Wednesday 25 January 2012

Quiche, Quickly!

Quickly made, but not quickly done: Quiche Lorraine.
You'll see what I mean by this apparent contradiction when you read the recipe.

I had been wanting to make a quiche in a long time; my last one was at least 5 or 6 years ago, and I threw out my old baking form some time after moving to this place in 2003 and never bought a new one. Last week, then, my mum kindly gave me one of hers (still brand new and unused, in its original packing), and so on Saturday, I made Quiche Lorraine for RJ and my dinner.
You need for the crust:
200 g flour
100 g soft butter or margarine (I used the latter)
1 egg
a pinch of salt

For the filling:
around 200 g of ham or bacon (again, I used the latter, and the laziest option at that,  readily diced)
150 g Emmental cheese (lazy again - I bought it already grated)
3 eggs
200 g cream
pepper, salt, nutmeg

(You can find a very useful converting tool for weights, measures and temperatures here)

Put the flour in a bowl and add the margarine or butter in bits. Then add the one egg and pinch of salt. For the first bit, it is best to use a kneading mixer, like the one in the picture above, until the mixture is crumbly like this:
From there, using your hands works best. Work the dough into a nice, homogenous buttery (or margariney) ball like the one below, and put it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes (see what I mean? Although it is quickly made, it is not quickly done, because the dough needs to rest, you can not use it instantly upon making it).

Grease your baking form.

When the dough has rested in the fridge long enough, work it into the form. You will need a bit more than half of it for the bottom, and a bit less than half of it for the rim.

Now comes the mysterious bit; I found this instruction in the recipe and have no idea why it is necessary, but I did it anyway: take a fork and make tiny holes into the bottom, like this:

Put half of the bacon or ham bits on the bottom.

Add half of the cheese, and repeat until you have used up all the bacon/ham and cheese.

Mix the three eggs and the cream, spice with salt, pepper and nutmeg (I use fresh nutmeg, as you can see). Caution: go easy on the salt, the ham/bacon will be salty already.

Pour the mixture over the quiche and put into the oven at 175 Celsius for about 45 minutes - but keep checking after 30 minutes.

The Quiche is ready when it looks like this:

We had salad with it, and enjoyed our dinner very much!

And the nice thing about quiches (just as with pizzas) is that you can use just about anything you find in your kitchen and larder for the filling; you can make it a vegetable one, for instance, by using brokkoli and sundried tomato bits, or green asparagus, or whatever you prefer.

19 comments:

  1. sieht toll aus, würde ich auch essen, wenn ich nicht vegetarier wäre :-)

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  2. Hello:
    Your quiche looks melt in the mouth delicious.If only it were real and on our dining table and not virtual and in your kitchen. How happy we should be!!!

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  3. Healthy and nourishing too...well played that girl!

    SP

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  4. The salad looks so good too., I see some sort of grain , don't I?
    I grew up on quiche and this brought back happy times. I'm going to make it, I'm thinking crab and shallots?
    Did you have a glass of chilled reisling with this?
    xx
    julie

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  5. Hey!
    You make holes in the crust so that it won't rise up (the holes let out the air that would be trapped underneath). I wonder if I could make this with some of my almond flour for Richard? I'll let you know how it comes out!
    Hurray if this comment works, it's been KILLING me not being able to comment!

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    1. Is that the explanation? Thank you, Kay! I must tell RJ because we were both wondering what the holes were for. Congratulations - you were able to leave a comment, yay :-D

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  6. Mella, das Feine daran ist ja, dass man gar keinen Speck oder Schinken nehmen muss und es trotzdem lecker schmeckt :-)

    Jane and Lance, it was indeed delicious, and I was quite happy with my first quiche in years. I suppose I shall make that more often now.

    SP, healthy... hmm, not so sure, what with all the eggs and margarine and cream :-) But nourishing for sure!

    Yes, Julie, I added a handful of seeds, they sell that as a mixture specifically for salads here, sunflower and pumpkin seeds as well as pine nuts. We usually drink only water with all our meals, and very occasionally have some home-made liqueur (raspberry, for instance) from my mum for dessert; we are both not that much into wine.
    Enjoy your crab and shallot quiche!

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  7. Looks delicious! I wish it were on my dinner table right now! The first time I had "QL" was in college - I though I was so worldly! LOL!!!

    Enjoy the rest of the week!

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  8. Yummy! Don't suppose you left me any? :-)

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  9. I've never made a quiche but I'm interested in the explanation for the holes. I always thought it was to stop the base going soggy linked with ensuring that there are holes in a pie topping to let steam escape.

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  10. It was as delicious as it looks, Mary! You too have a great rest of the week :-)

    Diane, I'm afraid to say that the bit that was left I ate on Monday night...

    GB, Kay wrote the explanation in her comment a bit further up the list. How a few tiny holes would stop the base from going soggy is beyond me - the dough in itself is greasy enough to make sure of that, different to some fruit pies and cakes.

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  11. Mmmmm. I am envious of RJ. He must be gaining weight.

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  12. Lovely! I love quiche and we eat it almost ever week. My husband puts tempeh in it which actually gives it a nutty flavor I adore.

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  13. Mark, he has indeed been steadily gaining over the past year, but that was none of my doing - on the contrary, whenever he is here, he eats a lot less than when he is on his own.

    What is tempeh, Sonia? I have never heard of it, but nutty flavour sounds nice!

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  14. It looks wonderful. I make mine in s cake (sandwich) tin, so that it's really deep and there's not quite so much pasty in proportin to filling.

    By the way, is your blog now a cookery column? and if so, Id' love a recipe for a really yummy German cake!

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  15. I love quiches. They are a really good versatile dish for any occasion. Happy to say I can access your comments box again (I was locked out for a while) and mine is up and running again. Hurray!

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  16. Yes, Frances, depending on the size of the tin you'd get a much higher quiche than mine, but that's the only round baking tin I have now.

    My blog will always be a mixture of everything I find in my mental library, from recipes to moonlight pictures to general musings to book reviews to travel reports to... well, you get the idea :-)
    I very rarely do bake, and every time I have done so in the past year, I have posted the recipe on here. Maybe I should start sorting my blog into sections.

    Maggie, yes, seems like the comments problem is solved - I am now able to read and write comments again no matter what browser I use.

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  17. Looks delicious.

    I love the walks in the fall, too. They make me feel so happy to be alive.

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    1. Thank you, Margie! It was indeed delicious.

      Yes, such nice long walks do a lot to keep me happy.

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