“Real men don’t eat quiche.” – Bruce Fierstein.  Prove him wrong!

A quiche is an open faced pastry crust filled with a savoury custard made up of eggs, milk, cream, cheese, bacon bits, mushrooms and seasoning of your choice. It’s prepared for parties and is served either hot or cold.

This recipe is a favourite of mine, it’s easy to fix, the ingredients are easily available and the end result is extremely gratifying.  If you really do not have time to put together a short crust pastry, and if the readymade pastry shell is available, don’t let it stop you from putting together an exotic filling and making your own quiche – be it fried bacon bits, caramelised onions or something as simple as mushrooms, sausages, baby corn, prawns and even chicken.

The famous ‘Quiche Lorraine’ is loved by all – here the savoury filling is made up of fried bacon bits and caramelised onions along with beaten eggs and cream. Give it a try and you will be happy.

When I used to take baking classes this particular dish always stood out and most of my friends used to go home and immediately try out this quiche and I used to get rave reviews. They were happy- So was I.  My family loves quiche and for a party I make small individual pastry crusts filled with different savoury fillings – could be corn and spinach, chicken and mushroom, cheese and bacon…….

For the flan:

Ingredients:

• Flour- 11/2 cups sifted with a pinch of salt.
• Chilled butter- 3/4 cup
• Egg yolk-1
• Chilled water- 2-3 tbsp (measured out in a bowl)

Method:

• Take sifted flour in a bowl and add chilled butter. Rub with fingertips till it resembles breadcrumbs.
• Add egg yolk and bind together to get a fairly firm dough, if necessary sprinkle chilled water.
• Chill the dough.
• Roll out the dough to fit the flan ring.
• Bake blind in an oven after pricking the dough with a fork all over. (preheated oven at 180 deg.c for 15 minutes).

For the filling:

• Milk -1/2 cup
• Eggs-2 (beaten lightly in a bowl)
• Cheese – 5-6 cubes grated
• Onions- 2 minced
• Tomatoes -2 minced
• Salt, pepper and chilli powder/ cayenne.

Method:

• Fry chopped onions in as little oil as possible to golden brown.
• Add minced tomatoes, chilli powder, pepper and salt.
• Fry for a while and remove.
• Add beaten eggs, milk and cheese.
• Pour into the half-baked flan and bake till set. (preheated oven at 180 deg.c for 15-20 minutes).

Chefs tips and variations:

• For a good flaky crust, the butter and water to be added should be chilled thoroughly.
• Wrap the dough in cling film and return to the fridge to chill thoroughly for 20-30 minutes before rolling it out.
• The water to be added has to be kept to a minimum.
• A chilled dough is less likely to shrink when it is baked.
• For the filling, you can get as creative as you can, but two ingredients you cannot do without are eggs and milk/ cream.
• Serves 4-6.

Give quiche a chance.

Till my next post

Cheers,

Rose