Irish Stew Quiche

This is a St. Patty’s Day Special.

This Irish Stew Quiche filling that goes great with the Irish Soda Bread Crust, especially for your special St. Patrick’s Day celebration.  This one takes a little effort but is well worth it because of the savory slow cooked filling base.  As always, this recipe is enough for 2 quiches.

Serves: 16 – 22

Ingredients

  • 1 pound lean boneless lamb
  • 1 tablespoon cooking oil
  • 1-1/2 cup peeled turnip cut into 1/2-inch pieces (2 medium)
  • 1-1/2 cup carrot cut into 1/2-inch pieces (3 medium)
  • 1-1/2 cup peeled potato cut into 1/2-inch pieces (2 medium)
  • 1/2 medium onion, cut into wedges
  • 1 cup quick-cooking tapioca
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
  • 3 cups beef broth
  • 1 cup of shredded Irish Cheddar Cheese

Directions

  • Cut meat into 1-inch pieces. In a large skillet brown meat, half at a time, in hot oil. Drain off fat.  Then in a 3 1/2- or 4-quart slow cooker stir together turnip, carrot, potato, onion, tapioca, salt, pepper, and thyme.  Add the beef broth and stir.  Add the browned lamb and stir.
  • Cover and cook on the low-heat setting for 10 to 12 hours or on high-heat setting for 5 to 6 hours.
  • Skim the grease off the top when this is all cooked, and save 2 tablespoons of the grease.
  • In a large pot, add the grease you saved in the previous step and add 2 tablespoons of white flour and stir on medium-high heat until the mixture is browned.
  • Add all of the contents of the slow cooker into the pot and stir.  Reduce heat to a low medium heat and simmer uncovered to reduce until the gravy is thick.
  • Remove from heat and allow to cool.  You should have 1 quart of stew.

Final Assembly and Cooking

  • Preheat your oven to 375 F.
  • Prepare the Base Quiche Mix and combine with the stew, mixing thoroughly.
  • Pour into your prepared pie crusts and top with 1/2 cup of shredded Irish Cheddar Cheese on each pie.
  • Into the oven the pies go for 40 minutes or until the cheese starts to turn a little brown.

 

Base Quiche Mix

This one is key to nearly all of these recipes.  If you don’t use this you’ll be making something other than a quiche.  Since all of our recipes are designed to make two pies that fill two 9-1/2″ pie pans, this is critical to use this mix to add the final touches to your quiche.

This is for making 2 quiches.

Ingredients

  • 8 eggs
  • 1/2 pint of half and half
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon pepper

Preparation

Since our quiches’ fillings are usually prepared the prior day and assembled into the pie shells very early in the morning, we usually prepare this so that it’s just a quick whip and pour into the loaded pie shells.  We use a 1/2 quart container to combine all these ingredients and whip them up.  Then keep them refrigerated until final assembly.

Final Assembly

Since this usually happens around 0600 on Sunday mornings, the simpler the better.  After the pie pans are filled with the quiche du jour contents and almost ready to go in the preheated oven,  get this out of the refrigerator.  Whip this up again for a couple of minutes to help make it a little fluffier and add this to the pies.  If the recipe calls for an additional topping this should be your next to the last step before going into the oven.