When I haven’t made up my mind what to cook for dinner, I usually let the vegetables in the market guide me. Recently, asparagus won me over. To me, it’s the queen of vegetables, and I felt that the queen deserved to be celebrated in a quiche.
Quiches are a special union between pastry and filling. A crisp, flaky pastry, cradling a rich eggy custard, work miracles on the tongue and in the mouth. I fell in love with quiches and first learned how to make them watching Julia Child. She made everything look so do-able and gave me the confidence to soldier on and make my first quiche, one made with asparagus.
What is Ghee?
The problem many cooks have with quiches is the pastry. So in my recipe I’ve made things much easier by substituting a pres-in quick-mix dough for a classic pie crust. For this quiche, you just mix the dry ingredients with vegetable oil and milk and press the dough into a pie pan. That’s it. For a buttery taste you can put in ghee instead of the oil. Why ghee and not just plain melted butter? Butter is about 18 percent water. Ghee is clarified butter and, like vegetable oil, has no water in it. Less water means less gluten development so you’ll get a crispy crust.
How to Asparagus Quickly?
Asparagus needs a brief pre-cooking before it goes into a quiche. While baking it becomes completely tender. One really quick way to prep the asparagus is in a microwave. Snap the ends off a pound of asparagus and put the spears into a microwave-safe dish. Cover tightly with a lid or with plastic wrap and microwave on high for 3 minutes. After cooling, cut the spears as directed in the recipe and they’re ready to bake in the quiche.