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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.

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Jalapeno Black Eyed Pea Quiche

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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.

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Christmas Quiche

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Your Christmas guests have just left (not yet but this is so you’ll remember to save at least 1 – 1/2 pounds of your Christmas Ham)  and you’ve got an early morning skate coming up.  This quick Christmas Quiche is an easy way to have a good breakfast ready and reduce your leftovers.  This one is colorful, but it was consumed before I remembered to take a picture.

Serves 16 – 22 (2 quiches)

Ingredients

  • 1 – 1/2 lb Christmas Ham, cubed
  • 1/2 cup Green Peppers, chopped (2 or 3 peppers)
  • 1/2 cup Red Peppers, chopped (2 or 3 peppers)
  • 1 cup Cheddar Cheese, shredded
  • 1 cup Swiss Cheese, shredded
  • 2 Potato Crusts
  • Base Quiche Mix

Preparation

I’m assuming that you’ve already made your Christmas Ham, so the only cooking to be done before hand is to prepare your Potato Crusts.  Follow these directions and you’ll be set.  The rest is just chopping up the meat and peppers.  Shred and mix the cheeses together and put everything away until ready for final assembly.

Final Assembly and Cooking

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Get your prepared potato crusts out and add a thin layer of shredded cheese, about 1/4 of the cheese you’ve prepared.  Then add the cubed ham and chopped peppers into the pans.  Prepare the base quiche mix and pour that gently over the mixture.  Then finish with the remaining cheese.  Transfer to the oven and bake for 30 – 40 minutes and remove when the cheese starts to brown.  Either serve or pack it up for the morning skate.

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Venison with Blue Posole Quiche

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Venison with Blue Corn Pasole and Green Chile
Venison with Blue Corn Pasole and Green Chile

If you’ve got 1 – 1/2 pounds of Venison (ground or steaks) around you can easily make this dish.  But be warned, the Posole takes a lot of time to prepare (about 18 hours) if your going to make this from scratch.  You can substitute canned hominy if your like to cut down on the preparation time, but its not as good.  The Blue Corn Posole has a unique flavor that is “fuller” than regular Posole.

Ingredients

  • 1 – 1/2 lb of Venison – either ground or steaks (Pork makes a good substitute)
  • 1/2 White Onion,chopped
  • 12 oz of Blue Corn Posole
  • 1 cup Chicken Stock
  • 1 qt Water – enough to keep the posole covered
  • 4 – 6 Roasted Hot Green Chile Peppers (NM Big Jim or Anaheim)
  • 3 cloves of Garlic, fine chopped
  • 1 tsp Mexican Oregano
  • 4 tsp Olive Oil
  • 2 tsp Black Pepper
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 1 cup shredded Monterrey Jack Cheese

Preparation

The first thing to is soak the posole in water overnight.  Strain out the soaked posole and throw away the water.  I feed it to my house plants.  Then to finish making this you’ll need to start this last phase at least the 6 hours before you’re going to need to serve it.  Start by roasting your garlic and chile peppers until they start to char.  I usually do this on the grill, but you can also do it in an oven.  Put the whole peppers and garlic cloves in a foil tray with a light coating of olive oil and cook in the oven until the chile skins are turning black.  If you do this on a grill, you’ll only need to put the garlic in the foil.  The peppers go right on the grill.  When done allow to cool enough so you can handle them.  Clean the skins and cut off the stems on the peppers.  Fine chop the garlic.  Put the chile peppers and garlic cloves into a blender or food processor and pulse a few times to chop everything up into a salsa.

In a large pot with a light coat of oil over medium high heat, cook the onions until soft and translucent.  Then add in the chicken stock and bring to a boil.  Add in the dried posole and cover.  Simmer on low heat for 3 – 4 hours, adding water as necessary to keep the posole covered.  While this is going, the meat could use a little attention. If you’re using ground meat, season with salt and pepper and form small meatballs.  If you’ve got roast or steak, cube it so that the chunks are no larger than 3/4 inch.  Season them to your taste.  In a skillet over high heat with a dash of oil brown the meat on all sides.  Remove from heat and let rest at room temperature until the posole is ready for the meat to be added.

When the posole kernels start splitting open, add in the meat, salsa and the oregano.  Cook for about another hour over low heat, uncovered and stirring occasionally.  Continue to cook slowing until the liquid is reduced by 2/3.  This will be dryer than your normal posole.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.  Strain the mixture, reserving the liquid which should be about 1 cup.  Put the posole in a separate container and store until ready for final assembly.

Final Assembly and Cooking

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Gather your prepared pie crusts and half the posole placing each portion into the pie crust and spread the mixture out.  Prepare the usual base quiche mix, but reduce the Half and Half to 1/4 cup, and add to it the liquid reserved from the posole.  Mix thoroughly and gently pour over the filling in the pie crust.  Top with the shredded cheese and place in the oven for 30 – 40 minutes or until the cheese starts to lightly brown.  Remove and either serve or transport to the rink.

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Bacon with Spinach and Shiitakes

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This is an attempt to be kind of healthy, but we just can’t resist keeping bacon in it.  It is just a matter of moderation.  We use the Spinach and Shiitake Mushrooms to tell ourselves that this one is healthy and good for us.  We use the smaller than normal helping of Bacon to make it taste extra good.  And unfortunately, this is one that didn’t make it’s photo shoot before it went to the rink and was consumed before a picture could be taken.

Ingredients

  • 8 slices of good quality Bacon
  • 2 Tbsp Butter
  • 1/4 cup Green Onion, chopped
  • 3 cloves Garlic, chopped
  • 16 oz fresh Spinach
  • 1/2 lb fresh Shiitake Mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 cup Sharp Cheddar Cheese, shredded
  • 1 cup Asiago Cheese, shredded
  • Base Quiche Mix
  • 2 pie crusts

Preparation

Either bake your bacon in the oven at 375 degrees for 20 minutes (10 minutes per side) or in a skillet over medium high heat until just starting to get crispy.  Remove and drain on a paper towel.  When cooled chop up into 1/2 inch pieces and refrigerate until final assembly.

In a large skillet or pot over medium heat, melt the butter.  Put in the chopped green onions and garlic.  Cook while stirring until the green onions start to soften, about 5 minutes.  Stir in the spinach and shiitake mushrooms and continue cooking, stirring frequently, until the vegetables soften.  This should take about 5 – 7 minutes.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.  Refrigerate until final assembly.

Final Assembly and Cooking

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Mix together the two kinds of cheese.  In another large mixing bowl, add the bacon chunks, vegetables, mushrooms and 1/4 cup of the cheese mixture together and mix thoroughly.  When thoroughly mixed, half into the two pie crusts.  Prepare the base quiche mix and pour over the ingredients in the pie crusts.  Top this with the remaining cheese mixture and sprinkle with some extra salt and pepper to taste.  The pies then go into the oven for 30 -40 minutes or until the cheese on top is a golden brown.  Remove from the oven and either serve or transport to the rink.