Salmon Quiche

I tried this recipe once in a big pie form and then again in my muffin form.
It features cheese and almond meal in the pie crust and refreshingly little instructions. I changed it a little bit, adding more cheese and baking the crust at a lower temperature. Despite the crust being so brittle before baking it comes out great and is quite easy to get out of the pan.

Crust:
1 cup flour
1 cup cheddar, grated
1/4 cup almond meal
1/4 tsp paprika
6 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp salt
Combine all ingredients and set aside 1/2 cup. Press the rest of crust into bottom and sides of 9 inch pan, bake 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

Quiche:
1/2 lb frozen salmon
3 beaten eggs (I used 1 egg and 1/2 cup of egg whites to get rid of some of the egg whites that had piled up in our fridge after all the Tiramisu we enjoyed)
1/4 tsp dill weed and/or other herbs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup cheddar, grated
1/2 chopped onion
chives
paprika, salt and pepper
Thaw, fry and flake the salmon. Add all other ingredients. Put in baked shell. Sprinkle reserved 1/2 cup crust over top. Bake at 325 F for 45 minutes (or less when using the muffin form) until the tops are golden.

Cakes in Jars - or in a Muffin Pan

After seeing this video of how to bake cakes in jars I thought, I could do the same in my beloved muffin pan. I am also a big fan of recipes with few ingredients and this recipe has only five: berries, flour, sugar, butter and a pinch of salt.

So I distributed 2 1/2 cups frozen (instead of fresh) berries among the 12 muffin molds, mixed 1/2 cup of flour with 1/2 cup of coconut sugar and some salt and poured it on the fruit. At the end I added about 1/8 stick of butter (1/2 oz or 15 g) to each mold.

It tasted chewy and very good especially topped with ice cream!

But the mini cakes did not hold their form and it was only possible to eat it out of the muffin pan or spooned into another dish (hence the jars would be much more convenient) and for my taste it was too much butter. I thought that the butter would not seep through all the flour sugar mixture resulting in pockets of dry flour. But that was not the case at all.

I next time I want to try using half the amount of butter.

Chicken Pie

I tried baking mini Chicken Pot Pies in my muffin pan. I didn't actually look up a recipe and the only Chicken Pot Pie that I ever had was the microwave Chicken Pot Pie the day before which led to me thinking "Hm, I bet I can make this myself!"
Apparently I couldn't and the result didn't taste like Chicken Pot Pie usually tastes. So I am calling it a Chicken Pie

For the Crust:
1 cup of flour
1/2 stick of butter
2 eggs
salt, pepper
Mix together, roll out between two sheets of cling foil. Lift the upper foil and use a big cup to cut out circles to press in the muffin pan molds. Safe some dough for sealing the pies. Blind bake at 300 F for about 10 min.

For the filling:
onion, chopped
broccoli, cut into small pieces
peas
carrots, pealed and cut into small pieces
chicken breast
Fry the onion in some oil and add the vegetables. Fry for a couple of minutes, then add the chicken and fry until chicken and veggies are done. Cut chicken into small pieces.

For the sauce:
Turkey stock
corn starch or flour
butter
cream
paprika, salt, pepper
lemon juice
Melt butter in a hot pan, add corn starch or flour and spices. While stirring fast add the turkey stock and cream until the sauce has the desired consistency. Add more salt, spices and lemon juice if needed.

Mix the sauce with the veggies and chicken and fill the muffin pan. Add dough lids and bake until lids are golden for about 20-30 minutes.


I need to learn how to use my seasoning and spices. The pies had too much pepper and not enough salt. But otherwise they were quite tasty.

Quinoa Quiche

After making the eggnog I had a lot of egg whites left over. In the past I have made omelets with left over egg whites by just adding one or two whole eggs (and it was surprising to find that it was not possible to taste the difference!).

This time I found a recipe that sounded a little more exiting. Quinoa Egg White Quiches! These crustless mini quiches looked appetizing and easy to make. (of course I couldn't resist making them with the new found potato crust!)

Using ingredients I found in my fridge and around the kitchen I made three fillings:
- Tomatoes and basil
- Frozen vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower and carrots) with cream cheese
- Meat balls with tomatoes

All in all the result was a little less flavorful than I would have liked it and the mini quiches were hard to get out of the pan in one piece. Best tasting (though I didn't try the meat ball version) were the vegetables with cream cheese.

I'm thinking of maybe doing them again and trying more flavorful options (mushroom, red onion) or just add more spices (more basil, more cheese, always more cheese :D )

Eggnog and Mini Mushroom Quiches with Potato Crust

Great thing about Christmas is that I can try out all those christmassy recipes. Something I always wanted to make from scratch is eggnog. The recipe I used won me over with its title: "Amazingly good Eggnog".
As before, I substituted sugar with coconut sugar. I also left out the cloves and nutmeg and used spiced rum instead. The result tasted very good, but I must have done something wrong (probably during the heating process) and the eggnog wasn't smooth.
Great thing about not getting yummy things right the first time: There's going to be a next time!

Accompanying the eggnog was a vegetarian dinner that I have been exited about for several days!
I am a big fan of my newly acquired muffin pan. I haven't made a single muffin yet, but I thoroughly enjoy all the non-muffin recipes I can make with it. Like Mini Quiches!!

The idea for the potato crust I got from this recipe. But I used fresh potatoes and also added an egg and a tablespoon of flour to my crust "dough". It turned out wonderful and I am a big fan of it!
The filling was made from this Mushroom Quiche recipe. I did add more cheese (Gruyere AND Compté!) and parsley. Some quiches got a little bit of salmon as well which turned out to be a great addition!