And occasionally make it. Quiche is actually a
great standby dish if you have a yen for throwing some things together and
having it come out yummy. For any number of starter recipes search the web or
you can go to the classic source: Julia Childs. From there you have a wide,
wide range of possibilities both for the crust (or not – crust-less quiche),
filling, egg mixture, size baking vehicle, etc. Here are some ideas.
Crust:
Crust has become an interesting development
since my younger days. Back when I first learned to cook it was Crisco (brand
name for solid vegetable shortening if you’re really young!) that most people
used. And before that it was lard. Both make great crusts and to this day I
think using “Crisco” is a lot more foolproof than butter. However, there are
the health issues, of course. I don’t make a lot of crusts and often when I do,
I create, so for a Quiche I typically go back to my mother’s old standard of
solid vegetable shortening: it yields a light, flaky, yummy vehicle for the
other ingredients to rest in. The old Betty Crocker cookbook has the measures,
but essentially you’re talking 1/3 to ½ cup Crisco, 1 ¼-1 ½ cups flour, a nice
dash of salt, and water. Mix well, roll out, place in pie plate, ramikins
(individual), Quiche dish, whatever you are going to use. Bake in
hot-ish oven (375-425) until partially baked (5-8 minutes) Julia recommends a
partially baked crust before adding the rest of the ingredients and she also
recommends weighing the crust down with pie weights or, as I did in this case,
I placed another, same-size, pie plate on top of the crust, pushed it down
until it contacted the crust uniformly, and baked it this way.
If you want to go with butter, the key is
COLD! Everything should be cold until you pop it in oven to bake.
Egg mixture:
Julia recommends only three eggs to a quantity
of cream (1 ½ to 2 cups). Personally, I tend to go for a few more eggs and a
bit less cream. It just changes the texture a bit. Experiment. You can vary
this mixture quite a bit – cream, half-and half, even milk (2% or whatever).
Depends on how ‘classic’ you want to be. I used five large eggs, and about half
cream and half milk. Make enough to fill your dish to about a half inch from
top of crust after the other ingredients are added.
What’s inside:
Cheese is not essential, and in some cases not
even recommended. Classic Quiche Lorraine doesn’t have it according to Julia. I
like adding cheese, and you can use any good melting cheese, though Swiss and
its ilk are quite nice.
Veggies: I put in green and yellow zucchini
squash, broccoli, shallots AND green onions, a bit of red bell pepper, and some
ham, a bit of salt and pepper to taste, and Jarlsberg. Again, classically the
quiche should focus on the eggs, but put in what you like in the quantities you
like and adjust the amount of the egg mixture accordingly. For this quiche the
emphasis was on flavor, I didn’t overwhelm it with veggies, etc.
Bake in hot-ish oven for about 45-50 minutes
(350-375). Or, as I did in this case, because I had other things to do while it
was baking, I cooked it slower and longer (300 for over an hour).
You may note that this whole dissertation goes
back to my roots of being the Irreverent Gourmet. Nothing is sacred unless you
make it so. Have some fun.
Joe
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