Friday, February 15, 2013

Pumpkin, Sage, and Ricotta Mini Quiche Cups [Zack]

If you ever ask me whether I like to bake, I will give you some long rambling speech about hating to measure ingredients precisely. Creating posts for this website has been a challenge for me in that aspect. I like the freedom of adjusting flavors as I cook, so I always have a few messy measuring spoons nearby so I can capture what I’m doing for my posts. But for most baking, you have to decide all of your quantities up front, and then hope for the best. Bleh.

This is why I always keep puff pastry in my freezer. It’s both better AND easier than anything that I can make from scratch, and it has saved my booty many times when I wake up on a weekend morning and don’t want to trek to the grocery store.  Plus, no measuring is required :).

The only time I make a pie crust from scratch, is when I ask Lauren to make it for me…..

Here is a recipe for mini quiche cups using puff pastry. This recipe was a weekend morning invention – we had leftover roasted pumpkin, ricotta, and sage ravioli filling in our fridge, and a lot of eggs. We brainlessly mixed the pumpkin ricotta filling together with the eggs. Poured them into the puff pastry sheets that we formed inside of muffin tins, and baked it. It’s that easy.


Process:

Begin by roasting your pumpkin and draining your ricotta. Slice the pumpkin into strips, brush them with some olive oil, sprinkle some salt on top, and roast them in the oven at 400F / 200C until they are slightly browned on the edges (about 20 mins). Meanwhile, open your ricotta and drain the water out by pouring the excess off. If you want to really go crazy, you can use a cheese cloth to squeeze more water out.

Keep the oven on after you take your pumpkin out – you’ll need it to cook the quiche.

Defrost your puff pastry sheets by separating them and laying them all over your house. Butter or oil the inside of your muffin tin and form the puff pastry to form cups.


Once your pumpkin is cooked, mash it in a bowl with a fork and let it cool off. Add the ricotta to the bowl, plus some diced onions and sage. Scramble your eggs together in a separate bowl, and then pour your pumpkin mixture in with the eggs.


Give it another mix, crack some fresh black pepper, a pinch of salt, and pour it into the puff pastry.


Cook the mini quiches at 400F / 200C for 15-20 minutes, until the egg has set and the pastry has browned.


If you want, you can add some kick with a dabble of srircha on top!


Ingredients:

½ cup roasted pumpkin
1/3 cup ricotta cheese, water drained out
10 leaves fresh sage
½ onion, diced
5 eggs
10 puff pastry sheets

Creativity options for mini quiche:

  • Goat cheese, rosemary, roasted squash
  • Sriracha, roasted red pepper, feta
  • Cream cheese, smoked salmon, red onions
  • Ham, emmental cheese, caramelized onions
  • Sweet corn, jalapenos, and bacon

Funky Morning Jam:  Daniel Merriweather - She's Got Me (thanks to Lauren listening dutifully to Dutch radio for me)
She's got me by Daniel Merriweather on Grooveshark

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