Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Asparagus, bacon, quiche



I love brunch. It's the best of both breakfast and lunch so the food combinations are endless. I also like the fact that I've never heard anyone say they were going to "grab a quick brunch". Something about the idea of eating in between two meals says there's no need to hurry.

Brunch food tends to be easy to prepare, which makes it a great option when feeding a crowd. When my family gets together there's always a crowd. So for Mother's Day this year I had brunch at my house for Mom. I had some really nice asparagus so I made an asparagus, bacon, quiche. It's a quick easy crowd pleaser. Great for anytime but I love quiche is a great brunch option.

I cheated a little and asked mom to make me a recipe of her pie dough. She makes the best pie crust and can whip up a recipe in 5 minutes. Really, maybe less. So I pulled that out of the fridge and rolled it out to fit a 9 inch pie pan. If your mom isn't making your crust use your favorite Pate Brisee recipe. (Or you could use a store bought crust. *hugh collective gasp of horror*)
At this point you can prebake your crust or leave it uncooked. I've done both and really don't think it makes a huge difference. I made this quiche without prebaking the crust. I only got this one picture of the quiche because it was devoured shortly after coming out of the oven!

Method
serves 6

Preheat oven to 475 degrees

Filling
The Custard:
4 ounces bacon cut into 1 inch pieces and cooked.
10 or so spears of asparagus roasted. Roasting removes some of the moister from the asparagus and keeps it from making your quiche to soupy. I also like the flavor that roasting gives the asparagus. I then cut off the top of the spears to about three inches long. Cutting the bottoms that were left into 1/2 inch pieces.
Whisk together:
2 cups milk or cream or a combination of both
3 eggs
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
a fresh grating of nutmeg
1/2 cup of diced Swiss cheese
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Stir in the bacon and chopped asparagus pieces and pour into prepared crust. Arrange asparagus spears in decorative pattern on the top.
Cook quiche 40-45 minutes or until center of quiche is set.

This is my submission to this month's In the Bag. Asparagus, eggs and Parmesan are the ingredients In the Bag. In the Bag, a seasonal food blogging event, is hosted this month by The Real Epicurean.

17 comments:

Elly said...

What a gorgeous quiche! I'm sure it tasted great, too.

Peter M said...

It looks wonderful and I'm so pleased to eat all the seasonal asparagus around.

giz said...

Honestly, looking at the quiche one would think you really worked for hours when placing the asparagus looks like it was the most time consuming part of the whole thing. It's a WOW dish.

Mitzi said...

Simple, delicous and elegant. I think I prefer bacon to ham in quiche. That may be dinner tomorrow night.
Mitzi

RecipeGirl said...

I absolutely love asparagus quiche. A couple of Mother's Days ago I made several quiches for a family gathering and the asp. quiche was the fave. Looks like yours was a hit too!

Katie B. said...

What a beautiful addition to brunch!

Patricia Scarpin said...

I love asparagus and love quiche, too... This looks so delicious!

Kana said...

Can't go wrong with asparagus and BACON :)

Thistlemoon said...

That is beautiful! I love the way you artfully arranged the asparagus. I love quiche any time of the day!

test it comm said...

Nice looking asparagus quiche!

Chibog in Chief said...

i love so much quiche..the bad part of it is that i always only do it with leeks..i love love this idea..asparagus on it..yum

Cynthia said...

I want a large slice of that quiche. It looks fantastic.

Anonymous said...

beautiful quiche - must give it a bash!

Rosie said...

This looks SO wonderful, what a gorgeous looking quiche!

Rosie x

Anonymous said...

What a great combination! I bet it tasted so good!

Chibog in Chief said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Honeyed Hashette said...

Fantastic!
This is gorgeous. I love asparagus.