Crustless Smoked Oyster & Silver Beet Quiche

Know what a silver beet is? It sounds magical, but really it's what Swiss chard is called in Australia (in Germany it's mangold). Know what the difference between Swiss chard and regular chard is? According to Wikipedia: nothing. We just like to call the same things different words.

A quick email to my Australian friend confirmed they are indeed the same thing, though she added, "People commonly think silver beet is spinach. But it’s not."

So it's NOT spinach, got that? Back to our friendly internet resource, Wikipedia claims the "Swiss" part was added precisely to differentiate the greens from French spinach in 19th century seed catalogs. That was back before the internet could help sort it all out. You had to eat it, and if your teeth felt fuzzy, you knew it was spinach.

Swiss chard, mangold, regular chard, spinach...I'll call it silver beet because that sounds neato. And also because I like chard but I hate beets, so hopefully this will help me get over my aversion.

Silver beets. Yum.

My silver beets didn't have red stalks. How do you tell the difference between red chard and just plain rhubarb? Rhubarb is a fruit used in pies and red chard is like spinach with red veins. There you go.

This began as a simple spinach quiche. I used to make it a lot back in the day before I actually knew how to "cook." Instead of the cheddar I would normally use, I threw in the leftover smoked oyster dip from last week and voila! More protein. With the superfood chard, eggs, and oysters, this is probably the most protein-charged meal I've made recently. Or ever.

Probably ever.

Since the cheese in the dip is so very salty/sour, the taste is quite different from a regular quiche. It's also more oyster-y. But it's good for you. Might turn you into a super-hero.*

Douse this with some salsa colorada and say ahhh!

*claim unproven

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Crustless Smoked Oyster & Silver Beet Quiche

by Paulette Fontanez April-12-2012

A fusion of a smoked oyster dip and spinach-like chard in an eggy pie.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cups silver beet leaves
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1 to 1 1/2 cups smoked oyster dip

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a 9-inch pie pan.2. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Sauté the onions until they are soft, just before they start to brown. Then stir in silver beet and continue cooking until bright green. Remove from heat.3. In a bowl, combine the eggs with the smoked oyster dip. Add the silver beet/onion mixture and ensure it's evenly mixed together. Spread mixture into greased pie pan, evenly.4. Bake until top is slightly brown, about 30-40 minutes. Eggs should be set and a toothpick comes out clean. Serve warm.

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 40 mins Total time: 50 mins Yields: 1 9" pie

Simple Breakfast: Soft-Boiled Egg with Diced Avocado

Eggs are considered a near-perfect food. They're full of vitamins, minerals, protein, pixie dust. (That last one might not be true.) They also have all 9 essential amino acids, making them a complete protein.

In other words, they're good and good for you.

Avocados are considered a super food, also full of pixie dust (maybe). They're full of good fat (the kind that keeps you from getting bad fat), tasty, and are good for your brain.

All that science aside, you combine eggs with avocados and you have a delicious breakfast.

I like my eggs soft-boiled. They're like poached eggs, but without the hassle. My father, who always made me perfect eggs, taught me the secret: boil the egg for exactly 3 minutes. A really good roiling boil. The whites will be thoroughly cooked, the yolk still just runny. (Health note: anytime you don't cook your eggs fully, you run the risk of salmonella poisoning, so use pasteurized eggs like Safest Choice or Eggland's Best.)

Dice an avocado, snip some chives, sprinkle some truffle salt, crack some black pepper, and you have breakfast. In just over 3 minutes.

Pixie dust optional.

Break the yolk and have at it.

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Soft-Boiled Egg with Diced Avocado

by Paulette Fontanez March-20-2012

A quick and easy meal, as easy to make for breakfast as for a midnight snack.

Ingredients

• 1 large egg
• 1/2 avocado, diced
• 1 teaspoon fresh cut chives
• salt & pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Cover egg with about an inch of water. Bring water to a boil and let boil for 3 minutes (4 minutes for larger eggs).2. While the egg boils, cut open the avocado. Using a sharp knife, cut all the way around the large pit and twist open. Leave the pit in one half, and run the knife in parallel cuts along the long axis of the other half. Then cut perpendicular lines in the flesh and scoop out with a spoon. 3. After 3 minutes, remove the egg from the heat and shock with ice water to stop the cooking. Gently crack the egg and split in half, leaving the yolk on one side. Scoop out with a spoon on top of the avocado.4. Sprinkle salt and pepper (truffle salt if you have it), and any other condiment (salsa, maybe?). Break the yolk and enjoy.

Details

Prep time: 1 minuteCook time: 3 minutesTotal time: 4 minutesYield: 1 serving

Greek Lemon Soup

I found this great recipe for Greek avgolemono soup via The Smithsonian's food blog, Food & Write. Avgolemono refers to sauces and soups made with lemon, egg, and broth, and popular in the Mediterranean.

Even though there were a bunch of steps (you have to make broth—so time-consuming!), there are easy ways to cheat. Which means I probably cheated myself out of some richness, but I was both hungry and curious, and hungry won out.

