Herbed Quiche With Blue Cheese

So many evenings my husband and I prefer a lighter dinner and we both happen to enjoy a good quiche. This particular quiche we both thought to be exceptional. It has this luchious creamy texture, more so than in most quiches.

The recipe comes from a book I am really enjoying, Farm to Fork by Emeril Lagassee. This is Emeril's newest book and like most recent cookbook authors he encourages everyone to cook with local fresh ingredients.

Herbed Quiche With Blue Cheese

1 pie crust

6 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

2 ounces Maytag blue cheese, at room temperature

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

3 eggs

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 tablespoons chopped fresh mixed herbs, such as parsley, thyme, tarragon, chives, and/or oregano

1. Preheat the oven to 400*F.

2. Place the pie crust in an 8-inch fluted tart pan.

3. Line the pastry shell with parchment paper, and fill it with ceramic pie weights or dried beans. Place the tart pan on a baking sheet, and bake for 9 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and set the tart pan on a wire rack to cool. Remove the parchment paper and the weights.

4. Reduce the oven temperature to 375*F.

5. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cream cheese, blue cheese, and butter. Whisk in the eggs until well blended. Stir in the cream, milk, salt, pepper, and herbs. Pour the filling into the partially baked pie shell. Return the tart pan to the baking sheet and bake, rotating the quiche halfway through, until it is puffed and golden brown, 25 minutes. The quiche is done when a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

6. Remove the tart pan from the baking sheet and set it on a wire rack to cool for at least 5 minutes before slicing. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature

6 to 8 servings

Using fresh herbs is a MUST for this quiche and I do grow many herbs in my garden. However, if you don't grow your own herbs most grocery stores are carrying fresh herbs. I used Italian parsley, thyme and garlic chives. The recipe says you can use oregano and even though I do have it in my herb garden I find that I rarely use it. It is a very strong herb used fresh. I think the use of tarragon would be delicious but mine was knocked back by the cold weather and is just now beginning to come back up. The next time I prepare this I will definitely use the tarragon. I also used a gorgonzola cheese which is what I had on hand and I think most any blue cheese works well in this recipe. The Maytag blue would probably be a more stronger tasting cheese and I will probably use it the next time.

 I simply pared this quiche with sliced heirloom tomatoes with a drizzle of basil infused olive oil and sprinkled with one of my favorite sea salts, a French Herbed Sea Salt.

A nice crisp bottle of Pinot Gris went nicely with it as well and made for a fabulous dinner. My husband said it was the BEST I had ever made and that says a lot to me since he is a very picky eater.  

In April I will be doing a lecture on growing and cooking with herbs for my garden circle. I plan to have lots of tastings and this will be one I will prepare for that lecture.