Quiche: a Recipe: Good Anytime
Basic Quiche
When I am in the mood for something that requires a bit of preparation but is realtively simple and with a deep flavour, I like to make quiche.
Quiche is usually associated with French cuisine, but it this tasty dish originated in Germany, in the medieval kingdom of Lothringen, which was then under German rule, The French later renamed this region Lorraine.
The word ‘quiche’ is derived from the German ‘Kuchen’, which means cake. The original quiche is ‘quiche Lorraine’ and was a pie without a top crust that was filled egg, cream custard with smoked bacon. Cheese was added somewhat later on.
If you add onions you change the dish to quiche Alsacienne. Then, the bottom crust was made from bread dough, but that has changed and now a short-crust or puff pastry crust.
In the interest of saving time I use a frozen pie crust to make my quiche. It was during World War II that quiche became popular in England, moving to the United States in the 1950sQuiche became popular in England sometime after the Second World War, and in the U.S. during the 1950's. Quiche has been given a bad reputation as being less than a manly dish but that is simple nonsense.
Quiches can be made with broccoli, mushrooms, ham and/or seafood (primarily shellfish).
Another aspect of quiche I like is that you can serve it for any meal, breakfast, lunch and supper.
HAM AND SPINACH QUICHE:
Ingredients:
1 frozen pie crust
1 c. chopped ham
1 c. chopped onion
1 pkg. frozen chopped spinach (10 oz. size)
5 eggs, slightly beaten
1 c. milk
1 c. shredded cheese.
Preparation:
1- Place pie crust in quiche pan.
2- Bake in preheated 425 degree oven of 5 minutes, remove from oven.
3- Set aside.
4- Place spinach in microwave oven in package. Cook on high setting for 6 minutes, remove and drain.
5- Meantime place ham and onion in pie crust.
6- Mix together slightly beaten eggs, milk and cheese.
7-Add spinach and pour into pie crust on top of ham and onion. Bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees.
8- Then bake for 30 minutes at 300 degrees.
9-Let stand 10 minutes before cutting. Serve in wedges.
I like to add a pinch of black pepper and a drop or three of hot sauce to mine, especially for breakfast; gives a bit of zip to the morning.
You can serve a green salad with this for lunch or sliced tomatoes for breakfast. Once you have made this dish and feel that you know what you are doing experiment a bit, I find thinly sliced mushrooms make a great addition.
