"....It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas..." and indeed it does. Every year, during the first three weeks of December, my kitchen starts to fill up with the sweet enticing aroma of a commercial pastry kitchen. Aside from the influx of food orders coming in, this is also the time, I would prepare home baked items as gifts to family and friends. It gives me the chance to stretch my creativity muscles and think of innovative new dishes to try to outshine what I gave last year. I would like to say that I do a pretty good job every year. Last year, I gave home-baked sugar free jack fruit muffins and jars of biscotti. In the past years, I've made baskets with my home made potato bread, jars of home made muesli mixed with honey, canisters of my chocolate covered toffee, bottles of my special atchara and bagoong. One year, I think it was in 2003, I sent everyone one on a sugar rush with boxes consisting of my home made confectionery items such as white chocolate covered nougat and mint butter crunch. The most memorable and at the same time the saddest was Christmas 2000 for two reasons-1.) it was my first venture into cooking ( I was not in culinary school nor a chef yet) 2.) it was my mom's last Christmas. I recall me and my sisters rushing in preparing trays of meat loaves with gravy until 10 pm since it was our goal to deliver the meat loaves to my titos and titas in time for their noche buena ( that was Christmas eve).
This year, I faced the same dilemma which is coming up with something new to offer. The list of possibilities was endless - a box of my salted caramel cake ( nah...most members of my clan are diabetics); home-baked bread ( AGAIN?); jars of cookies ( BORING!); new spreads and dips (BEEN THERE DONE THAT). I wanted to offer something savory and at the same time healthy. One afternoon, I visited Bizu Pattisserie to get my sugar fix when it hit me like a ton of bricks. There...staring right in front of me was the answer to my dilemma... A QUICHE- that quintessential French pastry consisting of a sable crust, vegetables and a milky creamy custard topped with cheese (Later on, I find out that quiches did not originate from France but from Germany-ha ha ! How's that for some Quiche 101). Perfect I thought. It's something savory plus I don't get to leave my baking comfort zone. Immediately, I relayed my idea to my younger sister. We decided to offer different quiche variations. At the beginning we thought of eight flavors but decided that some of the variants were similar in taste and ingredients. So we mixed and matched and decided with four variants:
1. TRADITIONAL QUICHE LORRAINE - with spinach, bacon and mushroom topped with parmesan
2. VEGETARIAN - with bell peppers, tomatoes, onion and mushroom topped with parmesan ( inspired by my dad whose favorite omelet-which I cook every Sunday morning for his breakfast-consists of the same ingredients).
3. CHRISTMAS - with fiesta ham slices and grated Queso de Bola
4. FILIPINO -with chopped Longaniza Hammonado, tomatoes, salted duck egg and parmesan.
Yesterday, me and my younger sister spent the whole day baking our mini quiches. My younger sister, who is a graphic designer by profession, was in charge of how it's going to be packaged. I also asked her reactions of what it was like to leave her graphic design duties and to go culinary for one day. Without hesitation, she answers " kuya, you can have it...I don't think I'm cut out to be a chef"!.
For more information on Ojay's Kitchen Quiches - text 09178867695
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