Quiche Lorraine Chez Vous

There are many different recipes for quiche lorraine, with a basic theme of eggs, cream (or half cream, half milk), herbs and onions, eggs, cheese, and bacon. You need the cheese, but it doesn’t particularly matter what sort of cheese you use, as long as it’s not a stringy mozzarella or Greek type and as long as it has good flavour. The bacon could be any kind of bacon. The onions can be any kind of onion — yellow, red, green, white, or leeks. You could skip the leeks and half the onions, and add mushrooms instead (see the recipe). You could add garlic or leave it out. You could add herbs or leave them out. If you want, the green veggie aspect of this dish could be young spinach. This is really a versatile dish, which explains why it has so long been popular. It’s also delicious cold the next day. So you could make it the day before, have some for dinner, and then have the rest for a boffo picnic. I call this Quiche Lorraine Chez Vous (‘at your home’) because I encourage you to add to it whatever you have in your fridge. Please note the ‘OR” recommendations. This is not a recipe to be uptight about. Try different ingredients and enjoy!

Bakeware:  A flan/quiche tin (tall crimped sides and removable bottom) or deep pie dish 

Also: a medium mixing bowl.

For the dough:

5 ounces or 1 level cup of unbleached all-purpose flour

3 ounces or ¾ stick of butter (6 Tablespoons)

2 Tablespoons of ice-cold water (equals 6 teaspoons)

½ teaspoon sea salt or other high-quality, medium-fine salt

For the filling: 

One large or two small garlic cloves, crushed (and pan-fried in oil with the onions). The quiche will not taste ‘garlicky’ but the flavour is enhanced.

About ¾ of a 16-ounce package of smoked thinly cut bacon rashers (up to 3 oz cooked, if you want the bacon to be prominent in the dish; less if you don’t). 

OR Canadian bacon (about 8 slices, with fat trimmed off, and crisply cooked in oil) can be substituted for regular streaky bacon.

About I teaspoon reserved bacon fat (lard), to be used for cooking the onions.

4 ounces of finely chopped onion (any kind, but I like white and/or green the best in this recipe)

OR a combination of onions and finely chopped leeks, well washed and stripped of the tough outer layers. 

ALTERNATIVELY, use 2 ounces finely chopped onion and 2-3 ounces of mushrooms.

About 1 tablespoon each of parsley and chives (err on the side of generosity). Remove all stems from parsley first. Snip herbs with scissors or chop finely. If you don’t have fresh herbs, several shakes of dried parsley and dried chives can be substituted.

Two large or extra large eggs, with an additional egg yolk

About half of a pint carton or 10 oz or 300 ml of half milk, half cream (‘half and half’)

OR 1 cup of sour cream.

3 ounces or 75 grams of grated hard cheese (good options are mature Cheddar, Manchego, hard Mahón, or Gruyère)

To make:

Blind-bake the pastry in a pre-heated oven at 375° for about 20 minutes or until it starts turning golden bown.

Divide the bacon into two batches and cook over medium heat until crisp. (You may find you get a more even result — and more in the pan at one time — if you cut the raw bacon in half first. This is the longest part of the cooking, so allow half an hour and prepare the herbs and cheese in the meantime: see below.) Set aside. Drain the fat and reserve in a bowl. When the bacon cools, break into small bits, about the size of your fingernails.

In a small pan, heat about ¼ of a teaspoon of bacon fat on a low setting and cook the crushed garlic until aromatic and slightly golden. Do not let brown. Put garlic into the bowl for the egg-cream mixture.

Slick the pan with 1 teaspoon of bacon fat and add the onions and leeks, stirring frequently, and cook over medium heat until soft. (Lower the heat if the onions are browning too quickly.) Add more bacon fat as needed. If using mushrooms, add them along with 1 tsp fat along once the onions have become soft and somewhat translucent. After a few minutes of constant stirring, when the whole mix has become golden brown, remove from the heat and add to the garlic.

Whisk the eggs together, and salt and pepper as if you were about to eat them alone as a meal, with a few extra pinches of both salt and pepper, since in fact you are seasoning the whole quiche.  

To the whisked eggs add the half and half, the bacon, the grated cheese, and the garlic, onions, leeks if using, and herbs.

Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C. On the middle rack, bake the filled flan dish for 35-40 minutes in a conventional oven, or about 25 minutes with convection. Note that when you remove the pie to cool on a rack, it’s still cooking internally. Please note also that times will vary according to how hot or how efficient your oven is: 40 minutes on a non-convection setting is closer to perfect in my experience, but anything over will tend to overcook it. If you’re not sure about doneness, use a toothpick to gauge whether the center is still wet or not.