Food, Recipes

Smoked Salmon Quiche

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Well, MEA CULPA. Admittedly, I meant to make this post much sooner – say, back in April when these photos were actually taken – but life happens! Which might be code for “I got lazy and distracted”. Perhaps. Like I said: the Culpa, it is Mea.

I felt inspired to put this quiche together when spring was finally making its first appearance in my neck of the woods. Luckily, it works just as well as a light entrée in summer as it did in spring. As someone who loves nothing more than a packed smoked salmon bagel sandwich, I’m also Very Into finding any excuse to incorporate those elements into whatever I’m eating. Smoked salmon and dill, always and forever. I only wish I had thought to push the bagel-sandwich inspiration all the way – this quiche looks like it would be perfect served with a dollop of whipped herb cream cheese (blended with tarragon, chives and dill), slivered red onion and capers.

You might look at this recipe and be thrown by the staggering number of eggs – WORRY NOT EVERYBODY,  I just used a truly enormous (read: 12-inch, oblong) baking dish. Your standard 9-inch pie or tart dish will likely only need five – feel free to keep the proportions of the other filling items the same, because who doesn’t love an overstuffed quiche?

Also I gotta be honest: I’m not super into my photography on this one, but I seem to recall somebody posting a big spiel about not letting perfection stopping one from making progress (IT WAS ME, I posted that) – so in the spirit of “fuck it”, here it is! Ya girl will do better next time, I promise.

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Smoked Salmon Quiche

This herbaceous quiche is the perfect light and satisfying entrée for spring or summer.

Course Main Course
Keyword baking, eggs, quiche
Servings 8 slices

Ingredients

For the crust:

  • 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 Tbsp sugar
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup cold butter cut into 1/4 inch cubes
  • 4 Tbsp ice water

For the filling:

  • 8 eggs (for a 12 inch baking vessel - for a standard pie or tart pan, 5 eggs will do)
  • 3/4 cup heavy cream
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1 pinch cayenne pepper
  • 5 slices smoked salmon chopped roughly
  • 1/4 cup goat cheese
  • 3 Tbsp fresh dill
  • 3 Tbsp fresh chives, chopped

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 375° F.

  2. Stir together the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add the butter to this mixture and toss to coat, and then mix in a food processor or mixer (or cut by hand with a pastry cutter) until the mixture has the appearance of coarse cornmeal and none of the butter pieces are larger than a pea. Add the ice water while mixing at low speed or with a fork until the dough pulls together. If the dough is too sticky or too dry, sparingly add more flour or ice water, respectively.

  3. Sprinkle flour over your work surface and transfer the dough, pulling it together and patting it out into a flat disk with your hands and then a floured rolling pin. Lightly dust the top of the disk with flour and roll it out until it's about 1/8 of an inch thick and will fill your chosen quiche vessel. (Alternatively, you can put the dough disk between two sheets of parchment paper and roll it out to prevent it from sticking to the rolling pin or your work surface.)

  4. Grease your tart or quiche dish with butter and press the dough in, then cut the edges of the dough with a knife so they're level with the top of your baking vessel. Prick the dough with a fork along the bottom, and then lay a large sheet of parchment paper over top and fill with pie weights or dry beans. Blind bake the crust for 15 minutes. 

  5. While the crust blind bakes, assemble your filling: whisk together the eggs with the cream, salt, pepper, and cayenne. Once the crust has finished its preliminary bake, remove it (and the pie weights, of course), and pour in your filling. Top evenly with the smoked salmon pieces, dill, chives, and crumbled pieces of the goat cheese. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes (your bake time may vary based on your oven and the size of your vessel), or until the center appears set when jiggling the pan slightly. Optional: Serve with whipped cream cheese with dill, chives, and tarragon; red onion; and capers.

Recipe Notes

Adapted from FoodieCrush's Puff Pastry Smoked Salmon and Goat Cheese Quiche.

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Dessert, Recipes

Three Citrus Cake

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It’s that magical time of year! When the snow’s been on the ground for months, sunlight is a distant memory, and you’re fairly certain you have seasonal affective disorder: IT’S CITRUS TIME, BABY.

I’m still on the fence on what to call this one  – Three Citrus Cake? Citrus Loaf Cake? Rebecca? I’ll leave it to you to decide, but I can tell you that it’s loaded with an absurd amount of citrus zest and topped with a blood orange icing that is both delicious and that particularly twee shade of millennial pink. The result? A cake that’s a cute little ray of sunshine all on its own.

And because we fancy, drop some pomegranate arils on top to really class it up. It certainly doesn’t hurt that they add a crisp and refreshing element to every bite.

On a whim I used crème fraîche to up the fat content (completely untested, because that’s what makes for good baking amirite), and there was a moment about thirty minutes into baking where the center looked to be slightly… structurally unsound. I watched with growing concern as it started to buckle, but thankfully, my worries were unwarranted: after it settled, I was left with a rich and soft pan of citrusy goodness.

The exterior is buttery and textural and crisp, and the interior is a dense and moist perfect crumb. I don’t even care that it sank a bit in the middle – especially because when you bake it in one of those adorable Nordic Ware novelty pans, you get to flip that bitch upside down and hide any failing loaf infrastructure.

 

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Three Citrus Cake

Packed with three types of citrus, drizzled with blood orange glaze and topped with pomegranate arils, this cake is perfect for spring or to cure your winter blues.

Course Dessert
Keyword baking, citrus
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Servings 8 slices

Ingredients

For the cake:

  • 1/2 cup butter room temperature
  • 1 1/4 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tbsp lemon zest
  • 1 tbsp navel orange zest
  • 1 tbsp blood orange zest
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 2 tbsp blood orange juice
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 1 tsp vanilla juice
  • 1/3 cup crème fraîche

For the glaze:

  • 2 1/2 tbsp blood orange juice
  • 1 cup powdered sugar

Topping (optional):

  • pomegranate arils

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 350° F. Grease a 8.5" x 4.5" loaf pan (or the novelty Nordic Ware loaf pan of your choice) with butter. (If using a novelty pan, brushing melted butter into the pan with a silicon brush yields the best results.)

  2. Combine butter and sugar in a stand mixer and beat thoroughly, about 30 seconds.

  3. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, and add eggs one at a time while beating on low. Add citrus zest, and mix until just incorporated.

  4. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

  5. In another small bowl, combine crème fraîche, 2 tbsp of blood orange juice, 1 tsp of lemon juice, and vanilla extract.

  6. Add half of the crème fraîche mixture and half of the flour mixture to the batter, and mix until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and repeat, mixing thoroughly.

  7. Transfer batter to the pan and bake for 45 minutes, until the edges are golden and a toothpick poked into the center of the cake comes clean. Let the cake fully cool before glazing.

  8. Whisk the powdered sugar and 2 1/2 tbsp of blood orange juice until smooth. When the cake is cool, pour the glaze over top (or drizzle to your liking). Top with pomegranate arils.

Recipe Notes

Adapted from Foodness Gracious' Blood Orange Loaf Cake.

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Cocktail Hour, Drinks, Recipes

Cocktail Hour: Mulled Wine

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Somehow I’ve lost track of 2017 (and don’t we wish we all could, because ugh) and all of a sudden the holidays are here again. While the season has no shortage of things to look forward to (Family and friends! Genuinely troubling quantities of food! String lights!), I have to admit that securely nestled in my top three is the warm, spiced delight that is mulled wine. In the sage words of Linda Belcher, Christmas magic is whatever you want it to be.

Though take my overenthusiastic word for it, you don’t have to limit this one to the holidays. Who’s to say you even need snow on the ground – a nippy breeze is enough to send me into the soothing embrace of glögg.

And we will not be putting raisins in our mulled wine, because we are not monsters.

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Mulled Wine

Perfect for a wintry day, or whenever you'd appreciate a warm little pick-me-up.

Course Drinks
Keyword drinks, wine
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Servings 2 bottles

Ingredients

  • 2 navel oranges
  • 1 lemon
  • 1 lime
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 6 whole cloves
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1 whole nutmeg for grating
  • 1 vanilla bean split lengthwise
  • 2 star anise
  • 2 bottles of red wine (good options are a Syrah, Malbec, or Shiraz)

Instructions

  1. Remove peels from your selected citrus, trying to avoid taking too much of the pith with them.

  2. Combine the sugar, the juice of one orange, your peels and vanilla bean in a pot over medium heat.

  3. Add just enough wine to cover the sugar, grate in some of the nutmeg, then add the remaining spices or mulling spice mix. Stir occasionally and continue to cook down until the mixture becomes syrupy, around 3 – 5 minutes.

  4. Add the remaining wine and whisk together with the syrup, then reduce heat to medium-low until wine is heated through, around 5 minutes. You don’t want it hitting a boil, so keep an eye on it.

Recipe Notes

If you have a favourite mulling spice mix, you can use 4 tbsp (2 per bottle) in a sachet in place of the cloves and cinnamon above.

Adapted from Jamie Oliver’s mulled wine recipe.

All that’s left is to grab a few mugs and enjoy! Optional: more people to share those other mugs with. If you have any left over, it can be strained through a fine sieve and stored in the fridge for an additional 1 – 2 weeks (but let’s be real: it’ll be used up by then).

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About

An Introduction

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Historically, I have issues with perfection.

If I can’t nail something right off the bat, if the attempt is flawed, I’ll drop it. Over the years I’ve let my obsessiveness turn me into a quitter – “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right” taken to extremes. Eventually, it kept me from trying at all, unwilling to move forward for fear of failing. If I’m completely honest, it’s A Real Damn Problem.

So this blog is the result of a few things. First, it’s a bit of an exercise in accepting that things don’t have to be perfect all at once. I’ve always enjoyed writing, but I’ve been away from it for awhile and writing for an audience is a whole different beast. This is an idea that’ll probably begin in fits and starts. But I need to make peace with “practice makes perfect”.

And second: I’ve always been happiest when at home. Getting me to go out past 8:00 PM is like pulling teeth, and somewhere with a crowd? HARD PASS. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking of ways to make my place feel like the home I’ve always wanted, so why not put my love of the domestic to good use? (And of course, any blog name would really have to encapsulate what a giant lazy introvert I am.)

Creating a home is a process, piecemeal and gradual. The same could be said of this project, too.

So: hi! I’m Robin, a 29 year old International Relations grad, lover of pop culture, and giant nerd. I’m going to share with you all the things I’ve found that can make a house — or a condo, an apartment, a room — feel like a home. It might be a décor idea, a recipe or some DIY, or a nice cocktail to pair with a good book. Also, because it’s my damn blog, I might occasionally throw in something else altogether.

Thanks for coming!

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