • Place dough in large greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover with tea towel.
  • Let stand in oven with light on and door closed for about 1 hour until doubled in size.
  • Punch dough down. Roll out and press in greased 10 inch pan, forming rim around edge.
  • Cook in the oven @ 375 for about 15 minutes or until the top firms up like a solid crust.
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Corned Beef Hash-iche

Corned Beef Hash-iche Frittata
Corned Beef Hash-iche Frittata

My Dad used to make corned beef hash with eggs on toast when we went hunting when I was young.  It was always good.  Occasionally he’d also cook up some bacon to go with it.  I used to mix it all together and slop it off the plate with toast.  I had completely forgotten about this until one day I was at a local restaurant that served hash and eggs.  The memory didn’t come back until a few days later, but that started the research.  And this is the result after a little tuning for the refined palettes of early morning hockey players.  These guys always seem to want some kind of chili in there so this has just enough that you’ll know it’s there.  This goes best as a frittata or with the biscuit crust but if you want to have some bacon with it, you should do the bacon crust.

Serves: 16 – 22

Ingredients

  • 1 lb fine chopped corned beef
  • 1 lb fine chopped potatoes (substitute 1/2 package of hash brows)
  • 1 chopped white onion
  • 1/2 cup chopped baby peppers
  • 1/2 cup chopped green chili
  • 1 loosely chopped garlic
  • 1/2 cup chopped green onion
  • 2 tablespoons nutmeg
  • 2 tablespoons black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1 cup shredded pepper jack cheese

Preparation

In a pot cook the potatoes until tender then remove from heat and allow to cool.  Then shred them up like your making hash browns. or you can use the package and skip this step.  Make sure you’ve got all the rest of the ingredients finely chopped.  Or you can use a shredder.  In a pan on medium high heat with a little oil, cook down the white onions till they are caramelized and set them aside.  Then do the same with the peppers and chili together and set them aside.  Roast the chopped garlic with a little more oil until they are starting to turn golden brown and set that aside.  Since the corned beef is already cook and, as long as you’ve got everything chopped up  and cooled down you can mix all of the cooked veggies together and store them till final assembly.

Assembly

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  In a large bowl, mix together all the corned beef, potatoes and cooked vegetable mix.  Once this is thoroughly mixed add in the salt, pepper, nutmeg and chopped green onion.  I suggest reserving a little of the onion to sprinkle on top of the quiche after you put on the cheese top.  Then mix in half of the cheese and reserve the rest for the topping.
When you make the standard quiche base cut the cream or milk to no more than one cup to make this a little thicker when fully mixed.  Now mix the base in with the meat mix and make sure it is all combined.  It should be a fairly thick slop.  Dish this into your crust of choice, add the final bit of cheese and green onion to the top and pop into the oven for 35 -40 minutes.  Remove from the oven and either serve or pack up for the rink.

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Pear, Pancetta and Pecan Quiche (PPPQ)

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I honestly don’t know where my wife got the idea for this and this is almost all her creation.  She just came home on night and gave me the ingredients and said you figure out the portions.  After a couple of days of thought and experimentation, the portions were set.  While I still worry about all the runny quiches that if made while using pineapple I figured this might work. The bonus of her idea lead me to nutty crusts.  While not an original idea, it is intriguing and provides another way to get some additional protein and flavors.  The nutty crust is best used for this and you should reserve some of the nuts used for the crust to garnish the top with for some extra texture. Any nut base works good, but this was done with pecans.

Serves: 16 – 22

Ingredients

  • 1 Cup pancetta, diced
  • 2 large shallot, diced
  • 2 Tablespoon butter
  • 2 Tablespoon brown sugar
  • 4 pears, cored and sliced into bite sized pieces
  • 1 teaspoon thyme
  • 2 Tablespoon finely chopped toasted pecans
  • 3/4 C gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
  • 2 pie crusts of your choice. This one is based on the Pecan Nutty Crust.

Preparation

First chop up your pancetta, shallot and thyme.  Then put these together in a large skillet or pan over medium high heat.  After enough time for the shallots to start to turn translucent, about 5 minutes, of heat while stirring you add in the butter.  As soon as that is melted, add in the sugar and completely mixed for about 2 more minutes.  Then add in the chopped pears and sauté for another 5 minutes, until the pears are tender.  Remove this from the heat and allow to cool.  Then put the mixture away until ready to assemble.

