Fooding Around With The Kilted Cook: Kilted Quiche, Kitchen Brick, Picnic Pie and Stuffed Pears

Lots of recipes this week to make up for a couple of exciting (to me) but recipe-poor (for you) weeks.

For new readers who would like to know how The Kilted Cook does Thanksgiving, look up my post called Thanksgiving My Way from 2014 -- Red Cooked Turkey, Cranberry Mold, Sage Stuffing, and more recipes.

This year I'm making the Cranberry Mold, the Red Cooked Turkey, and providing a spiral sliced, served-cold, pre-cooked Smoked Ham. We're not hosting Thanksgiving this year, but are going elsewhere.

The Kilted Quiche

We hosted a small luncheon party for some friends yesterday. After some deliberation I chose to make a Quiche, a Florida Salad, and Stuffed Pears for dessert.

1 frozen rolled Pie Crust

1-1/2 cups Half and Half

4 eggs, beaten

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 tsp White Pepper

1/8 teaspoon Nutmeg, ground

8 oz Mozarella, grated

2 oz Queso Blanco cheese, cubed

8 oz sliced Baby Bella mushrooms

1 Leek, sliced into rounds

4 Green Onions, chopped

1/2 cup frozen Green Peas

1/4 cup Red Bell Pepper, diced

Preheat the oven to 350F.

After rolling out the crust and putting it in a 10" tart pan, dock the dough with a fork, then blind-bake the crust for about 20 minutes until it starts to get nicely colored. Remove from the oven.

While the crust is baking, combine the eggs, spices, and half & half.

Layer the fillings in the pre-baked crust. Pour the egg mixture overall, then top with the cheeses. Return to oven and bake 30-40 minutes until the egg mixture is set and nicely browned.

Baked Stuffed Pears

These pears are baked rather than poached on the stovetop. Use a firm pear like a Bosc, that can stand the cooking without falling apart.

Peel the pears, slice the bottom flat so they'll stand up, and take off about an inch at the top. Hollow each pear about 3/4 of the way down. I used my apple corer first, to remove the seed core, then opened the hole up a bit with the small end of a melon baller.

for the filling:

1/4 cup Dark Brown Sugar

1/2 cup Water

1 shot Triple Sec

1/4 cup Golden Raisins

1/4 cup Pomegranate infused Craisinstm

1 Tbsp Sliced Almonds, chopped

Fill each core hole to the top with the filling. Place pears in a baking dish and add about 1/4" of water. Bake at 350 until fork tender, about 30 minutes. Makes 5 servings.

Florida Salad with Sour Orange Vinaigrette

Pretty simple salad, really, but the addition of citrus in the salad as well as the vinaigrette gives it that Floribeño flair.

for the salad, toss together:

1 head Red Leaf Lettuce, chopped

2 Oranges, peeled, segmented and chopped

1/2 cup sliced mini Carrots

1/2 Red Bell Pepper, diced

2 Green Onions, chopped

1/4 cup toasted Sunflower Seeds

1/4 cup unsalted Raw Peanuts

1 Tomato, chopped

for the vinaigrette:

3 parts EVOO

1 part Sour Orange Juice

1 part Rice Wine Vinegar

Whisk the viniaigrette ingredients together. Then I put it in a tall bottle, put on the top, and shake like a mad man to really combine the oil and other liquids. Replace the top with a pour spout (see below) and it's ready to serve.

Vegetarian Picnic Pie

This is my interpretation of the vegetarian "picnic pie" which was created in the finale of this year's The Great British Bake Off program (IMHO the best cooking 'contest program on TV).

The crust was really strange to work with -- rather crumbly. Maybe it was the whole wheat flour I added. Maybe I didn't knead it enough, but the warning was not to overwork it... Next time I'll use all AP flour and work it more before rolling.

It may not be very pretty, but it sure was tasty. We shared it with our vegetarian friends for a UF Football Saturday night.

