French Chef Friday: Quiche!
The thing I love about my mother’s cookbooks is that she will stick random recipes she finds into a random cookbook. There is no way to tell what kind of recipes will fall out when you open one of her cookbooks. I borrowed her copy of From Julia Child’s Kitchen by Julia Child (1975 edition). Some of the recipes left in here are mocha lace roll-ups from FamilyCircle, Mrs. Barbetta’s breadsticks, a handwritten recipe for microwave chicken broth, and a three-page spread from Parade Magazine of Julia Child’s Quiche in five different ways. Please note, the newspaper clippings of Julia’s Quiche was NOT in the quiche section of the book. Because of these newspaper clippings, I decided to watch the Quiche Lorraine episode.
Julia and the Quiche
Watching Julia make the quiche crust was interesting because she makes it so painless. First, she uses a flour sifter that sifts directly into the measuring cup. I need her flour sifter in my life, it takes a lot of the guesswork and mess out of measuring sifted flour. Next, she makes this by hand, admitting that you really get the feel of the dough. To make making crust more accessible in an age of TV dinners, she uses a putty knife instead of a bench scraper. She has the fancy tools, but she does not always use them.
She also admits that not everyone has a French Tart Ring. So she shows us how to make the tart crust using a False Bottom Pie Tin. Alternatively, I will just be using my spring form pan because that is what I have.
As she assembles her Quiche Lorraine, she talks about how you can change the filling for quiche based on what you have or what is in season. My favorite that she mentioned was how to make a Lobster Quiche. My fiance would make us quiche for dinner quite often mixing in vegetables, spices, herbs, and cheese we found at the farmers market. This recipe is made in 3 parts: Crust, All-Purpose Quiche Filling, and the specific filling
Recipe Notes
This recipe is made in 3 parts: Crust, All-Purpose Quiche Filling, and the specific filling. The crust and All-Purpose Quiche Filling are the standard parts. The specific filling is your oyster. Change this to what you are fancying. Be sure to not overfill your Quiche. An 8 i-inch quiche, needs about 3/4 to 1 cup filling.
I decided to do a filling of Gruyere Cheese and Sauteed Mushrooms. All I have to do for this is saute mushroom and shred 3 oz of Gruyere or Swiss cheese (which is about 3/4 cup). There is nothing special about the mushrooms I am using today, any mushrooms will do.
Then I pour the egg mixture over that and gently check to make sure the egg covers the cheese and makes it to all sides of the container. In the event, that my pan is bigger than my filling, I will take 1 more egg and a tablespoon or two of milk, whisk them together and add on top. Ideally, the egg mixture will come to the top of filling. The eggs will expand while they cook, so you want to have space for it to expand.
Quiche with Gruyere and Mushrooms
Equipment
- Tart Ring/Pie Plate/Spring Form Plan
- Rolling Pin
- Food Processpr
Ingredients
Quiche Crust
- 2 cups all-purpose flour sifted
- 1 stick butter
- 3 tbs vegetable shortening
- 3-5 TBS water
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
All Purpose Quiche Filling
- 3 Eggs large
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp Pepper
- 1/2 cup Milk or Heavy Cream or Half and Half
Specific Quiche Filling
- 3/4 cup Shredded Swiss cheese or Gruyere Cheese about 3 oz by weight
- .5 pounds Mushrooms, sliced
- 1 tbsp Butter/Oil
Instructions
To make the Crust- By hand or using a food processor
- Sift flour into a bowl add salt and sugar and whisk together.
- Cut in butter and shortening until butter is the size of chopped peas and flour looks like an oatmeal mixture.
- Add water 1 TBS at a time until dough combines
- Chill for 2 hours or over night.
Preparing the Quiche
- Preheat oven to 425
- Roll out quiche dough and put into the pie tin. Press excess into the sidewalls of hte pan. Using a fork, stab holes in the bottom of the dough.
- Fill pie shell with Ceramic Baking Beads or 1 pound of dried beans and bake for 7 minutes. Remove beans and bake additional 7 minutes.
- While the shell bakes, whisk together eggs, milk, salt and pepper.
- Saute Mushrooms.
- When the shell comes out of the oven, place the mushroom and cheese filling into the bottom of the quiche shell. Cover in the All Purpose Quiche Base.
- Drop the oven tempature down to 375
- Bake quiche for 30 to 35 minutes. Eggs will inflate as they cook. A fork should come out clean when quiche is done cooking.
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Check out my other recipes inspired by Julia Child here.
2 Comments
Laura
This looks divine! I love quiche with gruyere. So funky and tasty.
Ann
You should definitely try it! Mushrooms definately work well together with the Gruyere