Poblano Quiche
I’ve been craving chilies lately. I think peppers are one of my favorite vegetable/flavor in general. I also love them for the mood it conjures inside of me, end of summer, warm days, sunshine and the blue skies of Western Colorado. When I used to live in Colorado I would go to Okagawa’s Farm to buy chilies and have them roasted on the premises, they had so many varieties to choose from, I always ended up with a bushel. I would put up some of the chilies to freeze and then make calculated decisions on how I was going to use them. Rationing them out until the next season. Living in the Pacific Northwest has so many advantages, growing chilies as delicious as Colorado or New Mexico isn’t one of them. I’ve been lucky enough to have a father who’s pretty crazy about good food and sourcing great ingredients and he graciously buys me a bushel of peppers every year from Okagawa’s, freezes them and then drives them up to Portland packed on dry ice. He’s also done this with fresh peaches from Palisade too, we can go into that another time. Now that is LOVE people!! To bite into homemade chili relleno’s with a fresh batch of margaritas or heap spoonfuls of a coveted pork green chili recipe on top of eggs in the morning is something everyone on this planet should experience at least once.
With this quiche I went with a poblano pepper, the chilies in my freezer are pretty spicy and I wanted me kiddos to eat this too. I like poblano’s for their meaty texture and they are milder in my opinion. Interesting side note about poblano peppers, at maturity they turn dark red/brown and can be dried, at which they are reffered to as an ancho or mulato chili. If they are smoked and dried, it becomes a chipotle, just a bit of chili trivia for you. The relationship between chilies, cheese and cream is pretty symbiotic. Mexican crema will make for an extremely luscious filling, I recommend using it if you can, if not whole cream will do nicely.
This quiche is the perfect brunch dish, accompanied with a Bellini, bubbly and spice go hand in hand! If you're not up to blind baking a tart shell source a frozen one from a good bake shop in your home town.
XO
Lisa
Poblano Quiche
Ingredients
1 lb of poblano chilies, roasted and peeled
1 cup milk
1 tsp fresh chopped oregano
6 large eggs
1/3 cup Mexican crema
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 lb Monterey Jack cheese, coarsely grated, roughly 3 cups
Pastry dough
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp course kosher salt
3/4 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into cubes
4 Tbs (or more) ice water
You will need a 9 inch round fluted tart pan ( 2 inches deep) with removable bottom.
Preparation
Blend flour and salt in food processor. Add chilled butter, pulsing until mixture resembles course meal. Add 4 tablespoons of water, pulsing until moist clumps form, adding more ice water by the teaspoonful if dough feels to dry. Gather the dough into a ball and flatten into a disk. Wrap in plastic; chill for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F, adjust oven rack in middle position.
Roll out dough into a 13 inch round on a lightly floured surface. Fit dough into tart pan, folding overhanging dough inward into tart pan to reinforce the sides of the tart, pressing against the sides. Prick the bottom of tart with a fork. Chill until firm, about 1 hour.
Line pastry shell with parchment paper and fill with pie weights (or dried beans). Bake until the pastry is set and is a pale golden color 15 minutes. Remove paper and weights and bake shell until there is a rich golden color all over 15-20 minutes more.
Put tart shell in a shallow baking pan/cookie sheet, leave on oven. Prep quiche filling.
Discard seeds and ribs from roasted poblanos and cut into strips.
Whisk together eggs, milk, crema, oregano, salt and pepper. Pour into tart shell. Sprinkle chilies and cheese into custard, and bake until set about 60 minutes. The quiche will continue to set as it cools.
Transfer quiche in pan to a rack to cool for at least 30 minutes before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature.