Harking back to Back to Basics 13 where we made quiche, we did chat about Quiche Lorraine, but by popular request here is an actual recipe for it. Before we start I will get you to go have a squiz at Back to Basics 12 and 13 so we are all up to speed on shortcrust pastry, making a pinched edge and not being afraid of quiche. Ready? Then here we go.
Quiche Lorraine is one of Mr T’s most favourite things in the whole world, and one of the things he misses most since going cold cow (non-dairy). He tells me that there is a saying ‘real men don’t eat quiche’, this seems the silliest thing to me, so if you are a man and you love quiche, rest easy, they don’t come much manlier than my fella and he LOVES quiche, though he is not supposed to eat it these days.
So, Quiche Lorraine, or Egg and Bacon Pie if you want to be a manly man. Easy peasy. Remember our discussion in Back to Basics 13 about what is a quiche? That’s exactly right, it is a savoury baked custard so don’t be afraid.
We are going to presume that you have made your shortcrust pastry and lined your tins, we are making enough for six small or two family sized quiche here, if you run short on the egg mix just mix up enough to top them up.
For our filling
500g bacon, chopped
200g brown onion, chopped
One teaspoon of olive oil
200g tasty cheese grated
Custard
5 eggs
150ml cream
300ml milk
one egg extra for egg wash
First we cook our bacon on a moderately low heat in a pan with the olive oil, after a couple of minutes tip in the onion and just keep it frying gently, it will release a whole lot of moisture, we don’t want that, so we cook it out gently, we also don’t want to colour our bacon a whole lot or it is going to be tough, here, like this -
See near the spoon? Wet, we don’t want that, so we continue very gently to cook it out until we get it like this -
That is better. Now pop that in a bowl and put it in the fridge or freezer to chill, while that is chilling we mix up our custard, all ingredients into a jug, give them a good whisk to combine, pop that in the fridge too until ready to assemble.
Brush the edges of your pastry shell with beaten egg for egg wash, you can do the bottoms too if you want to, I never bother. Divide your cold bacon and onion mix into the bottom of the shells -
Put a scrunch of tasty cheese on top -
Top off with custard mix, remember, don’t overfill them, hang on, we will borrow a picture from Back to Basics 13 -
See? We need to give them a little space to puff up.
Into a preheated oven, 160 degrees C, for about twenty minutes for these single sized quiche, 30-35 for a family sized quiche. Don’t over cook them or they will split, to see if they are ready give the tray a jiggle, they should not jiggle, they will puff a little and then settle back into their shells.
Gorgeous. We shall call them Real Men DO Eat Quiche. Why not double the recipe and put a heap in the freezer?