Southwestern Quiche

Southwestern Quiche

On our anniversary in March, we went to our local French Bakery. It's a really cute place in a brick bungalow which used to be a private residence.  The bakery is right next to an old white farm house which has been converted into a very nice French Restaurant called Le Petit Chablis.  Both restaurants are owned by the same couple; the husband is from France and his wife is American.  I've been to the bakery a number of times since it's been open, but I've only been to Le Petit Chablis two times in the 24 years we've lived here.  It's fancy and expensive, but we are planning to go again some time soon.

At the bakery, we shared a little quiche and I want to say it was called "Cowboy Quiche". The quiche was made in a small, individual-serving size round tart pan and the ingredients included chorizo sausage, green chiles, and cheese, and it was all baked into a pastry crust.  Of course this inspired me to make a green chile quiche at home.  I had all the ingredients at home with the exception of monterrey jack cheese.  I have been using pepper jack cheese in quiches lately BUT I think the pepper jack cheese I am finding at the store is a bit odd.  It seems like more like "processed cheese food" and it seems to melt funny and pool up to the top of the quiche when it bakes.  So this time around, I decided I wanted to use monterrey jack cheese.  For my quiche, I also decided to use some precooked turkey breakfast sausage since I had it on hand and it's much leaner than chorizo.  I think chorizo would be really good in this quiche.

Southwestern Quiche

Ingredients:

1 un-baked pie crust (Click HERE for the pie crust recipe I use) or use a frozen crust (such as Pillsbury brand unbaked pie crust found in the freezer section) or use your favorite pie crust recipe.

1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Monterrey jack cheese

1/2 small onion, finely chopped (I used 1/2 of a small Vidalia onion)
1/2 of a red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeds and membranes removed, finely diced

4  precooked Johnsonville brand turkey breakfast sausage, diced
1 can (7 ounce) Ortega brand mild fire roasted green chiles, well drained

3 large or extra large eggs

1 can (12 fluid ounces) evaporated milk

1/2 teaspoon salt, divided

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, divided

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Place pie crust in 9-inch glass pie plate; flute if desired. Cover bottom of pie crust with shredded cheese; set aside.

2. Spray a non-skillet generously with non-stick cooking spray, heat skillet over medium heat. Add the diced onion, bell pepper, and jalapeno pepper, along with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper;  cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender (about 4 or 5 minutes).  Add the diced precooked sausage to the pan, lower the heat to medium low, and cook an additional 2 or 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, to warm through.   Spoon the sausage-vegetable mixture evenly over the cheese in the pie crust. Sprinkle the drained green chiles over the sausage-vegetable in the pie crust.

3. In a medium sized mixing bowl, beat the eggs, evaporated milk, and an additional 1/4 salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Carefully poor the egg mixture into the pie crust over the layered ingredients.

4. Bake the quiche for approximately 50 to 55 minutes. Quiche is done when a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Allow quiche to stand for 5 to 10 minutes before slicing into 8 wedges.

The quiche was quite spicy when it first came out of the oven, but got significantly mellower when we had the leftovers over the next few days.