FRIDAY FISH: Salmon, Leek, & Fennel Quiche

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Springing up in our yard

There’s just something about eggs and cream together. A marriage, as they say, made in culinary heaven. The wide, wide world offers so many choice custard desserts (do you know natilla?); my hub and best sous Dave adores old school American custard pies, as does good friend and fine baker Ruth Lehmkuhl. I, myself, like nothing better than a little crème brûlée to tuck into at the end of a long, laughing dinner, along with a not-too-tiny Armagnac, of course. I also love plain old custard with nutmeg –the perfect sore throat fast food– baked in Pyrex custard dishes, so there. And next comes quiche, which is simply a savory custard pie no matter what shape it’s baked into or what kind of dish or pan or plate holds it. It’s all good fun to bake a few quiche (quiches?) for a brunch, having them ready when folks arrive so they can choose their favorite(s). While yummy when warm — they’re not good straight out of the oven as they need to set a spell before cutting to avoid a hot mess — they’re also stunning at room temperature or even cold sliced up into bites on an appetizer platter. I have to slip in here that they travel beautifully; we often have a slice or two in hotel rooms after long car rides. I’ll also attest you can make a quiche out of just about anything, which makes them exceptional dishes for using up leftovers — more on that later. Today’s SALMON, LEEK & FENNEL crustless quiche (no pastry worries here) was just such a fortunate pie in my kitchen. After making a Salmon Cheese Spread for a charcuterie platter demonstration, I had just a little salmon leftover…

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FRIDAY FISH: Tuna Patty Breakfast Stack

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I think most folks keep a few cans of tuna in the pantry for quick lunches or emergency dinners. It’s lovely food, inexpensive as protein goes, shelf stable, and versatile. I buy a stack of tuna cans at Costco, alternating every few months with canned salmon just so we have a change. We’re tuna salad for lunch people, maybe once or twice a month but during FRIDAY FISH weeks, looking for new uses for canned fish is something that keeps me hopping. Two weeks ago, including fish in a brunch dish in the spring lineup began to flit through my brain. Eggy meals complete with red meats line the menus of breakfast shops with only a veggie omelet, a smoked salmon benedict, or the occasional bowl of tan, sticky oatmeal to tempt someone looking for a healthier alternative. Why couldn’t there be a benny-ish sandwich utilizing a filling tuna patty topped with a gorgeous fried egg? The easy answer was that there could. I took the fish burger or salmon patty approach, but opened cans of tuna instead of salmon or chopping up raw cod. I added a few typical ingredients (panko, onion, garlic, egg) and then threw in dill, Old Bay, and a bit of ground cayenne for fun. What was so amazing was how fast these little tuna patties, as they came to be called, came together. And when I toasted and buttered an English muffin, topped one with that hot egg and a few garnishes, I was happy as a clam with my breakfast. (Why are clams happy?)

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Plum Clafoutis

Shown here baked in a Le Creuset 2-qt stoneware casserole.
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I know. I can’t believe there’s another plum recipe on the blog but, really, I just can’t help myself. For one thing, I had a huge windfall of plums a couple of weeks ago from old friend Helen Brockman — they’re still chilling and willing. For another, this was my week to teach the Frolicking French Fall Dinner Party cooking class and — what could be a better, nearly instant, homey French dessert than clafoutis? (cluh-FOO-tee) I had never heard of a plum clafoutis as they’re typically made with cherries and a just sweet enough custardy batter, though I make them with rhubarb, too. Purists would offer the opinion that it isn’t a clafoutis if it isn’t made with cherries but this is my kitchen, isn’t it?! And, of course, when I googled plum clafoutis, other able and thoughtful cooks have gone before me. (I shouldn’t have done it and let myself believe I’d invented the dish. Story of my life but I’ll still give myself the private credit.)

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Salad Class: How to Up Your Game in 3 Easy Ways — Part 3, STYLE!

Post and recipe Did you know arugula is an herb and one of the most nutritional greens to eat?

