Is some a saying to the effect of "real men don't eat quiche"? In my mind, this was an early 90's self-help book or popular Oprah slogan, but I could be making this up.
Anyway, if there IS someone out there who think real men don't eat quiche, I beg to differ. I mean, it's an egg pie filled with bacon and cheese. What's so girly about that? I myself have always been sort of grossed out by quiche because the custard-y texture makes me feel like I'm eating raw eggs. Now I just add one more egg than the recipe calls for, and I've been having a total quiche renaissance. These things are dang tasty, and you can eat them any time of the day!
In France, all of the boulangeries sold mini quiches for breakfast. People would buy them out of the case and eat them cold. DISGUSTING!!! I can't think of anything less appetizing than eating cold scrambled eggs. Or cold bacon, for that matter. Plus, I consider "melty cheese" its own food group (apologies to whoever designed the MyPlate dietary guidelines), so in my humble opinion, warm quiche is the only way to go.
I did get a lot of practice making quiche while I was in France, but last night was the first time I brought the magic back to North Carolina. I was too lazy to defrost bacon so we had prosciutto, gruyere, and spinach quiche.
In school, we made pate brisee (aka pie crust) using the "rubbing method" which is, well, exactly what it sounds like. Rub a ton of butter into a giant pile of flour using your hands. It was sort of a mess. And my nose was ALWAYS itchy as soon as i got the butter and flour all over my hands. In France, we just thew everything into a mixer and sat back with a cocktail. Just kidding. We sat back with espressos. It's so much easier! Oh, the French. They'll do anything to avoid getting dirty.
This quiche was a delicious weeknight dinner (served with a simple salad). It was so easy and tasty that I think you should try making it at home. Here's how:
Make your own quiche!!!
You'll need:
- 1 pie crust (make your favorite kind - I like Martha's pate brisee - or buy one at the store).
- 3/4 cup milk
- 3/4 cup cream (or… if you don't have 8 kinds of dairy in your fridge at all times, you could use 1.5 cups of half and half. Brilliant)
- 4 eggs
- Salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste
- Toppings of your choice! (Suggestions: frozen spinach, sautéed onions, bacon, gruyere, goat cheese, etc. etc. etc.)
What you do:
- Roll out your dough and fill your pie pan.
- Put all of your delicious toppings in the empty shell. They should all be cool (so let those bacon or sautéed veggies chill out for a bit). Also, make sure they don't have too much excess water (I pat my spinach dry with a paper towel).
- Whisk together the dairy and spices. WARNING: do not add a log of nutmeg or you're in for a world of hurt.
- Dump the egg mixture on top of your fillings. Leave a tiny bit of space at the top of the crust to avoid an egg volcano in the oven.
- Place in the oven on a sheet pan. I like to put extra cheese on mine after it has been baking for twenty minutes.
- Cook for 30-40 minutes in a 375* oven. The quiche should be set but still have a jiggly center when you pull it out of the oven.
- Let it cool for 20 minutes before eating. You can also serve it at room temperature (ew!)
Speaking of jiggly centers… I'm going to go eat the leftovers!
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