Quiche is one of those things that I pretty much tend to forget about.  Not something that springs to mind.  I don’t find myself answering the age old question “what should I make for dinner” with “why, quiche, of course”.  But in that last couple months I’ve made a few quiches and I’d forgotten both how easy and how tasty they are. 

Last night I ended up making two, since frozen pie crusts always come in two for reasons I’m unable to fathom.  Turned out it worked nicely.  One for dinner, and leftovers for breakfast.

I fried up some chopped “cottage bacon” we got from New Seasons (sort of halfway between your average bacon and the “Canadian” variety), then added some chopped onion,  and sliced white mushrooms.  I got a pair of whole wheat frozen pie crusts, and into them went some broccoli florets (raw).  When the bacon, etc. was cooked, I dumped it in over the broccoli and added some shredded Tillamook cheddar.  I happened to have some eggs to use up (blown out of their shells for Russian Easter eggs) which is what prompted the quiche project to start with.  For each quiche I used 4 eggs, and added probably 1/4 – 1/3 cup of heavy cream.  That just got poured over the top of the vegetables, and away they went, into the oven at 375° for about 40 minutes. 

Much easier than I remembered.  I’ll have to start putting quiche into rotation more often.

Last night I decided to make some quick Indian food, and here’s what I came up with…

One of my favorite Anglo-Indian cookbooks (I can’t think of the name just now, but it’s the kind that Costco sells for like $6 with lots of color pictures) has a recipe for “Tarka Dal” (sp?) that’s my standby favorite for a quick week night dinner, especially since I usually have all the ingredients on hand.  You just boil 1/3 cup moong dal (split, skinless mung beans) and 2/3 cup red lentils in 2 1/2 cups water with a chopped onion, some garlic, some ginger and a little tumeric.  On occasion I’ve added a chopped green chile like a jalapeno.  Boil until the beans are soft and mush together, then add 1/2 tsp or so of salt and still/mash well.  Just before serving, in a separate frying pan, fry some brown mustard seeds and some nigella seeds in oil or ghee until they start to pop, then toss in some dried red chiles (or not) and some chopped tomato.  Last night I used some of those little grape tomatoes, since I had them.  Once the tomato is soft, stir the oil, seeds and tomato mixture in with the dal and serve.  Very tasty and super easy.

To go with, I made some Rogan Josh.  Again, super easy.  Brown and onion and some stew beef, throw in about a cup of plain yogurt, 1/2 cup or so of water, and some Rogan Josh paste or powder.  I use powder from Penzey’s, which is fabulous.  I usually add some extra fresh ginger, garlic and cardamom, ‘cause I like it that way.  Cook until semi-dry and the beef is tender. 

Throw the above over some basmati rice, and you’re good to go. 

If you like Asian food, or in fact anything with rice, and you don’t have a rice cooker, go get one.  Indispensable if you cook a lot of rice.  It always comes out right, and never burnt.  Even the cheap National brand ones are pretty good, but if you use it a lot it’s worth shelling out the $100 for one of the good ones.  I have a Zojirushi that I love.  It has settings for brown rice, sticky rice, etc.  Even a “paella” setting, which works pretty well.  If you like rice, you’ll LOVE a good rice cooker.

In the last few months, I’ve done some pretty serious stumbling on my road to eating low on the glycemic index, but I’m doing my best to get back on the wagon.  One of the things I’ve been eating for a long time is “low carb” tortillas.  There are 5–6 brands to choose from in most stores these days, and they vary from pretty dang good, to horrendously awful.  There’s also a pretty wide range of “low carb”.  Many of them are pretty much just whole wheat, and what they really mean is “less carbs than pure cake flour”.  Everything’s relative I guess.  My favorite ones come from “La Tortilla Factory”.  They are largely made from oat bran, and they have a very nice, light texture.  And they really are pretty low carb.  The other ones I tend to eat come from Costco, and I can’t think of the brand right now (Don Pedro, maybe?).  They seem to be composed mostly of chaff as far as I can tell, but they are growing on my.  You definitely get your fiber.  Compared to some other brands that seem to be mostly sawdust, the chaff is pretty good. 

Anyway, not only do they make good sandwiches (or “wraps” in the common parlance) but they are the perfect thing to wrap around a good hot dog.  Having been raised on California Hippy Vegetarian cuisine, I have a special place in my heart for a good hot dog.  However, as I get older I really appreciate a good one from a bad one.  My wife picked up some “bad ones” the other day for the kids, since they don’t care much either way.  Boy, you can really taste the lips and hooves.  Costco actually has some of the better ones, including the fabulous Mt. Sinai kosher dogs.  Well worth the small fortune they want for them, if you like that kinda thing.  They had some even better ones the other day, whose brand I didn’t note unfortunately. 

Ever since High School I’ve been fond of the occasional “burrito dog” for breakfast.  Nothing like a hot dog in a tortilla with some melted cheese and hot sauce.  At least I’ve stopped washing them down with Jolt cola.

I love simple.  Especially when it involves tofu.  This month’s Saveur has an article on street snacks of Sichuan, and one of the dishes is called “flower bean curd”. I tried it last weekend, and wow, was it good.  Basically you just heat up some soft/silken tofu in hot water, then slap it in a bowl.  Over the top you pour some

• soy sauce
• chili oil
• black vinegar
• Sichuan preserved vegetables (I used preserved turnips)
• roasted soy beans (I had peanuts, so used those)
• ground Sichuan pepper corns (really hard to get.  I used the Japanese equivalent, called sansho)
• the recipe called for chopped green onions, which would have been good, but I didn’t have any

Enjoy.  Very tasty, quick and filling.  Since the stuff gets pored over the top, each diner can decide how spicy they want it.