My one local summer meal for week 1 included some “last of” and some “first of” the season ingredients. My options were a little bit limited by the fact that it is still early in the season here in NW Indiana and I haven’t yet found a source of local grain products (other than popcorn). In addition, I needed a way to combine various things at the “use them or lose them” stage so I opted for a crustless quiche as the focal point of the meal.
I started by browning a few slices of bacon from Birky’s Family Farm. When the bacon was crisp I removed it from the pan and added the white parts of the some green onions that I had grown in a container on my porch and several handfuls of mixed kale from my garden. I let the kale wilt a bit and then added the last usable leaves from my baby spinach crop (also container grown) and a bit of thyme from my garden.
While the kale mixture cooled, I sliced some asparagus from Garwoods that had accidentally froze in a too cold part of my refrigerator into a casserole pan. I mixed a colorful assortment of eggs (also from the MC Farmer’s Market) with about 2 cups of milk from Fair Oaks Farms, pepper, and a bit of nutmeg.
I layered the kale over the asparagus and topped with crumbled Capriole goat cheese. Though and Indiana product this stretches local a bit as it is at the other end of the state. On a positive note, it was purchased from a vendor at the MC Farmer’s Market. Over all of this, I poured the egg/milk mixture. I topped it all with a few whole asparagus spears and the crumbled bacon and put it into a 375 degree oven to bake.
While the quiche was baking, I cleaned a last handful of morel mushrooms for the season. I picked these up when I stopped at Garwood Orchard for a first batch of strawberries for the year. I sauteed the morels along with shiitake mushrooms. When the mushrooms were just about finished I added some garlic scapes and green onion tops. The Shiitakes and garlic scapes were from the MC Farmer’s Market and the green onions were those that I had grown.
To accompany my quiche and mushroom topping, I sliced up the aforementioned strawberries and cleaned a few radishes (from the same market vendor as the eggs and garlic scapes).
The quiche was good but not great; it needed a stronger cheese or more seasonings. The strawberries were very good. The mushrooms were wonderful and I will miss morels until next spring.
1 Comment
June 8, 2009 at 8:33 pm
Mmmm … goat cheese, yum! Strawberries are in season here too. We got a case of them on Saturday. There’s nothing like them.