I happen to be neither particular budget-conscious when it comes to food nor capable of not making at least one meal's worth of leftovers. What does this mean when it comes to Hobo Monday? It means that I am a CHEATER, but I will do my best to kinda sorta play by the rules.
Let's talk about quiche, then. I shall start with the crust. I want to let you know that just because the lady across the street uses white whole wheat flour in place of all-purpose in everything, it doesn't mean that you have to follow suit. I mean, it works great in a variety of things, but there was a reason I was hesitant to try it with pie crust and it is the same reason why I'll be going back to my all-purpose after this complete and utter failure.
While you're making the crust, a broccoli-quiche requires both broccoli and bacon. The broccoli should be chopped up and blanched. The bacon should be burnt severely.
OK, I'll admit, it would almost definitely taste better if you chose not to burn the bacon, but for me it happens the same way every time: I put the bacon in the pan, I get distracted by the broccoli or the crust or the dog, the bacon burns, the fire alarm in the hallway starts yelling "Evacuate! Smoke in the hallway! Evacuate!", I pull the burnt bacon off the stove, I open up the front door and the back window, and the dog gets exceedingly alarmed at the shouting.
So, now I have a crust, blanched broccoli and burnt bacon. I need the egg custard part, which consists of eggs, milk and pepper (and salt if you're not all low-sodium style). The milk I used is skim milk. I'm aware that some/many recipes call for say, cream, at this point. That would certainly defeat the Hobo Monday part of this recipe for me, since cream is not a pantry staple at our house, but the skim milk certainly is. This works out ok though with a combination of replacing some of the fat with cheese and baking it for a little longer.
So, I layer the broccoli, bacon and cheese (here, a pre-shredded Gruyere that's definitely interfering with my price point) in two layers of each and pour the custard over the top.
Then, it bakes until you end up with a lovely quiche, which I recommend that you serve with a lovely green salad with a nice mustardy vinaigrette.
I apologize for the blurriness of this photo. I apparently decided that focusing my camera is for losers yesterday. This is the least blurry photo I took. Clearly this whole blogging thing is going to take a while to get back into.
Bacon-Broccoli Quiche
Crust:
1 1/3 c. All-purpose flour
1/2 c. Crisco or other shortening
1/2 tsp. salt
2-2.5 Tbsp. ice water
Filling:
4-5 slices bacon, crumbled (here, Wegman's Uncured)
2 small broccoli crowns, cut into small florets and blanched
shredded swiss cheese (here, gruyere)
3 eggs
1 1/2 c. skim milk
salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)
Instructions:
Cut shortening into flour/salt mixture. Add ice water and stir with fork until the dough can be made into a ball (try to add as little water as you can and still achieve this). Roll out into a circle, move into pie dish.
Whisk together eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Layer broccoli, bacon and cheese in the crust. Pour egg mixture over the layers. Bake one hour in 375 degree oven. Serve warm or cold.
Hobo Monday Money Tally:
Crust--entirely pantry staples
Broccoli--$1.22
Bacon--$2 ish (I bought that bacon a while ago, it's been in the freezer)
Gruyere--$2.50
Eggs--$-0.75
Milk--pantry staple
Total: $5.97 (ish). I'd say that on it's face it's a total failure (only twice what it should be!) except the quiche does have 8 servings instead of two (and it makes such a lovely lunch because it's excellent cold)--so the actual cost for dinner tonight including the green salad with the mustardy vinaigrette will definitely be below $3 for the two of us. I'm hoping that works out to some kind of passing grade of Hobo-osity.
