by Lydia Jensen

     One of my favorite foods is the quiche. Like a casserole, it can have almost all of your nutritional requirements in one dish. An important part of the quiche is the pastry shell, or the tart shell, as many people call it. There are about as many recipes for the pastry shell as there are for the filling.

I found that if you are too frugal with the filling, the quiche is either dry and unappealing, or it is tasteless. I have found one of the essential ingredients in the quiche filling is whipping cream.  I found that 6 eggs and 2 Cups of whipping cream a very nice filling or custard for a medium-sized quiche. I know that whipping cream is laden with calories and fats, but my philosophy is, “enjoy what you eat, just don’t eat so much of it.” If you want to reduce the fat content in our quiche, you might try 4 eggs beaten with 1-1/2 Cups milk and 1-1/2 Cups whipping cream. If you serve a quiche with a nice crisp salad and dressing with a little olive oil and red wine vinegar or steamed vegetables, you have cut down a lot on the fats. The eggs in the quiche provide the protein, the cream provides the calcium and the salad or steamed vegetables provide the minerals and vitamins. I think one could call this a well-balanced meal.

A quiche can be served at a lunch or dinner to most guests. I have met few people who do not enjoy a quiche. It is also a nice change from the heavy meals where we tend to serve large portions of meat. You can use just about any type of meat in a quiche, but chicken, ham, vegetables and seafood make the nicest quiches as far as I am concerned.

Although most of the quiche recipes I give you in this newsletter include the pastry shell I will give you some variations of pastry which you might want to try.

A basic European quiche shell is 125 g (ca. 8 oz) all purpose flour 125 g (4 oz) cold butter 1/2 tsp salt 2-3 Tbsp ice cold water

Place the flour and salt in a bowl and add the butter in small chunks to the flour. With a pastry cutter (or two knives) mix the cold butter and flour until it resembles small peas or coarse bread crumbs. Make a well in the center of the pastry and add the ice cold water, a tablespoon at a time and continue mixing with the pastry cutter or the two knives. Do not add too much water or the pastry will become tough. Quickly mix the pastry with the tips of your fingers until it forms a ball. Do not over mix. Let the dough rest in this form for about 30 minutes in a cool place before you roll it out and place it in the quiche flan (pie dish).

When you roll out the dough, make it a little larger than the dish and leave a it a little higher than the edge of the dish. Trim away the ragged edges and excess. If you want to pre-bake the

pastry, prick the bottom and sides with a fork, place a sheet of wax paper the size of the bottom of the flan over the pastry and place a few kidney beans – ca. 1-2 to 3/4 Cups over the wax paper. Bake the flan at 220 C (425 F) for 10 minutes, reduce heat to 190 C (375 F) for 5 minutes, or if you want to completely bake the flan case continue baking for 8-10 minutes more. Remove the flan from the oven, remove the beans and the wax paper, let the flan case cool and place the filling in the flan case and bake as instructed for the filling.

To vary the above recipe, you can add a little crumpled blue cheese to the flour and salt and mix it in before you add the butter and water. If you want to use herbs, use dry herbs such as oregano, tarragon, thyme or dill. These herbs go nicely with a vegetable, cheese or seafood quiche. If you want to use a little tomato puré in the pastry, add only a little or no water, as the moisture from the tomato puré works as a binding agent.

Another favorite and very easy quiche base is made of potatoes. Peel and thinly slice 2-3 medium sized waxy potatoes. Place the slices in salted boiling water and cook for about 5 minutes. Drain in a colander. Rinse with cold water to prevent the slices from sticking together. Spray the bottom and sides of a pastry or pie dish with a little oil or non-grease agent and in a fan shape place the potatoes in the bottom of the shell, starting in the middle and working your way to the outside and up the sides. The wax from the potatoes should keep them from falling down from the sides before you place the filling in the shell.

When I am in a hurry, I quite often use a ready-made crust. I buy either the frozen puff pastry of short crust pastry, let it thaw and roll it out. I don’t always pre-bake my crusts or cases. If the oven is hot enough at the start of the baking and the quiche is placed at the correct level in the oven, the crust should turn out crisp and tender.

I also use a Hot Water Pie Crust which I find quite fool-proof and good. 2 Cups unsifted, all purpose flour, 2/3 Cup lard or shortening 1/2 Cup boiling water 1 tsp salt. Have the lard or shortening at room temperature. Add 1/3 Cup boiling water and whip with an egg beater (or food processor) until creamy. Pour the mixture into a mixing bowl and add the flour and work it in with your finger tips until a soft ball forms. Cut in half, flatten between 2 pieces of wax paper and place in the freezer for 15-20 minutes. If you are using the pastry the next day, place it in the refrigerator. Roll out the pastry and place in a quiche or pie dish. Keep in the refrigerator until ready to use. I also have an Oil pastry and a Magic Pie Crust which I won’t include in this newsletter or it will be too long.

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