Happy Mother’s Day!
Although I’m a little late for the actual day, I like to think that any day Mom has had a long one is a good time to make her dinner. Served with a side salad, a quiche is the perfect quick, filling and fridge cleaning option for just such an occasion.
Tart rhubarb on a sweet, creamy custard…all of it on a firm crust that makes this local, seasonal treat just as easy to eat from your hand as it is from a plate.
(I’m going to take a second to beg your pardon right here and now.) As you’re about to see, this turns into one of my rare, but full-blown blooper posts where pretty much every decision I make goes bad (and it has nothing to do with the beer).
But since it’s Sunday, I’m just gonna relax and show it to you anyway. Warts and all. After all, in the end, I still managed to get the pic. So, at least you know it’s worth reading on to get the recipe.
I need to come clean. I messed up this recipe pretty majorly from the beginning — and all the way through to the end. It doesn’t happen often in my little island kitchen, but when it does, it’s epic.
But you wouldn’t know if from the picture, would you? And they don’t just look good, they’re delicious too. Despite the fact that I left out a great part of the liquid in this recipe, and then added insult to injury by forgetting about these little “pretzels” in the oven — for a long time — I’m not exactly sure how much too long I left them in there, but I do know I pulled them out after they had turned a little darker than planned
And yet, after that long, arduous journey, they’re still amazing. Like go make these right now and don’t forget to set the oven timer, amazing.
I expected Howard to fight me on this one — so I only gave him a small scoop to start and topped it with a little extra tuna. (He’s a sucker for seared tuna.)
But he’s not fond of buckwheat, see…I’ve tried a few variations, but never received a lot of enthusiasm in return.
So I was a little surprised when he came back to the kitchen looking for more before I had even finished taking the photos of my plate (food blogging can be a drag at dinner time).
And then I sat down and had mine — and went back for more, almost right away. It’s full of simple flavours, and the juxtaposition between the seared, almost cold, tuna and the creamy comfort of the barley/buckwheat is a surprisingly perfect pairing of opposites.
In other words, it’s really, really good.
This new year is all about restraint for me. For example, I wanted to lead this post with a picture that I eventually decided to bury after a bit of text and a warning: it’s a beef bone with the marrow popping out. A picture that may ’cause some of my more sensitive readers to break out in a cold sweat.
And then there’s the fact that my first post of 2012 is a recipe for salad — more evidence of restraint. After years of cold-oil french fires, Italian meatballs, mocha hot fudge, Danish meatballs, etc, I’ve finally come through with a post that keeps the best-intentioned resolutions in mind!
What’s that you say? The croutons? Well…yes…by marrow I do mean beef marrow. From a bone. Breaded and deep fried.
And, you should know, it took everything I had not to just serve my Popcorn Marrow Balls with a big bowl of blue cheese dressing on the side. If it wasn’t for restraint, there wouldn’t be a green in sight. (Except the sage — deep fried.)
Oh dear. This is not looking good.