If you read the introductory post about my culinary adventures, then you know that Quiche figures heavily in my journey. I figured for the first post, I’d make my signature dish and then move on to other endeavors.

In honor of the summer in Bushwick, I decided to use green and yellow summer squash, onion, and cotija cheese for the filling. All the ingredients are available locally. The recipe for two quiche, and some tips are as follows:

For the crust:
prep:
3 sticks unsalted butter — cut COLD butter into cubes, and then put it in the fridge while you get the other ingredients together

1/2 cups ice water — fill up a cup with ice water and keep in the freezer, measuring out right before using (you might need more than 1/2 cup water depending on the humidity)

to make dough:
Combine 4 1/2 cups sifted flour, 2 tsp. salt and 2 tsp. sugar into a bowl

Add the cold, cubed butter and work in with a pastry cutter (or two knives) avoiding the temptation to use your hands to mix it in well — combine until the mixture looks “sandy”

Add 2 tsp vinegar (or, if you’re making this all-purpose pastry dough for pie, sometimes I’ll use orange juice instead; you just need anything acidic) and 1/2 cup water

Mix with a spoon or fork until it comes together a little bit

Add more water if you feel necessary, get your hands in and lightly knead the dough trying not to overwork it too much

Split into 2 pieces and form into a disc

Wrap in plastic and let it sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, and up to 1 day

for the filling:
1 each green and yellow squash cut into rounds

1 small onion sliced

Saute veggies in a pan with olive oil and salt & pepper until just cooked, but still retain most of their texture

for the custard:
6 eggs lightly beaten

3 cups heavy cream or half and half

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

2 pinches nutmeg

to assemble the quiche: Roll out one of the dough rounds and shape into pie plate (place the pie plate on a cookie sheet before adding the filling — this will make it easier to transfer to the oven, and make clean up a lot easier, since the quiche tends to bubble over a little). Place a layer of veggies on the bottom, sprinkle with crumbled cotija cheese (about 4 ounces), and pour the egg mixture on top. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 375 for about 35 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with a side salad of greens and cherry or grape tomatoes.

I invited Anna, George, and Jessica over to eat the quiche, and decided at the last minute to make some “quick and dirty cherry pies” using a simple Joy of Cooking recipe with the leftover quiche crust. Since I was a little low on quiche (long story involving hungry ex-boyfriends still having keys to my apartment), I thought the cherry pies would make up for any lingering hunger. It’s also one of many options for capitalizing on any extra dough. The tasters seemed quite satisfied:

Anna: “This is the best quiche I’ve ever had!”
George: “This quiche was so good it almost calmed my rage about Adam Brown eating almost half of it before we got here.”
Jessica: “Who knew a quiche could be so summery.”

I’ll be back in two weeks with another recipe!