Christmas Morning Quiche with Pineapple Salsa

I’d like to think there’s an old Hawaiian tradition of serving Christmas ham with pineapple. I’d also like to think that I’m in Hawaii instead of New Jersey this Christmas as well. But unfortunately, neither are most likely true. But because ham is not on the menu for my family’s Christmas this year, or for our traditional night-before-Christmas elaborate Chinese feast (which will be posted and explained soon), or any time really this year, I thought I’d pay my respect to the Christmasy fare by having it for breakfast.

This recipe, like most of the ones you’ll see on NEOiNY, came completely out of a daydream while I was staring at my computer at work, and I wasn’t honestly sure it would be a very good one. Pineapple seemed like a cute accoutrement to a ham quiche, and though I’ve never heard of serving quiche with a salsa on top of it or even alongside, I thought at the very worst it could serve as a side fruit salad.

And it wasn’t bad, after all.

Christmas Morning Quiche with Pineapple Salsa
(makes 1 9-inch quiche)

4 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 – 2 cups chopped ham steak
1 scallion, chopped
4-5 button mushrooms, sliced and sauteed (optional)
Few slices of a tomato
1/4 tsp salt
Black pepper to taste

for the tapenade
1 cup finely diced fresh pineapple
1/2 cup finely diced tomatoes
chopped scallion (optional–mostly for color)

for the crust:
1 1/2 cups flour
4 Tb butter
3 Tb water (or more if necessary)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. For the crust, cut butter into cubes and let soften in a large bowl. Cut flour into butter with a pastry cutter or your fingers until butter pieces are no larger than a pea. Stir in water, adding more if necessary, or more flour if too wet. Knead and form into a ball. Roll the pastry out (or do it my way–by pressing the dough into the bottom of a 9-inch pie pan). Bake the crust for about fifteen minutes, and remove from oven.

Saute sliced mushrooms in a skillet and season with salt and pepper. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs, sour cream, and milk until thoroughly blended and bubbly. Add the chopped scallions, ham, salt, black pepper, and mushrooms (making sure that they’ve cooled down to at least warm instead of hot). Top quiche with thinly sliced tomatoes. Bake for about 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the quiche. Serve alongside a tapenade of diced fresh pineapple, tomato, and a few sprigs of chopped green scallion.

I tend to use sour cream instead of heavy cream when I make quiche because it adds a savory bite to the flavor, and in instances where cheese isn’t used (I thought it wouldn’t go with pineapple very well), it makes up nicely for it.

Cost Calculator:
(for about 8 slices of quiche)

1 – 1/2 cups chopped ham (from a large ham steak from the deli at $3.99): $2.25
4 eggs (at $1.89/doz): $0.64
1/2 cup sour cream ($0.99/small container): $0.30
1/2 cup milk: $0.15
1 cup fresh pineapple (at $3.99/whole pineapple): $0.80
1/2 cup chopped tomato plus slices: $0.50
Flour, butter, salt, pepper: $0.25
Total: $4.89

Health Factor:

Five brownie points – another French delicacy, quiche has a lot of cream, and often cheese. Not a good place to add more cholesterol such as bacon, but with plenty of veggies (and fruits) it makes a well-balanced meal, and a minimal crust for carb cutters.