I recently visited the family owned Weed Orchards in Marlborough, NY where I picked an array of local, seasonal vegetables, and discovered the amazing white eggplant. I decided to make them for myself and a few friends – if they managed to stop by before I ate it all, that is! Luckily for those who live in my neighborhood, I made sure they got a chance to taste this amazing and almost seedless version of the classic purple vegetable.
Milder, less bitter and a tad sweeter, white eggplant cooks up beautifully in quiche. If you don’t have the homebody bug like me and want to skip the batter and dough, don’t worry! A store bought pie dough will suffice your adventure!
Recipe: Rina Oh
White Eggplant Quiche
Quiche dough
Yields 1 10″ x 2″ quiche or 3 4″ x 2″ round quiches
Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
4 ounces of butter cubed
1 egg, beaten or 3 tablespoons of ice cold water
1 tablespoons of ice cold water
Pinch of salt
Pinch of sugar
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour with pinch of salt and sugar and place on a flat surface. Place cubed butter on top of flour and cut through using a pastry scraper until flour reaches a crumb like consistency.
Make a well in center and add egg and fold in dough. Gently knead dough for about a minute. Add the tablespoon of water at this point if the dough is too dry and cracks.
Form dough into a round shape and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
In the meantime, grease three 4″ springform pans with butter and line with parchment paper. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin until dough is about 1/8″ thick.
Place dough into pans and blind bake with beans for about 15 minutes, remove beans and dock (poke with fork on bottom). Continue baking dough without beans for an additional 10 minutes.
Remove from oven, place on cooling racks and allow to rest for about 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees.
Eggplant filling & quiche custard
Yields 1 10″ x 2″ quiche and some left over for healthy snacking
Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 egg yolk
½ cup cream
3 white eggplant, evenly sliced thin
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
On the stovetop, place olive oil in a medium size skillet and allow pan to get hot on high heat.
Add eggplant slices, about ½ cup and saute for a about a minute on each side. Lightly season with salt and pepper. Cook eggplant in batches for best results.
Combine eggs with yolk and cream in a mixing bowl and whisk together for about a minute.
Place eggplant into baked quiche crust and pour in the custard mixture. Bake at 300 degrees for about 25-30 minutes.
Remove from heat and place on a cooling rack for an additional hour.
