DUTCH OVEN SUNDAY MORNING QUICHE

Not only do I like to make and eat quiche in my cast iron Dutch ovens, one of my favorite cookin’ stories involves a bunch of Texas cowboys and this recipe we call, “Sunday Morning Quiche”.** If you’ve ever driven from San Antonio to Fort Stockton, Texas, on I-10 you’ve driven through Ozona, Texas. In the early 1990’s we were teaching a Dutch oven clinic at the city park there with about twenty Texas cowboys, and some oilfield workers attending. I’ve never seen so much finger pointing at a clinic as when my wife Penny announced to the guys on Sunday morning that one group would be making quiche. I think deep down they all wanted to try it but because of peer pressure they all wanted someone else to make it. The quiche of course turned out great and there was a smile under every cowboy hat.

Everyone who has tried making pie/pastry crusts know it can be difficult and requires a substantial learning curve to get them just right. The crust we use for the quiche recipe is all but fool proof as well as being very flaky and tasty!

The crust as given in the recipe is enough for two 9″ pie pans or can be rolled/pressed out enough to fit in a twelve inch Dutch oven. We chill the dough for 1-2 hours before rolling/pressing into the Dutch oven and we do not pre-bake the crust. We add another 3-4 briquettes underneath the Dutch oven and bake for 35-45 minutes.

Sunday Morning Quiche
Crust Ingredients:
6 oz. cream cheese
1 cup butter
2 cups flour
(or, use a ready-to-bake pie crust)

Filling Ingredients:
4 eggs
2 cups whipping cream
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/8 tsp. ground red pepper
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
Chopped cooked bacon, ham, etc.
1 1/2 cups Swiss cheese, grated
1/3 cup green onion tops, chopped
2 Tbsp. flour

Other possible ingredients might be chopped morel or other
mushrooms, crab, shrimp, sun dried tomatoes, fresh spinach.

Combine crust ingredients, working into a ball. Roll out
and place crust in a pie pan. Bake at 400-425 degrees for 10-15
minutes. If using a Dutch oven, place pie pan on a rack in
a 12” Dutch oven. Place Dutch in firepan with about 10
briquets under the Dutch and cover with preheated lid using
20-22 briquets, and bake for 10-15 minutes. Cool the lightly
precooked crust and brush with melted butter or olive oil.
Combine other ingredients for filling and pour into crust.
Continue to bake at 300-325 degrees for approximately 30
minutes or until knife poked into filling comes out clean,
using 8-10 under the Dutch oven and 18-20 briquets on the
lid. Let stand 15 minutes to cool.

** Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche, by American Bruce Feirstein, is a bestselling tongue-in-cheek book satirizing stereotypes of masculinity, published in 1982.