Fried Green Tomatoes with . . .

. . . with chicken

. . . on a salad

 

. . . in a pie!

 A great fall recipe

Fried Green Tomato Quiche with Polenta Crust

This recipe has a new kind of crust-- and it's wheat free-- for quiche... POLENTA!  I love polenta and it's especially yummy as a crust.  Here is how I made this fall treat with fried green tomatoes form my garden.

Recipe makes two 9" quiche pies

Polenta Crust:
You can make crust a day ahead of time if you like.
1 cup polenta (corn grits)
3 cups water
salt and 1 TBS olive or canola oil
optional: 1 cup chopped fresh spinach
optional:  1/2 cup red and green tomatoes, cooked briefly in boiling water then peeled and chopped

polenta crust, above, in a rectangular pan, with feta on top, ready for meat and filling

Bring 3 cups of salted water to a boil, add 1 TBS oil and chopped & peeled tomatoes.  Slowly add 1 cup of corn (polenta) grits to the boiling water, stirring.  Turn temperature down to medium and stir until mixture thickens.  Be careful of the  hot grits popping up and burning you!  You may need a lid between you and the corn.  Add the spinach and mix thoroughly.

Pour the thickend mixture into 2 pie pans, making a crust.  You may have some polenta left over for nibbling.  At this point you can bake the polenta in the oven on 375 F until it becomes harder (20-30 mins) or if you perfer a softer crust, you can set it aside and make the innards (the filling)!

Filling:
8 eggs (approx 4 per pie)
4 cups of milk
2 cups sliced green tomatoes, fried unitl they are lightly browned
2-4 cups of chopped fresh spinach 
1 pound of ground turkey, I make it into little balls and pre-cook it
1-2 cups cheddar cheese, I used sheep feta, which was lovely.

quiche, prior to egg and milk 

Preheat oven to 375 F Bake. Mix eggs and milk thoroughly.  Melt cheese on the polenta crust by putting it in the oven on broil briefly.  When cheese is melted, add the cooked turkey meat evenly over the two pies.  Next add the fried green tomatoes and spinach.  Lastly, pour the egg and milk mixture into the pie pan, leaving a little space at the top to prevent spilling.  Cook in the oven at 375F for 10 minutes then turn down to 350 F Bake until the filling is solidified, about 30+/- minutes.  I check the pie by sticking a knife in the center, but you can tell by using a toothpick as well.

Serve with a green salad.

Also checkout my Vegetable Quiche with Polenta Crust and my Recipe Index, which has several other wheat and gluten free quiche recipes.

Late Summer Apple-Plum Crumble Pie

What better way to use summer's bounty than to make a pie?  And what is easier than my version of a crumble?  Inspired by my friend Ashley's mixed fruit crumble, in which she let me in on her secret to a good crumble top.  And it requires no crust.  That's good, because for me, crusts take a lot of time to make!  Here it goes... thanks Ashley!

Crumble: (for 1 pie)
1 cup oatmeal, whole grain
1/2 cup brown sugar
approx 1/4 cup of butter at room temperature or melted
Mix the oatmeal and brown sugar then mix in the butter.  Set aside.

Pie Filling (fruit):

~enough fruit to fill up your pie dish(es), filling a bit over to top of the dish
I used apples, plums, and a pear.  You can use just about any fruit, keeping in mind that some fruits, like plums, are best mixed with other less flavorful fruits (like apples).  Cut fruit into small 1/4 inch pieces.  For a smooth taste peel apples.  I did not peel mine as the apples were quite small and it was still great!
~5 TBS flour
~3 TBS lemon juice
~1/2 cup sugar
~1/4 tsp nutmeg
~1/4 tsp cinnamon
Mix all the above ingredients (minus the fruit).  When thoroughly mixed add to the fruit and spoon into the pie pan.   Next, cover the fruit mixure with the oatmeal crumble.  Bake at 350 F for as long as it takes, making sure not to burn the crumble layer.

above: Marina makes her own creation, and in the foreground, the crumble

Enjoy with whip cream or icecream, hot or cold, and with friends and family!

 

above: I also made a cobbler, with the same fruit filling ingredients and it was wonderful.  I thought I had a picture of the crumble, but alas, no.