These British-style savory pies are "freestanding" -- taken out of their pans and stored on bakery shelves. So the dough has to be much thicker/tougher than your average American flaky tart/pie crust. Also, the liquid content of the filling has to be seriously reduced to prevent softening the crust from the inside. This is a Short Crust dough, and makes enough to fill and cover an approximately 9x5x3 loaf pan.

for the crust:

16oz Flour -- I used 3/4 white AP and 1/4 Whole Wheat

8oz Crisco tm -- (for a meat pie I would use half Crisco and half Lard)

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Salt

for the filling:

1 Eggplant, peeled and diced into 1/2" cubes

4 oz Couscous (small pearl, not the large pearl Israeli kind)

1 small can Tomato Paste

1 Onion, diced large

1 Rutabaga, peeled and diced into 1/2 cubes

12 oz Mushrooms, sliced

6 oz Queso Blanco or other "frying" cheese that does not melt readily

Herbs and spices to taste, to flavor each layer -- I used Everglades tm among others

Prep all the veggies (you can certainly use different ones than I chose), season them well, and then roast on a rack in a 400F oven for 30-40 minutes to remove a lot of moisture. Each vegetable must be enough quantity to make a layer in your loaf pan, and cumulatively fill it.

While that's going on, put the couscous in a bowl, cover with water, and let it sit for about 10 minutes. I used half a package of Near Easttm brand couscous and added the included spice packet to the mix. Once the couscous has swollen, combine it with 2/3 of the can of tomato paste for additional flavor.

Make the crust. Combine the flour, salt and baking soda. Cut the Crisco into the flour with a pastry cutter or bare hands, until you get a fine-gritty texture. Then add 3-4 ounces of cold water and knead in the bowl to bring the dough together. Roll the dough out about 1/4" thick on floured surface. Place a wide strip of parchment paper down the length of the pan, extending above both ends. This will help release the pie from the pan after it's baked. Use about 2/3 of the dough to make the pie crust, carefully transferring it to the pan. Smooth the crust into the corners and up the sides, removing any cracks. Level the crust with the top.

Layer in the filling. Start with a layer of the couscous. This will help absorb any moisture that cooks out of the other fillings. Add each layer in turn, pressing it down firmly and working it into the corners.

Roll out the remaining dough into a top crust and add it to the pie, sealing the edges. Cut or poke steam-release holes in the top. Bake in a 400F oven for 45 minutes to an hour. Allow to cool completely before removing from the pan. Slice into 1" slices, and serve cold or warmed, with or without a savory sauce or gravy. I served it at room temperature, with a splash of Lizano, the ubiquitous Costa Rican sauce which reminds me of a cross between Worchestershire Sauce and A-1 Steak sauce.

Kitchen Brick

Alton Brown, one of my culinary heroes, has for many years had a 'thing' about multi-tasker kitchen tools -- tools that do more than one thing, not one-trick-wonder gadgets. My Kitchen Brick ranks right up there with a 6" wide bladed knife and wine bottle pour spouts as one of the great multi-taskers of all time.

Go down to Bricks-R-Us or your favorite Big Box building supply and buy one, or maybe two plain red bricks. They aren't called 'bricks' anymore, they're called 'pavers' and you'll find them in the Garden secion, not Building Materials... go figure!! If you've got a spare brick in your garden or front path, clean up one of those and save 45 cents. If you get a second brick, have someone show you how to break that brick clean in half -- a Half Kitchen Brick is useful too.

Wrap the brick(s) in several layers of heavy-duty tinfoil. Renew the cover as necessary.

Hold the brick in your hand. If you have small hands, use the Half Brick. Comfortable, isn't it? The perfect size and weight and shape for so many kitchen tasks.

Two half bricks, or a brick and a cutting board become a culinary "rock and a hard place" for tasks like flattening chicken breasts for Chicken Milanese, or tenderizing beef. Spatchcocking that game hen or small chicken. Crushing garlic (a head at a time!). Hammering apart that lump of frozen-together icecubes in the freezer. Serious pie weights for blind baking. Crushing hard seeds like cardamon, cumin and allspice. Cracking hard shelled nuts. Grinding Kosher salt into Popcorn salt. How many more ways to use a Kitchen Brick can you find?