A few years ago I shared a recipe from my church’s Pie Day. Some people observe Pie Day on Pi Day — that is, on March 14 (3.14) — to celebrate the magical, irrational mathematical constant Pi.
To the members of the Federated Church in Charlemont, Pie Day is the date of our annual meeting, usually in early May. We all bake and bring pies to make the business meeting go more smoothly … and to keep us awake during the meeting.
TINKY WEISBLAT / For the Recorder
The serving of pie at the annual meeting began decades ago. Village life, and church life, was different then. The people who ran the church — mostly middle-aged, married, heterosexual couples — spent much of their spare time in church-related activities.
They maintained the building pretty much all by themselves, created crafts to sell at the annual bazaar organized by the now defunct Ladies Aid Society, and devoted many days and nights to meetings and activities at the church.
The annual meeting was held on a weeknight after supper. The couples brought pie to sweeten the occasion and to serve as dessert for the evening meal they had enjoyed earlier at home.
Some time ago — my guess is that this took place during the 1990s — the leadership noticed that church members were no longer turning out in large numbers for meetings on weeknights.
People’s workdays had lengthened so they couldn’t necessarily come to an early weeknight meeting.
Moreover, most church members tended (and tend) to find most of their social life outside of church activities. Many of us still go to church frequently, but we limit the amount of spare time we spend on church business.
The meeting was moved to a Sunday after church. People who attended church regularly were already in the building and didn’t have to make a return trip on a weeknight, so attendance went back up.
The pie tradition continued because most people like pie … and because for many church members breakfast is a mere memory by the time the church service ends.
For other church members, breakfast that day isn’t a memory at all. I am one of those. I like to maximize my time in bed in the morning and don’t eat anything before I go to church.
In short, we are all ready to eat. And pie is filling and popular.
I personally don’t care overmuch for sweet pies. While, I love fruit but don’t see why it needs to be surrounded by a heavy crust in order to be consumed. I know this is heresy to many New Englanders; I hope my Vermont-bred grandmother isn’t reading this column up in heaven.
I tend to bring a quiche to Pie Day. For a number of years, mine was the only non-sweet pie served that day. Recently, however, quiches and frittatas have grown in popularity. At Pie Day on May 3 of this year, we served almost as many savory pies as sweet ones. I applaud this trend.
For my own quiche, I thought I would adapt the Jalapeño Popper Dip my friend Liz made a couple of weeks ago. (The recipe was in this column on April 28.) I ended up doing something a bit different.
First, instead of jalapeños, I decided to flavor my quiche with a related pepper, chipotle.
As readers may know, chipotles are smoked jalapeños. They tend to be a little less spicy than your average unsmoked pepper, but more complex in flavor because of their smokiness.
I had a can of chipotles in adobo in my pantry, and I was going to use it … but then I remembered the problem with these little cans. One never uses the whole can, and then one has to use or store the remainder of the chipotles. I usually end up putting them in the freezer and forgetting about them for months.
Instead, I used some chipotle powder I had on hand. If you don’t have the dried, powdered version, feel free to pick up a can of chipotles in adobo, which is more readily available.
I would start with 1 chipotle from the can, chopped. If you are heat averse, scrape out the seeds before you add the chipotle pieces to your quiche.
In addition to swapping in chipotle for the jalapeños, I decided to add some fun vegetables: frozen corn (defrosted in a colander and then wiped with paper towels to make sure it didn’t add too much moisture to the quiche), sweet bell pepper, and part of a can of tomatoes with green chiles.
For convenience, I used a commercial pie shell from Boston Baking, which I purchased a few months ago at Whole Foods Market in Hadley and then froze. Use any 9-inch pie shell of your choice.
The pre-made crust seemed a little smaller than 9 inches to me; my filling overwhelmed it a little and spilled onto the aluminum foil below. I was on the verge of re-making the quiche, but it tasted terrific so I just cut some of the ingredient quantities down for you a little.
If despite my cutting your pie looks likely to overflow, take out a little of the filling. Or just let it flow … but be sure that you have a nice nest of foil beneath to catch what spills!
Enjoy Pie Day, whenever it falls for you.
Chipotle Quiche
Ingredients:
1/2 colorful bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 splash extra-virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, slivered
1 cup corn kernels
1/2 cup chopped, drained tomatoes (with or without green chiles)
2 pinches salt
4 eggs
2/3 cup cream
chipotle powder as needed (start with 3/4 teaspoon and adjust flavors to taste)
2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1 9-inch pie shell
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Sauté the bell-pepper pieces in a little oil until they soften. Add the garlic, and sauté it briefly (3 to 4 minutes) to soften it. Toss in the corn kernels, the tomato pieces, and 1 pinch of salt, and cook briefly to warm the veggies.
In a bowl whisk together the eggs, the cream, a pinch of salt, and the chipotle powder.
Sprinkle two thirds of the cheese over the pie shell. Top the cheese with the vegetable mixture; then pour on the cream/egg custard, and top with the remaining cheese.
Place the quiche on a rimmed cookie sheet lined with foil to prevent spillage, and bake it for about 40 minutes, until the custard is set and the top is golden. Serves 4 to 6, depending on appetite.
Tinky Weisblat is an award-winning cookbook author and singer known as the Diva of Deliciousness. Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com.