Assembly

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Beat the eggs and half and half together to make the basic egg mix.  Mix in the pear and pancetta mixture and cheese into the eggs until completely mixed.  Then pour into each prepared pie pan and top with some of the toasted nuts.  Place in the oven for about 35 to 40 minutes.  Remove and serve or pack it up for the rink.

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Nutty Butter Crust

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Who doesn’t like NUTS!?!  But sometimes people don’t like them with eggs, or anything involving eggs.  Well, I decided to hide the nuts in some of my weirder recipes.  And since they are better hidden out of sight, include them in your crust.
Makes 2 pies.

 Ingredients

  • 2 Cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 Cup of your favorite nuts, toasted
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 cup (2 stick) unsalted butter, cold and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
  • 8-10 Tablespoon cold water

Preparation

First thing is to toast your nuts. Put the shelled nuts in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes on a cookie sheet. Remove and cool for about 5 minutes and either manually fine chop them or run them through a grinder or food processor. I used a food processor and ran it for about 2 minutes. Then in a food processor mix together the flour, nuts, salt and sugar. Then chop in the butter by pulsing the processor about 10 to 15 times. Then add the water, one tablespoon at a time with a pulse between each tablespoon. When you get near the end, pay attention to the consistency. It should just be starting to be sticky when you stop adding water. Remove from the processor and form into a large ball. Then halve the ball and form into two individual balls. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for about an hour. Remove and individually place on a lightly floured surface to roll out to about a 10 inch diameter sheet. Place in a 9 1/2 inch pie pan. Put some parchment paper on top while preheating the oven to 350 degrees. Put some kind of pie weights on top of the parchment and place the pans in the oven for about 15 minutes. Remove the parchment and weights and place back in the ovens for another 5 tot 10 minutes or until lightly browned. That should be ready, so refrigerate till your ready to fill.

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Smoked Salmon Quiche

One morning I went to visit one of the guys to talk about the first book in this series. When we get down to talk, he gives me a sly look and says, “you need to try this.” Then he disappears for a few minutes, leaving me under the close supervision of his attack poodle. He came back with some hericium (lion’s mane) mushrooms he’d grown in his basement. These were sliced up and cooked in grape seed oil and served with some home smoked salmon that he caught in a local mountain lake. As we sat there enjoying the flavors, we looked up, with that “light bulb going on” expression, and said salmon quiche at the same time. This recipe uses porcini mushrooms as the are a lot easier to get. But if you happen to have some hericium mushrooms in your basement, use them instead.
Serves: 16 – 22

Ingredients

  • 2 Pie Crusts
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup chopped shallot
  • 1 cup chopped porcini mushrooms
  • 3 tablespoons macadamia nut oil
  • 2 cups quality smoked salmon (wild caught salmon is usually best)
  • 2 cups shredded gruyere cheese
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh dill
  • 1/2 cup shelled chopped pistachios

Preparation

In a frying pan on medium high heat, melt the butter and sauté the chopped shallots till they are turning translucent. Remove from heat and set aside. If you’re using fresh or rehydrated porcinis you should cook them whole in a skillet with the macadamia nut oil for about 5 to 10 minutes over medium high heat. Usually 4 or 5 good sized porcini mushrooms should be enough to make about one cup once chopped into about 1/2 inch chunks. Allow them to cool after cooking and and then chop them up and set aside. Chop the smoked salmon into small 1/2 inch chunks and set that aside till assembly. The pistachios can either be prepared by fine chopping or running a few pulses in a food processor. Keep all these ingredients separate containers until ready to assemble.

Assembly

Preheat the oven to 375. Prepare the usual egg base, except use whipping cream instead of half and half. Add in the shallots, cayenne and dill. Thoroughly mix until just starting to turn frothy. In your prepared crusts, layer in the salmon, mushrooms and about 1/2 of the cheese. Pour egg mixture into the pie crusts over these ingredients. Top with the remaining cheese and pistachios and cook in the oven for 40 minutes.