Readers’ Note: This is the 3rd and last segment (STYLE!) of a three-part blog cooking class about making your salad a better place to eat!  Click on the red links below to read the other two segments and come chopping with me to make your newest stellar salad! While this class is pretty much do-it-yourself, I welcome comments, emails, photos, etc., to keep us in closer touch — even when we’re all in our own kitchens! Salad on, my friends.

“No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers.” 

― Laurie Colwin

3. STYLE!  MAKE IT LOOK LIKE YOU WANT TO EAT IT! “Wow, that looks good!”

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How to Make Quiche out of Just About Anything

French home cooks always seem to have a dozen wonderful things up their sleeves to make on the spur of the moment. Great ideas to use up leftovers come awfully naturally, as well, and they all appear to know about how to feed 6 people with a cup and a half of milk, 3 eggs, a bit of ham, and a handful of grated cheese. How DO they do it? These folks are always frying croutons, whipping up homemade hot chocolate, baking an apple tart using apples from the backyard tree, simmering cream soups or vegetable pastas, stirring up something tasty with canned tuna … or even making quiche! How is it that even carbs aren’t a problem for them? This is proven routinely by the unending ubiquitous photos of yard-long baguettes being carried home by slim citizens riding bikes down tree-lined sunny Paris streets. (Well, right now they’re limited to an hour out a day and can’t go far from home. Sigh.) Over the years I’ve been writing the blog, I’ve read and seen quite a lot about this phenomenon, but staying in France for two weeks a couple of years ago gave me a much more complete and definitely personal insight. I’m finding it all definitely useful in today’s cooking world.

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20 Main Dish Salads to Continue Your Healthy January Adventure

{print recipe for Kalamata Egg Salad with Charred Red Peppers}

If you’re not trying to get healthy this month, you might still want to read this week’s post featuring main dish salads.  Even if all you managed to accomplish was to clear out your entire cellar’s store of Pinot Noir but skipped every red, green, and silver Hershey’s kiss you encountered (and so didn’t gain an ounce in December), you could drum up interest in hefty, heart-warming and filling whole meal salads–if nothing else but to figure out what to do with leftover steak (leftover steak?!), those couple of lonely pork chops, an oh-so-sad single portion of salmon, one languishing chicken breast with wing attached, or perhaps only a drawer full of vegetables and cheese with little else to recommend them but a poached egg or two and maybe a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc.

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Breakfast for Dinner: Apple-Walnut Pancakes with Eggs and Bacon

Pancakes are the answer when the question is, “What’s for dinner? I haven’t been to the store and there’s nothing thawed. It’s late and we’re hungry.” My happy guess is you have flour, eggs, milk, and syrup or honey. Maybe, if God is good, you have some bacon in the freezer. Enter the fall breakfast for dinner and why not? It’s not something you do often, but when you do, you think, “THIS is a great idea!” Ok, this might not have fit in the “diet,” but I didn’t overdo. Continue reading

Make-Ahead Holiday Brunch for 12

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I might love brunch more than any meal...perhaps I like the laid-back time involved or the old-school approach.  There’s barely a noted beginning –sitting around drinking coffee as the food is put out — and there needn’t be any end. (Movie with the coffee and brandy??)  It’s almost always a group.  Nearly certainly a special occasion.  More fun at home than at some swanky, pay-through-the-nose, eat-til-you-drop place, I think.  Even the dogs are at ease.

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Kalamata Eggs with Vegetables

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Welcome to the new More Time at the Table on wordpress.com!  This blog has been hosted on blogger for the past four-plus years and will published at both urls until all the kinks are worked out of the transition process.  Do change your bookmarks or links, please. Great thanks to my gorgeous daughter Emily (see below–in red sweater) who managed the migration.  So cool to have smart kids!

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There comes a moment between Christmas and New Year’s when you simply look around the kitchen and say, “I’ve had enough meat, cheese, and bread.” Parties, quick meals, egg casseroles, roast beast dinners, COO-KEES… Continue reading