I simply simmered a chicken thigh (not a whole chicken) as suggested by the recipe, instead of putting it in the crockpot for hours. Day old rice is also good to have, which cuts out about half an hour of cooking right there! But the real intrigue lay in the egg foam.

The recipe calls for the eggs to be separated, beaten, then brought back together with some lemon juice. Which means the eggs remain raw. Though I'm guessing the lemon juice "cooks" the eggs much like it would in ceviche. Rest assured there were no ill effects from consuming said egg foam.

Plus, it was really pretty floating on top of the plate. Foamy!

The recipe I borrowed comes with a sweet story by writer Christie Zgourides. She first made this for her boyfriend's birthday (he later became her husband) and the rest is history.

My soup was lacking something, and it wasn't merely all the cheating I did. I'm used to a bit more bite in my food, and I was tempted to put spices in this. Maybe it just needed more salt...I'm not sure. I'm going to revisit it one day. Maybe add the harissa I finally procured. Mmm.

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Greek Lemon Soup

by Christie Zgourides 

Adapted from Food & Write

Ingredients
1 bone-in chicken thigh

Salt, pepper

1 tablespoons butter

1 celery ribs, chopped

1 cup rice (may be made a day ahead)

1 egg, separated

1 large lemon, juiced

Instructions

1. Place chicken in a Dutch oven with salt, pepper, butter, celery, and water to cover. Simmer for an hour or two. Remove chicken, strain broth, use same day. (Recipe author note: This short-cut method is good, but broth is not as rich and will have more fat.)

2. Cool. Remove chicken. Drain. Pour drained broth back into slow cooker. Let stand overnight in refrigerator. Skim off fat next day. Strain broth. This process should make about 2-3 cups of broth. [G+F note: cool the broth, then put in the freezer for about 30 minutes. The fat will freeze but the broth will still be liquid at this point, allowing for quick skimming.]

3. Cook rice. Bring broth to a low boil in a heavy Dutch oven. [G+F note: if using day-old rice, simply throw it in the broth to warm up.]

4. While broth is heating, beat egg whites stiff in a small bowl.

5. In a separate, larger bowl, beat the egg yolks till foamy.

6. Add lemon juice to egg yolks and beat until mixed. Add rice to broth (if you didn't use the G+F tip above...)

7. Combine stiff egg whites with yolks. Mix together slowly, using the low setting on mixer.

8. Add some hot broth to the egg mixture (to prevent curdling) and continue beating slowing

9. Add mixture to broth and rice mixture, and barely stir into soup. There should be foam on top of the soup.

10. Remove from heat and serve with crackers, de-boned chicken, and Greek salad.

Yield: 2-3 cups

I liked the foam just resting on top of the soup. Add the shredded chicken to the soup, and enjoy.

Truffled Egg Salad

This Cheese Fast thing is getting ridiculous. I feel like the universe is mocking me. The other day I drove past a NEW grilled cheese truck right next to the office.

Not fair!!

So I've turned to my other food love: truffles. Not those chocolate things, since I don't have much a sweet tooth, but the supremely expensive subterranean delights from distant lands. The easiest way to experience them without going broke is either truffle salt or truffle oil. And thanks to dear food blogger friend Erika Kerekes, from whom I borrow lots of recipes, today I had BOTH!

So decadent.

Surfas has teeny tiny bottles of both white and black truffle oil for only $12. For 2 ounces. Yup, 2 teeny tiny ounces. But compared to paying $300 per pound of the actual mushrooms, it's a steal. And the Spice Station has salt for $10 an ounce (only 1/3 the price of saffron!). I've had both the oils and salt in the pantry forever, so this was just waiting for me to hard boil some eggs.

(Thankfully my random allergy to eggs has disappeared. Yay!)

I used white truffle oil because that's the type of salt I had and figured they would pair well. The black truffle oil is a bit more earthy, and I like it in green salads. This would taste just as deliciously with the black truffle oil, I'm sure. They're both excellent.

And since I was cooking for just one person, I cut the recipe significantly. I was out of my typical mayo substitute (Greek yogurt), so I went without. It was still creamy and delicious. I also mashed this together in my mini chopper because I love that thing, though you could do as Erika suggests and simply mash them with a potato masher. But I like to save my elbow grease for tennis and/or sipping scotch.

Not necessarily in that order.

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Truffled Egg Salad

Adapted from In Erika's Kitchen. This is quick, delicious, and just a tad decadent. Use a mini chopper to whirl it together quickly and with minimal elbow grease.

Ingredients
4 eggs, hard boiled
1 tablespoon white truffle oil
1/8 teaspoon white truffle salt
1-2 tablespoons sour cream

Instructions

1. Peel the eggs and crumble them into the bowl of the mini chopper.

2. Add the sour cream, salt, oil, and blend away.

3. If the consistency isn't creamy enough, add more sour cream a little at a time.

Spread on crackers, in tortillas, or simply eat straight out of the bowl. Don't try to control yourself, you will lose that battle.

Yield: approx 1.5 cups